Advice/Critiques on my Partial Mass/BIAB setup

[drunkinThailand]

I am trying to make the best partial mash setup with my limited supplies and am hoping some more experienced brewers can tell me why this is a good or bad idea.

I'd like to partial mash in my brewpot with a large piece of cheesecloth (double layered) -it's a partial mash because I will only use 6 lbs of grain and then add DME late. When this is finished I will sparge by draining the first wort into a separate vessel and refilling with sparge water for the second go, then stir and drain this into the same vessel as the first time. Finally I'll pump it all back into the brewpot, after taking out the cheese cloth with grains, to boil.

So, good idea or no good? I am still pretty new to this and learning a lot so please help me to understand if this is a good idea or not and also why.

thanks in advance for any help

 

[pricelessbrewing]

That is fine.

For clarity, partial mash is when you're using both grains and extract. What you're suggesting is a more traditional mash, rather than a full volume / no sparge, where the mash is completed than it is sparged.


For greater lauter (sparge) efficiency I would suggest taking the grain bag, put it into a vessel of water, then open the bag up and stir the crap out it.

 

[doug293cz]

I am trying to make the best partial mash setup with my limited supplies and am hoping some more experienced brewers can tell me why this is a good or bad idea.

I'd like to partial mash in my brewpot with a large piece of cheesecloth (double layered), then when finished sparge by draining the first wort into a separate vessel and refilling with sparge water for the second go. Drain this into the same vessel and then pump it all back into the brewpot, after taking out the cheese cloth with grains, to boil.

So, good idea or no good? I am still pretty new to this and learning a lot so please help me to understand if this is a good idea or not and also why.

thanks in advance for any help

Should work. You might find it easier to get a bag that fits your pot rather than trying to work with a big flat piece of cloth. Good luck.

Brew on

 

[drunkinThailand]

Sweet, thanks for the replies. Guess I should have made it clear in the first post but I will be using extract too. I didn't think this method would be appropriate for all grain for two reasons - I'm new to brewing, plus like doug293cz said with the flat cheese cloth I don't want to have an unmanageable amount of grain.

As for stirring like priceless brewing suggests, I planned to close the spigot on the pot and then stir like crazy when I add the sparge water for the second go. Is this a good idea?

I'll edit the first post also to make it more clear/

 

[doug293cz]

Yes, stir after you add the sparge water.

Brew on