brew in a bag question- Sparging?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

thisgoestoeleven

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
355
Reaction score
6
Location
Fair Haven
I just called my LHBS to find out if they sell grain bags big enough to doing a BIAB setup with my 8 gallon pot. Maybe I'm misunderstanding the BIAB process altogether, but the way I explained it he said wouldn't work. As I understand BIAB brewing, you mash with the full volume of your boil and skip the sparging step, instead of mashing 3ish gallons, then sparging with the remaining boil volume. He told me that this system wouldn't work well, because mashing with that much water would give you a thinner mash and negatively impact extraction of sugars and enzymes. I see the number of people, both on here and in youtube tutorials, that have good results with the BIAB method without investing in multiple pots, a mash tun, etc, and I wonder if there's any truth to what he's saying. I'm not knocking him or saying he doesn't know, I'm just trying to educate myself and get multiple perspectives.
 
Many people sparge, but true BIAB you do not sparge, just do a full volume mash, remove the bag and start the boil. And yes it makes perfectly fine beer.

If you can direct fire without melting your bag, you can get a little better effiancy by doing a mashout, but you don't have too.
 
I also hear of great results from full volume BIAB. I BIAB with my 1.25-1.33 qt/lb ratio and then sparge, only because my 8 gallon pot isn't big enough to do the full volume along with the grain. I've made some great beer this way!
 
I also hear of great results from full volume BIAB. I BIAB with my 1.25-1.33 qt/lb ratio and then sparge, only because my 8 gallon pot isn't big enough to do the full volume along with the grain. I've made some great beer this way!

That's what I do, too. I've got 2, 7.5 gallon pots. Mash in one, and then sparge in the other. Dump the contents of one into the other and boil.

I'd like to get a large pot to do full-volume BIAB, but it's not in the budget right now, and this system seems to be working fine for me.
 
I think some people will also plan on a slightly lower efficiency doing no-sparge BIAB, although that's not to say that one couldn't get great efficiency anyways. With our costs, a lot of times tossing in another few dollars of base grains is probably well worth the time saved not doing a sparge. At first if nothing else you may want to have some dry extract on hand in case you wind up short, but after a few tries I bet you figure out what works for your system and can do no-sparge without a problem.
 
I think some people will also plan on a slightly lower efficiency doing no-sparge BIAB, although that's not to say that one couldn't get great efficiency anyways. With our costs, a lot of times tossing in another few dollars of base grains is probably well worth the time saved not doing a sparge. At first if nothing else you may want to have some dry extract on hand in case you wind up short, but after a few tries I bet you figure out what works for your system and can do no-sparge without a problem.

I've done some batches each way. No sparge works well for me with a smaller batch because I can really squeeze the wort out of the bag and since wort is what we are after, every little extra I can get out adds to the efficiency.

I have more trouble doing this with a 5 gallon batch because I just can't get my hands all the way around the bag to squeeze. With my 7 1/2 gallon pot, putting in 6 1/2 gallons of water and then trying to mix in 10 pounds of grain puts me almost over the top of the pot so I've begun modifying the BIAB by only using 5 gallons in the pot for mashing and then adding grains to another pot with some water to sparge followed by squeezing. The last one I did I used cold water for the sparge because I was tired of burning my hand while squeezing and figured the loss of efficiency was worth protecting my hands. This turned out to be my best efficiency yet at 85%.
 
I got good results using BIAB with a single dunk sparge. I only moved to a more conventional AG system due to the bag limitations (couldn't find a big enough bag to do bigger beers) and realizing how easy it was to convert my 10 gallon cooler with a ball valve and kettle screen. I got efficiencies in the low to mid 70's.
 
.... The last one I did I used cold water for the sparge because I was tired of burning my hand while squeezing and figured the loss of efficiency was worth protecting my hands. This turned out to be my best efficiency yet at 85%.

You just blew my mind. I am so doing that.


:ban:
 
I'm a BIABer who does a single batch sparge. My efficiencies are right about where you would expect from a MLT/fly sparge, near 75%, pretty consistently. I'm the same as cricky- I have two big pots and heat up my sparge water (just preboil volume -strike water + absorbed water) on the stove during the mash. I set the bag on a grill grate over the first pot, let it drain and squeeze, and then move it over to the sparge pot.
Combine the two and then boil. Works great.
 
:confused:if you are able to find a large enough collander to fit your pot it is well worth the money to sit your bag in while it drains and cools., and you can save a little water back to pour over the bag as it sits for a pouring sparge. I leave no wort in my grain bag by the time ime done letting it cool and drain and squeezing.:mug:
 
I am a BIAB-sparger here and get ~78% efficiency. I have a 10 gallon pot, and a 7.5 gallon pot that came with the burner at a garage sale. You can even use a big pot and cooler combination to do this.

...that being said...

You CAN no sparge BIAB. That is the traditional BIAB, just have a slightly lower efficiency. I am non-conforming the non conformists by sparging.
 
+1 to all above. I'd just add, make sure you get a good crush on your grains. My LHBS does a double crush for me that works out great.
 
I started brewing BIAB-style for my last 4 batches and it's worked out really well. I have a 15 gal kettle and do full volume no sparge brews. I couldnt find a large enough colander to allow for draining the bag so I bought a new grill grate for a weber kettle grill. I rest this on top of the kettle and put the bag on top to drain. I've been getting 70% efficiency using this setup and I haven't been squeezing the bag much.
 
bmud0314 said:
I am a BIAB-sparger here and get ~78% efficiency. I have a 10 gallon pot, and a 7.5 gallon pot that came with the burner at a garage sale. You can even use a big pot and cooler combination to do this.

...that being said...

You CAN no sparge BIAB. That is the traditional BIAB, just have a slightly lower efficiency. I am non-conforming the non conformists by sparging.

+1

When I used an 8 gallon turkey fryer, I dunk sparged in a 5 gallon pot and got great efficiency (90%+ with my own mill). Since I upgraded to a 15 gallon pot, I eliminated the sparge for simplicity. With my new pot I use 8.25 gallons of water for a 5.5 gallon batch (wide pot boils off 2 gallons an hour!), and get around 85-90% efficiency. This is close enough for me due to the reduction of another step, but my overall efficiency is definitely lower.
 
kman6234 said:
I started brewing BIAB-style for my last 4 batches and it's worked out really well. I have a 15 gal kettle and do full volume no sparge brews. I couldnt find a large enough colander to allow for draining the bag so I bought a new grill grate for a weber kettle grill. I rest this on top of the kettle and put the bag on top to drain. I've been getting 70% efficiency using this setup and I haven't been squeezing the bag much.

I do the same thing, but I press the bag with a pie pan inside of the steam basket from my old turkey fryer sitting on top of the grill.
 
I do a modified version of BIAB. I use a 5 gallon jug style cooler lined with a bag as a mash ton and just use a "normal" mash thickness of 1.25-1.5 qt/lb. After the mash is over, I lift the bag up, slip a colander on the cooler and plop the bag of grain into the colander and let it drain for 10 minutes. Then, I plop the grain bag into the boil kettle that has my 170 degree "sparge" water, and I let that sit for 5-10 minutes or so. Then I repeat the colander draining in the colander. I usually get 80% efficiency with this method, and that's without squeezing the bag.

The disadvantage with the BIAB/cooler is obviously that you have to buy and store another piece of equipment, but an advantage is that you're not limited to a single infusion mash like you would be with the full volume method.

The 5 gallon cooler maxes out at 12 pounds of grain at 1.25qts, so for high gravity beers I'll usually just make a smaller batch or supplement with a few pounds of extract.
 
Back
Top