noob BIAB question

I only have one pot that is big enough for brewing (5 gallons). My qusetion is, can I do my partial mash then when I take the bag out to drain raise the heat up for the sparge? What are the effects of doing it this way?

If you raise the temp higher then 170 F then you will start releasing somewhat harsh tannins from the grains.

it otherwise sounds like a good plan to me. :rockin:

Not a direct answer to the question you asked, but I have been able to do partial mashes and mini all grain mashes with a 10 quart (2.5 gallon) stockpot, then use my big pot for sparging and boiling. A smaller stockpot like that is really cheap.

Edit: Also, part of the purpose of the sparge is to rinse the sugar off of the grains with fresh water. Using the mash water as sparge water would "probably" leave a lot of the sugars stuck to the grains, and make your extraction efficiency pretty low. I have heard of "no sparge" brewing, but am too new and unknowledgable to comment on that type of brewing

I would think that if you raise the temp of all the wort, all the residual sugar on the grain will just be the same concentration as the rest of the wort.

terrible wording. Would not the sugar on the grain be just as sugary as the rest of the wort?
I think I've failed in conveying my theory.

phishfood is right about fresh water, I think. You'd get better efficiency by dunk-sparging the bag in clean, hot water in a separate pot, then combine your two batches of wort.

But the original BiaB method leaves the bag in at the end of the mash, raises the heat, and then removes it once the wort hits 170 or so.

So although it would result in a low efficiency it could work? maybe ill just use a few lb of grains for my PMs for now then until I can get my efficiency up. Another option I thought of was using a fermenter to spage as its the only contaier I have that would be big enough really, I could use boiling water from the (tea/coffee) kettle and then add it back for my boil... Sound like a plan?

I'm doing my first partial mash for my next batch. I have the same problem as you in that I only have 1 large pot. My plan is to mash in my extra fermentor bucket (you could also use a bottling bucket), heat up my sparge water while I mash my grain then dunk sparge.

Yeah I'm thinking that might be my best idea. Sounds the only way of doing it that I can think of.

I use a 4 gallon pot, but I make 2 gallon batch. After the 90 min mash, I raise the temperature to 170F and then I take the bag out. After, I add water and LME.

I do a thin mash in 5 gal. of water in my large pot, then I heat up about two gallons of water to 170 on my stove with a smaller pot and when I'm done with the mash I pull the bag out, let it drain, then just slowely pour the 2 gallons over the grains to sparge. I easily get over 70% eff. with this.

hope that made sense... kinda hung over

right that's it, tonight I'm going to get my thinking hat on and design a system for an automatic sparge using my fermenter, the spigot and a short length of rubber tubing. :rockin:

If you have two buckets with spigots on them, you could even use one as a hot water tank and fly sparge.

Yeah thats the plan Brookdale, sounds like a great pre-brewday job for Saturday