pj_rage
Well-Known Member
I only have 3 brews under my belt so far, but using DeathBrewer's stovetop all grain brewing method using the bag, brew day has gone very smoothly (thanks DB!). I still do sparging as his does by heating the sparge water in a second pot and after draining the first runnings, I dunk the bag/grains in the second sparge pot and then drain again.
My first brew I got around 71% efficiency, and the second around 74%. The only difference was that I had made up a colander to hold the bag and drip more first runnings (as well as more dripping/draining from the sparge). It still wasn't ideal though as I couldn't find a colander wide enough for the ~14" diameter of my 8gal megapot, and the rig I had was too small to hold 15+# of grain, still wanted to flex/break/spill/splash a little. My third brew I just did I achieved efficiency in the mid 80s (don't have my exact number with me), which I was ecstatic about.
It's way too early to tell for sure if this is what gave the bump in efficiency, but I thought it was a neat tip anyway, so I wanted to share. It's probably obvious to a lot of you, but I hadn't thought of it yet! Probably the biggest PITA part of the bag brewing is holding the bag of grains to drain them. When you have 15 or 16 pounds of grain in there, plus water weight, it can be pretty heavy, sticky, and uncomfortable to hold. I do move my pot to the floor so I can lift and hold it much easier, but what I did this time instead of using my rigged colander, was to use a 19qt lobster pot I already had (this one). I just lifted the bag, let the initial really fast runnings drip off until it slowed just a bit, and then put the bag into the steamer insert of the pot. So I only had to hold the hot, heavy bag for 10 or 20 seconds instead of a minute or two. I continued to let it drain into the bottom portion of the steamer setup, and after a bit, I took a pint glass (it was just convenient) and pushed the bottom of it into the bag in all different places to squeeze out more wort. I did this both for the first runnings as well as after sparging. I then just poured what I had collected in with the rest of the wort. I'm confident that for both the first runnings and sparging that I extracted more wort than letting the bag drip for as long as I could hold it would have collected.
I had been trying to figure out an easier way to let the bag drain, rather than holding it the whole time, and I think for me, this is it. Now, that pot might be too big and/or expensive to buy if you are only going to use for this purpose (we use it to steam crabs, lobsters, clams, etc as well). There is a cheaper one without the graphic or faucet ( I don't use/need the faucet) here, but if you already have a steamer pot of any kind, it might just work for you! The big size of these 19qt ones does allow for a big bag of grain and some working room, though, which is nice. I think squeezing out every bit of the water/runnings really made a difference in efficiency, but I won't know for sure until I do a few more brews and achieve that efficiency. Either way, better efficiency or not, I can say it is MUCH easier to do it this way than to physically hold the bag the entire time. Even if you have a colander setup that you're not entirely happy with (I had a lot of trouble finding a reasonably priced colander that was big enough and strong enough to hold a bag of 15#+ of grain plus water weight), this might be an idea for you.
Anyway, I hope this simple idea helps some folks who might have the equipment on hand but never thought to use it this way
My first brew I got around 71% efficiency, and the second around 74%. The only difference was that I had made up a colander to hold the bag and drip more first runnings (as well as more dripping/draining from the sparge). It still wasn't ideal though as I couldn't find a colander wide enough for the ~14" diameter of my 8gal megapot, and the rig I had was too small to hold 15+# of grain, still wanted to flex/break/spill/splash a little. My third brew I just did I achieved efficiency in the mid 80s (don't have my exact number with me), which I was ecstatic about.
It's way too early to tell for sure if this is what gave the bump in efficiency, but I thought it was a neat tip anyway, so I wanted to share. It's probably obvious to a lot of you, but I hadn't thought of it yet! Probably the biggest PITA part of the bag brewing is holding the bag of grains to drain them. When you have 15 or 16 pounds of grain in there, plus water weight, it can be pretty heavy, sticky, and uncomfortable to hold. I do move my pot to the floor so I can lift and hold it much easier, but what I did this time instead of using my rigged colander, was to use a 19qt lobster pot I already had (this one). I just lifted the bag, let the initial really fast runnings drip off until it slowed just a bit, and then put the bag into the steamer insert of the pot. So I only had to hold the hot, heavy bag for 10 or 20 seconds instead of a minute or two. I continued to let it drain into the bottom portion of the steamer setup, and after a bit, I took a pint glass (it was just convenient) and pushed the bottom of it into the bag in all different places to squeeze out more wort. I did this both for the first runnings as well as after sparging. I then just poured what I had collected in with the rest of the wort. I'm confident that for both the first runnings and sparging that I extracted more wort than letting the bag drip for as long as I could hold it would have collected.
I had been trying to figure out an easier way to let the bag drain, rather than holding it the whole time, and I think for me, this is it. Now, that pot might be too big and/or expensive to buy if you are only going to use for this purpose (we use it to steam crabs, lobsters, clams, etc as well). There is a cheaper one without the graphic or faucet ( I don't use/need the faucet) here, but if you already have a steamer pot of any kind, it might just work for you! The big size of these 19qt ones does allow for a big bag of grain and some working room, though, which is nice. I think squeezing out every bit of the water/runnings really made a difference in efficiency, but I won't know for sure until I do a few more brews and achieve that efficiency. Either way, better efficiency or not, I can say it is MUCH easier to do it this way than to physically hold the bag the entire time. Even if you have a colander setup that you're not entirely happy with (I had a lot of trouble finding a reasonably priced colander that was big enough and strong enough to hold a bag of 15#+ of grain plus water weight), this might be an idea for you.
Anyway, I hope this simple idea helps some folks who might have the equipment on hand but never thought to use it this way
Last edited by a moderator:
