Sparge BIAB vs. Regular BIAB Efficiency

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traviswalken

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I had trouble finding previous threads about this, although I am sure they are out there.

I sparged my first batch since my kettle is only 8 gallons. I got 78% efficiency on a session beer (1.04 OG +/-)

I decided to scale down batch 2 so I could do a true BIAB (no sparge). I got 82% efficiency on a little bigger beer (1.062 OG). My second batch went a little smoother than the first. My mash in temp was just right and I did a better job insulating my pot during mash.

I realize this is only 2 batches, but my conclusion is that I can get good efficiency with either method. If my kettle is big enough to do a no-sparge BIAB, I will. I like to keep is simple whenever I can.

Just wanted to post my experience since I had trouble finding similar posts.
 
My experience says I can get about 80% effficiency on no sparge and about 85% with sparging. Not a huge difference and I probably will only sparge for convenience from now on.
 
I believe there is a greater difference depending how much wort you leave in the grain bag...I have taken to letting my bag drain thoroughly over the kettle and have not bothered sparging lately...sparging is extra work and grain is cheap in bulk FWIW, so then I'm sparging to save $0.45, I don't think so!
 
>.I believe there is a greater difference depending how much wort you leave in the grain bag...I have taken to letting my bag drain thoroughly over the kettle and have not bothered sparging lately...sparging is extra work and grain is cheap in bulk FWIW, so then I'm sparging to save $0.45, I don't think so!

Hey man! 45 cents, here and there, soon adds up to real money. :D


I do squeeze the bag (to get my 45 cents wort). But the only time I think you will really see a difference is with higher gravity beers. With so much grain, there is extra sugar locked up, so a sparge will see a difference. Probably most BIAB brewers do no sparge. I think most Australians would mock you if you were to spend considerable time sparging/squeezing. :p They would suggest you spend an extra 57 cents for a pound of grain instead.

I may sparge and save the runnings for a future starter. I dont mind a few minutes work for that.
 
I can't imagine getting 80% efficiency! How in the world did you achieve that? My best is 72% whether I sparge or not. Great job. I agree. If you are getting that great efficiency, you don't need any extra steps!
 
I've done over 75 BIAB batches so far and high efficiency isn't that important, in my opinion. What is important to me is REPEATABLE efficiency. Whether you get 55%, 60%, 70% or higher really isn't what it's all about, but if you can hit that 65% efficiency every time, or +/- 2%, now you have achieved the goal. Now you can formulate your recipes and really hone in on your process and go after the taste/character you're trying to craft.

Jim
 
I've done over 75 BIAB batches so far and high efficiency isn't that important, in my opinion. What is important to me is REPEATABLE efficiency. Whether you get 55%, 60%, 70% or higher really isn't what it's all about, but if you can hit that 65% efficiency every time, or +/- 2%, now you have achieved the goal. Now you can formulate your recipes and really hone in on your process and go after the taste/character you're trying to craft.

Jim

Good point. After just 4 batches of beer, I am working on consistency. I am recording most of what I do (temps, times, water volumes, gravity, etc.). I am starting to modify my process based on results.

I must admit the most consistant thing I am doing is breaking hydrometers. I have now broken 3 hydrometers in only 4 batches of beer. Must be some kind of record!
 
I sparge started with 65% worked on crush and got up to 72-75% consistently for 43 batches, then worked on mash temperature (better thermometer) and have held 80-85% depending on beer style bigger grain bills drop down a little going to try more stirring of the grain to see if that helps. Work only one item til you can hold you technique/efficiency before moving on. This also helps with consistency, also noticed a beer that clears quicker (yes I control fermenting temperature to beer style as well as cold crashing) I believe anything you tweak to help bring you better technique will improve your beer.
 
As of right now I'm doing a no-sparge method that gets me 80-85% efficiency. My bag is kind of coarse and I have my crush pretty dialed in, and I usually run a 75 minute mash. I guess that's why my efficiency is high. But it is really about consistency so we'll see whether or not it holds out.
 
Use two kettles, or one kettle and one cooler.

Mash in the smaller kettle or cooler. When the mash is complete, dip the grain bag several times in the main kettle which is holding the necessary amount of 170F-ish degree plain water for the recipe. Much of the remaining sugars and color from the grain will be released in the plain water. Do not squeeze the bag. Let it drip hang from a height while you proceed with the rest of your recipe.

(This method works better for partial mashers that are not using a ton of grain. 3-5 lbs. total perhaps supplemented by 50-60% DME extract).
 
I have only done one BIAB. I only have a 7.5 gal. kettle and I did no sparge. I was told to just mash with the maximum amount of water my kettle would allow and then boil the wort left after the mash and then to top off my fermenter with tap water to reach my desired amount of beer. I followed all of the steps and my resulting beer is very watered down tasting. I didn't measure for efficiency so I don't know what that number would have been. My OG was pretty spot on, but my FG was supposed to be 1.010 and ended up being 1.020.

I've since learned that I should have had the grains double milled and I was wondering if this, in and of itself would make a considerable difference in my next attempt at BIAB? I'm also considering doing a sparge since I don't have a kettle large enough to do a full BIAB mash. My question is, should I just try doing the double milling of the grains without the sparge or should I do a sparge because I don't have a large enough kettle to get a high enough efficiency? I have a 5 gal. kettle and I'm leaning towards doing a sparge...
 
I have only done one BIAB. I only have a 7.5 gal. kettle and I did no sparge. I was told to just mash with the maximum amount of water my kettle would allow and then boil the wort left after the mash and then to top off my fermenter with tap water to reach my desired amount of beer. I followed all of the steps and my resulting beer is very watered down tasting. I didn't measure for efficiency so I don't know what that number would have been. My OG was pretty spot on, but my FG was supposed to be 1.010 and ended up being 1.020.

I've since learned that I should have had the grains double milled and I was wondering if this, in and of itself would make a considerable difference in my next attempt at BIAB? I'm also considering doing a sparge since I don't have a kettle large enough to do a full BIAB mash. My question is, should I just try doing the double milling of the grains without the sparge or should I do a sparge because I don't have a large enough kettle to get a high enough efficiency? I have a 5 gal. kettle and I'm leaning towards doing a sparge...

There are a whole lot of issues to deal with in your post but I'll try to answer some of them.

1. I just made two 5 gallon batches of BIAB and did them without topping off in the fermenter. I used a 7 1/2 gallon turkey fryer pot, put in about 6 gallons of water and brought it to the strike temperature (calculated to my conditions) and stirred in my grains (about 11 pounds total) leaving me with about an inch of freeboard in my pot. When I finished the boil I had about 5.25 gallons of wort to go into the fermenter, enough to get me 2 cases of bottles.

2. I used my Corona style mill to grind my grains and I set it as fine as I could so my grains come out looking like corn meal with husk pieces. This is what gives me my good efficiency as the smaller grain pieces let the water get to the center so the enzymes are activated and lets the sugars be washed back out. If you got grains that were rolled (milled) from one of the LHBS they were not fine enough and your efficiency suffered. The finely milled grains work in BIAB because you use the mesh of the bag to separate the grains from the wort while in the conventional tun you use the husks and coarser grains to form a filter bed to do the separation.

3. If your OG was good but the FG was that high you had either of two possibilities. One was that your beer wasn't done fermenting. The other was that your mash temperature was too high and left you with more dextrines that wouldn't ferment. What temperature did you mash at and how accurate is your thermometer. A difference of 4 degrees in the mash makes a huge difference in the finished beer (ask how I know this).

4. Your beer could be tasting watered down because it has not had sufficient time to mature. How soon did you sample it and what kind of beer was it. I've made a porter that tasted watery for weeks before it matured and tasted full like I expected. It also could be from lower efficiency and topping off. If you still feel that you need to top off your fermenter, at least pour the top off water through the bag of grains as this will rinse off more of the sugars and add them to your beer.
 
Thanks for your response.

I think I'm going to invest in one of those Corona mills. That should take care of one of my variables.

As for my FG, I took a reading 2 weeks after brewing and then took another a week later and it hadn't changed. I took another one 5 days late and it's still the same so I think it's safe to say it's done fermenting? As for my thermometer, I haven't ever tried callibrating it. I will give that a shot as well, but, according to my thermometer, I was able to stay at my mash temp for the full 60 minutes with insulating the kettle. I have a smaller thermometer I use for making lattes and espressos so I will use that to see if my brew thermometer is accurate or not.

And my beer is a belgian wit (Great Lakes Holy Moses clone). I know that my samples always taste watered down a bit before I bottle them and they have time to condition and carbonate, but this one just seemed more than my extract brews I've done in the past.
 
beaksnbeer said:
I sparge started with 65% worked on crush and got up to 72-75% consistently for 43 batches, then worked on mash temperature (better thermometer) and have held 80-85% depending on beer style bigger grain bills drop down a little going to try more stirring of the grain to see if that helps. Work only one item til you can hold you technique/efficiency before moving on. This also helps with consistency, also noticed a beer that clears quicker (yes I control fermenting temperature to beer style as well as cold crashing) I believe anything you tweak to help bring you better technique will improve your beer.

treehousebrewing said:
As of right now I'm doing a no-sparge method that gets me 80-85% efficiency. My bag is kind of coarse and I have my crush pretty dialed in, and I usually run a 75 minute mash. I guess that's why my efficiency is high. But it is really about consistency so we'll see whether or not it holds out.

+1 I have done many batches and can easily hit 75-80% without sparging but I don't check any more since its pretty consistent and I put 78% in Beersmith. That gives me a little more room in either direction. I hang the bag from a pulley in my awning that I brew under and purchased a BIAB bag from Wilserbrewer. It's awesome and he can customize it for your pot. Morebeer is my LHBS and I don't double mill, it seems to come out just fine with their standard setup.

Once it became easy and I had my rhythm down, my efficiency seemed to go up as well.
 
The grain mill I use is like this one from Amazon. Under $30, probably can pay for itself in the lower amount of grain you will need to use and the convenience of making beer when you want without storing crushed grains or going to the LHBS when you want to brew.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BUVPAE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
 
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Ragtop232 said:
I've done over 75 BIAB batches so far and high efficiency isn't that important, in my opinion. What is important to me is REPEATABLE efficiency. Whether you get 55%, 60%, 70% or higher really isn't what it's all about, but if you can hit that 65% efficiency every time, or +/- 2%, now you have achieved the goal. Now you can formulate your recipes and really hone in on your process and go after the taste/character you're trying to craft.

Jim

+1 on the consistency! My consistency sky rocketed when I wasn't drunk before the end of brew day! :)
 
The grain mill I use is like this one from Amazon. Under $30, probably can pay for itself in the lower amount of grain you will need to use and the convenience of making beer when you want without storing crushed grains or going to the LHBS when you want to brew.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004BUVPAE/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I took the plunge and ordered one like this today! It was only $3.95 on Amazon!!! Of course, shipping was $22.50 but that's still cheaper than ones I was finding on ebay with free shipping...
 
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I have only done one BIAB. I only have a 7.5 I followed all of the steps and my resulting beer is very watered down tasting. My OG was pretty spot on, but my FG was supposed to be 1.010 and ended up being 1.020.

Looks more like you had a yeast failure/or racked beer to soon, only in some really big beers have I not gotten within .003 of my targeted F.G. but I always use starters 1500ml kicks a 5 gallon batch right off.
 
Ragtop232 said:
I've done over 75 BIAB batches so far and high efficiency isn't that important, in my opinion. What is important to me is REPEATABLE efficiency. Whether you get 55%, 60%, 70% or higher really isn't what it's all about, but if you can hit that 65% efficiency every time, or +/- 2%, now you have achieved the goal. Now you can formulate your recipes and really hone in on your process and go after the taste/character you're trying to craft.

Jim

+1. Knowing what you will get every time will lead to better beer.
 
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