Am I missing anything

[ChappysBrewing]

Alright so I have been building myself a pretty cool brewing setup over the course of the last year and have of course run into little issues along the way and just little tweaks to keep improving the overall workflow.

I currently have built a single tier brew system with my HLT and MLT being 15.5 gallon Keggles and a 20 gallon brew pot. I have 2 pumps and 2 burners (1 is not under the mash tun) and 50' SS coil through my HLT. I have had a couple of issues with getting a little grain through my false bottom and decided to try and add in a BIAB into the mix. My initial plan is to do my exact same setup but now incorporate the Brew Bag in my Mash Tun on top of the false bottom as an extra layer to not allow grains to escape and my lines/terminator/pumps and everything works smoothly. I will still use my sparge arm on top and continue to pump the wort out the bottom, through the 50' ss coil through my terminator and then back on top of the grain bed. I have read that BIAB sometimes have a hazy look and figure keeping along with the HERMS system it would hopefully still use the grain bed as a filter and get a better color beer out of the mix. I have not tried this setup yet so cannot give specifics on Efficiency or anything yet but am hoping it stays the same if not improves overall. With this type of system where I dont have an issue of the grains getting into my lines, would stirring be a good idea during the hour mash or does it not really help out too much. Just am wanting to get the biggest bang for my buck. I really should add photos on here to make it easier to understand. Always looking for other ideas too if someone is creative.

 

[SilverZero]

I did exactly the same thing - added a large grain bag to my mash tun on top of the false bottom, although I'm probably just going to ditch the FB altogether. The grain bag does a great job of filtering. Plus, you can give it a little squeeze to get more sweet wort out of it . . . if you have the means to lift and hold it. Imagine me standing up on my workbench hoisting the bag up and letting it drain while I try to press it against the side of the mash tun to get more liquid out, and you'll have a good idea of why I'm an idiot. I need to set up a winch.

I stir a few times during the mash even though I'm recirculating. Doesn't hurt. It only takes a couple of minutes of recirculation to get the wort clear again before pumping to the boil kettle.

My only advice is to skip the sparge arm and just lay a length of silicone hose on top of the grain bed as your return point. Squeeze the bag and then batch sparge it once. I tried the fly sparge a few times, my efficiency went down and my brew day got 2 hours longer. I'm not saying I was doing it all the best way possible, but I do better with a batch sparge setup.

Squeezing the grains WILL get your wort cloudy, so either be ready to leave more in the kettle after chilling, or be ready for more trub in the fermenter. I know that contradicts the whole recirculation thing, but personally I'm after efficiency and ease of cleanup (probably more than anything). It's really nice to have those grains in a bag that can be easily dumped into the compost heap or yard waste bin.

 

[ChappysBrewing]

Oh awesome! Someone else has already done it. This is a whole new system so just trying to get things down more or less.

Wow, and I just bought the blinchmann autosparge and cut the whole in the bag and sealed it back up with a hot butter knife down the seam. I bought the BIAB from brewinabag.com they also have a pully system you should check out as it's at a reasonable price and will lock in place. As long as you can put a hook in something strong like the studd in your garage sealing, should be able to pull it right out no problem and even dump it right into a trashbag and what have you.

I'm definitely going to have to rethink the sparge arm as I'm brewing on Saturday. Making an Irish red with a high abv showing for around 8. Yeah I am guessing I won't use the wort from the squeezing of the bag, although I could almost boil those couple of those gallons (including wort under the false bottom) and make a small batch. Not sure how good it would turn out.

The 1 thing I had an issue with the last time was a ph issue or so I thought as it was reading really low. I may have taken it a little early in the mash to not get a good reading but the whole efficiency thing is actually new to me. Part of the fun though as all the beers have turned out well in the end thus far.

Also working on putting in a nitro system.