ANVIL FOUNDRY ALL-GRAIN BREWING SYSTEM

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Actually, the space between the mash basket and the inner wall of the Anvil is a significant issue. I have only taken two readings so far and found at the end of the mash that the gravity (citing the last readings, as both are consistent) from the mash basket was at 11.6 Brix. What was coming out of the recirculation hose was at 11.5 Brix, pretty much the same. The sample drawn from about 8 inches down (that is as long as my pipette would reach) between the mash basket and inner wall was at 0.8 Brix. So while there is some sugars moving to the water outside the walls of the mash basket, it is not much.

This accounts for some of the lower efficiency from the system. I have a plan to raise the basket twice during the mash: about half way through and then again before mash out. I will repeat my readings to see what the gravity readings are and compare that to the mash efficiency I calculate out at the end.
 
Actually, the space between the mash basket and the inner wall of the Anvil is a significant issue. I have only taken two readings so far and found at the end of the mash that the gravity (citing the last readings, as both are consistent) from the mash basket was at 11.6 Brix. What was coming out of the recirculation hose was at 11.5 Brix, pretty much the same. The sample drawn from about 8 inches down (that is as long as my pipette would reach) between the mash basket and inner wall was at 0.8 Brix. So while there is some sugars moving to the water outside the walls of the mash basket, it is not much.

This accounts for some of the lower efficiency from the system. I have a plan to raise the basket twice during the mash: about half way through and then again before mash out. I will repeat my readings to see what the gravity readings are and compare that to the mash efficiency I calculate out at the end.

Its funny you mention this because I found this out myself a little while ago, the water higher up on the sides doesn't always seem to get mixed very much if at all. I found this out when I too noticed that after pulling the malt-pipe out my refractometer readings would drop. Ive seen it drop from 14.4 to 11.4 before, but unfortunately this drop isn't consistent across brews for me. The 3.0 BRIX drop was particularly perplexing because, I calculate the theoretical max extraction ahead of time to get an idea of my conversion efficiency. The big red flag was that when your theoretical max extraction (which utilizes ALL water volume in the kettle) is LOWER than your final BRIX reading just prior to lifting the malt-pipe. This has happened to me a few times. SO obviously, the water isn't all mixing during the mash. So on a few occasions I measured the gravity of the water outside the malt pipe and it was 0.2, 0.6, 3.0 (three different brews).

So while I'm not sure if we can get an accurate measure of conversion efficiency on these all-in-one systems, because all the wort is not homogenous, in the end my mash/lauter efficiencies are still pretty good in my opinion as Im consistently in the mid-high 70% range. Below I pasted a link to the thread I started a while ago speaking to this issue.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...ciency-in-all-in-one-electric-systems.681352/
 
Has anyone purchased the NO MALT PIPE version of the brew bag for the foundry? Was curious if it could still fit in the malt pipe or if it would be better to just stick with the regular bag. Don’t really plan on going much higher than 16 lb grain bills but could be nice to have the flexibility, just in case.
If you don't use the malt pipe you would need a false bottom or something to keep the bag from sitting on the heat element.
 
So, I just chatted with Northern Brewer online. (Part of my order shipped with the Anvil, but the Anvil wasn't with it.) They told me it could be 1-3 weeks processing for getting the Anvil shipped out. I figure they're just saying that so no one expects it anytime too soon. Has anyone else purchased through NB? What was their delivery timeline?
 
So, I just chatted with Northern Brewer online. (Part of my order shipped with the Anvil, but the Anvil wasn't with it.) They told me it could be 1-3 weeks processing for getting the Anvil shipped out. I figure they're just saying that so no one expects it anytime too soon. Has anyone else purchased through NB? What was their delivery timeline?

A friend of mine ordered a recipe kit from NB and it took about a week and a half to get to him. That time of the year...covid...etc., etc.

I'm not the only one in this thread that ordered earlier this year when you were put on a months long waiting list...then waiting a couple more weeks after ordering before the unit finally arrived.
 
A friend of mine ordered a recipe kit from NB and it took about a week and a half to get to him. That time of the year...covid...etc., etc.

I'm not the only one in this thread that ordered earlier this year when you were put on a months long waiting list...then waiting a couple more weeks after ordering before the unit finally arrived.

Yeah, I was listening to Brad Smith’s podcast and he had John Blichmann on. John seemed appreciative that people were patient considering what all has transpired this year.

I’m not particularly expecting mine anytime soon, but I was wondering what the timeline for ordering through NB was. Hopefully it’ll get out of the factory this week, but I may need to brew before I get it in! 😁😁
 
Just curious, whats the biggest grain bill anyone has used on the 10.5g system? Im not on facebook, so not familiar with what peeps there have posted. Ive gone as high as 19lbs which includes rice hulls and a wilser bag in the malt-pipe. But I am going to brew a stout now and have the option of ditching the malt-pipe and lining the bag with the brewzilla false bottom Ive modified to fit the foundry. Thanks!
 
Just curious, whats the biggest grain bill anyone has used on the 10.5g system? Im not on facebook, so not familiar with what peeps there have posted. Ive gone as high as 19lbs which includes rice hulls and a wilser bag in the malt-pipe. But I am going to brew a stout now and have the option of ditching the malt-pipe and lining the bag with the brewzilla false bottom Ive modified to fit the foundry. Thanks!

Genus Brewing guys did 20lbs for a barleywine. Kinda of comical...and I'm pretty sure are they not only exhausted by the end of the brew day but they appear to have been imbibing a little bit too.

 
Genus Brewing guys did 20lbs for a barleywine. Kinda of comical...and I'm pretty sure are they not only exhausted by the end of the brew day but they appear to have been imbibing a little bit too.


Haha, I forgot about this one! I watched it a while back. Hilarious! 20lbs using the malt-pipe and they started with 7.5 gal of water but removed "some" to make room. The mash thickness in the malt-pipe must have been 1.0 qt/lb or less! No wonder they had a few stuck mashes! Im going to not use the malt-pipe on this brew, just use my wilser bag that was fitted to the kettle (not malt-pipe) and the brewzilla false bottom. I got 21.75lbs of grain with ~7.5gal of strike water. The brewzilla false bottom is about the same height as malt-pipe so 1 gal under the false bottom. So with ~6.5gal in contact with 21.75lbs of grain (including 1lb of rice hulls) that would be 1.20 qt/lb. THICK! Will need to sparge 2.31gal of water afterwards but since it won't fit, my plan is to drain the first runnings to a separate kettle I will borrow from a friend, then sparge the 2.31gal - pull the bag up on hoist to let drain and add the first runnings back. Should be epic....epic fun or epic disaster! lol
 
kegged a pale ale today, grapefruit hits you right away. I still have the kolsh on tap so the pale ale is going in the fermentation chamber with the portable CO2 cartridge for a cold crash.

Loving the results with the Foundry although my numbers are way off (time to calibrate the refractometer) - taste is spot on.
 
Haha, I forgot about this one! I watched it a while back. Hilarious! 20lbs using the malt-pipe and they started with 7.5 gal of water but removed "some" to make room. The mash thickness in the malt-pipe must have been 1.0 qt/lb or less! No wonder they had a few stuck mashes! Im going to not use the malt-pipe on this brew, just use my wilser bag that was fitted to the kettle (not malt-pipe) and the brewzilla false bottom. I got 21.75lbs of grain with ~7.5gal of strike water. The brewzilla false bottom is about the same height as malt-pipe so 1 gal under the false bottom. So with ~6.5gal in contact with 21.75lbs of grain (including 1lb of rice hulls) that would be 1.20 qt/lb. THICK! Will need to sparge 2.31gal of water afterwards but since it won't fit, my plan is to drain the first runnings to a separate kettle I will borrow from a friend, then sparge the 2.31gal - pull the bag up on hoist to let drain and add the first runnings back. Should be epic....epic fun or epic disaster! lol

Epic indeed...looking forward to hearing how this goes for you. I've kinda of scared myself away from doing a RIS. Not just from the brewing part, but the oxygenation that is strongly recommended during ferment. I have two breweries in the area which do amazing ones...so I could just go completely chicken and buy a keg.
 
What's up guys, thinking about getting the Foundry for Christmas. I was watching the video from Short Circuited about making a diy inline GFCI. The video show how to wire it for a 4 prong plug. I rent an old house with a 3 prong dryer outlet for the dryer.
I read the comments from that video and people mentioned that the wiring is wrong if using a 3 prong dryer outlet.
If I were to try to make this line gfci, do any of you know how to wire for a 3 prong plug? Thanks!
 

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I use a three prong. It works very similar to a regular 120v 3 prong. Get the $90 inline from galco. Has like 100ft of cable. Get a 3 prong dryer plug and make sure you are on at least 30 amps (foundry will only pull less than 15 amps) at the other end I have an L6-30 plug that connects to the foundry. Also, this advice is just my experience. Do not attempt any electrical work without talking to a professional. It is extremely dangerous. Only do it if you know that you know that you know that you know that you know what to do.
 
I use a three prong. It works very similar to a regular 120v 3 prong. Get the $90 inline from galco. Has like 100ft of cable. Get a 3 prong dryer plug and make sure you are on at least 30 amps (foundry will only pull less than 15 amps) at the other end I have an L6-30 plug that connects to the foundry. Also, this advice is just my experience. Do not attempt any electrical work without talking to a professional. It is extremely dangerous. Only do it if you know that you know that you know that you know that you know what to do.
Thanks for the reply. I do lack the knowledge but Brian from Short Circuited made it seem simple.
My 3 prong dryer wall plug is 30 amps.
So this is what you're talking about right?

https://www.galco.com/buy/Arrow-Hart-Cooper-Wiring-Devices/GFI23A7NN
One last thing, you mentioned L6-30 plugs, so I'm guessing you cut the cord of the Foundry, yes? Since the brew system pulls less than 15 amps, why cant the original plug be kept? Or use a 6-20P?
Thanks in advance
 
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That is the cord I have. I did not cut the cord on the foundry I did something similar to short circuit Brewer but this is where we are getting into dicey territory. I am unqualified to give electrical advise I can only tell you what I did. When dealing with higher voltage I want the plug rated for that voltage as much as possible. L6-30 is safely rated for 240v. You can rig something up as he (and I) did but I have to say at this point, do so at your own risk. Seems to work for me and many others but I haven’t heard an electrician weigh in on it yet. Since I’m not an electrician I feel it best to say, proceed at your own risk, you feel me?
 
What's up guys, thinking about getting the Foundry for Christmas. I was watching the video from Short Circuited about making a diy inline GFCI. The video show how to wire it for a 4 prong plug. I rent an old house with a 3 prong dryer outlet for the dryer.
I read the comments from that video and people mentioned that the wiring is wrong if using a 3 prong dryer outlet.
If I were to try to make this line gfci, do any of you know how to wire for a 3 prong plug? Thanks!
For what it's worth, when I bought my Foundry I had an electrician come out and install a 240 volt circuit in the brew area of my basement and he didn't install a GFCI circuit. When I questioned this he said, "the code doesn't require it." So I said, "I don't give a crap about the code, I just don't want to get electrocuted when brewing." He said, "well, don't be standing in water when you plug it in." I then went on to learn, at least according to him, that once it's plugged into a grounded receptacle, GFCI is no longer necessary, and that's why the code doesn't call for it (because people don't routinely plug and unplug 240 volt cords) I sure hope he's right!
 
I’ll see if I can dig up the 3 prong dryer cord, socket and inline gfci and link them here. The got from Amazon, the rest fromHome Depot but I did need to wait for some items to ship to HD for pick up. I’ll come back and edit the Links

https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-4-ft-3-Prong-30-Amp-Dryer-Cord-WX09X10002/203497478
Leviton 20 Amp 125-Volt Straight Blade Grounding Connector, Black-5369-B - The Home Depot. (125v is so you can use the Foundry plug, 20 amps can handle the load )


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004SBV6BE/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_TnnZFbTF50EM3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
The fittings were a PITA as the dryer wire gauge was a bit larger but with some patience and determination I was able to fit the wires.
 
For what it's worth, when I bought my Foundry I had an electrician come out and install a 240 volt circuit in the brew area of my basement and he didn't install a GFCI circuit. When I questioned this he said, "the code doesn't require it." So I said, "I don't give a crap about the code, I just don't want to get electrocuted when brewing." He said, "well, don't be standing in water when you plug it in." I then went on to learn, at least according to him, that once it's plugged into a grounded receptacle, GFCI is no longer necessary, and that's why the code doesn't call for it (because people don't routinely plug and unplug 240 volt cords) I sure hope he's right!

I am pretty sure that code in most areas does require GFCI in areas were water is used like a bathroom and kitchen sink. Thus your brew area should demand the equivalent protection. Electricity will travel in every path that is available so both you and the ground wire can become paths if you are standing in waterThe GFCI shuts the power when the the load doesn’t fully return so it will trip way before the breaker which will alert you to minor stray current - like a cord wearing out, and thus you can fix it before a tragedy occurs. A simple ground won’t do that.

I’m not an electrician so don’t take my word as gospel but a GFCI is so easy to install that I wouldn’t take a chance. It’s my life not the electrician’s. I’ve spilled enough liquid when brewing to know it will happen again and the working lights on my inline GFCI provide me a bit of peace of mind.

edit note: the danger scenario is when you get in between the hot and ground - otherwise a properly ground circuit does provide protection again stray voltage, but it should not be an either/or decision when it comes to wet areas, ground + GFCI, IMO (unqualified).
 
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Epic indeed...looking forward to hearing how this goes for you. I've kinda of scared myself away from doing a RIS. Not just from the brewing part, but the oxygenation that is strongly recommended during ferment. I have two breweries in the area which do amazing ones...so I could just go completely chicken and buy a keg.
So to update on this stout. I brewed this today and went very well I think. Not perfect, but well.

In short my process was: 1) ditch the malt pipe, and use the bag only with a brewzilla modified false bottom, 2) mash the 21.75lbs of grain (1lb of rice hulls) for 90 minutes, 3) drain the bag in place by transferring the wort to another (2nd) kettle, 4) sparged 2.25gallons, let drain/pump a little more to 2nd kettle 5) lifted the bag to let the sparged water drain, 6) pump wort back to anvil, 7) one quick/light squeeze of the bag to get about a quart or less to make my pre-boil volume of 8gallons.

As you can see in the pics, the 21.75lbs of grains and 7.5gal of strike water fit well (beersmith estimated about 9.18gallons of space needed) which looked about right. The mash was surprisingly looser than expected (especially compared to the malt-pipe which would likely have been a disaster). The method of draining the wort from the bag was great. Overall, I achieved my best mash/lauter efficiency ever 80% on the nose! rest of the brewday went well.
 

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I am pretty sure that code in most areas does require GFCI in areas were water is used like a bathroom and kitchen sink. Thus your brew area should demand the equivalent protection. Electricity will travel in every path that is available so both you and the ground wire can become paths if you are standing in waterThe GFCI shuts the power when the the load doesn’t fully return so it will trip way before the breaker which will alert you to minor stray current - like a cord wearing out, and thus you can fix it before a tragedy occurs. A simple ground won’t do that.

I’m not an electrician so don’t take my word as gospel but a GFCI is so easy to install that I wouldn’t take a chance. It’s my life not the electrician’s. I’ve spilled enough liquid when brewing to know it will happen again and the working lights on my inline GFCI provide me a bit of peace of mind.

edit note: the danger scenario is when you get in between the hot and ground - otherwise a properly ground circuit does provide protection again stray voltage, but it should not be an either/or decision when it comes to wet areas, ground + GFCI, IMO (unqualified).
I checked the code and GFCI is definitely is not required for a 240 volt circuit here in Loudoun County, Va. However, I agree with you and I would feel much safer with it, and although you say "easy to install," I can't find a 240 volt gfci receptacle anywhere. Since they are not on Amazon, I don't think they exist.
 
So to update on this stout. I brewed this today and went very well I think. Not perfect, but well.

Thanks for the follow-up. Always helpful to see what others do. Funny you didn't really use the Anvil exactly as intended, but made it work. That's huge no matter how you look at it.

I can't find a 240 volt gfci receptacle anywhere.

I have never seen one either. I ran a GFCI breaker. In case that helps anyone.
 
So to update on this stout. I brewed this today and went very well I think. Not perfect, but well.

In short my process was: 1) ditch the malt pipe, and use the bag only with a brewzilla modified false bottom, 2) mash the 21.75lbs of grain (1lb of rice hulls) for 90 minutes, 3) drain the bag in place by transferring the wort to another (2nd) kettle, 4) sparged 2.25gallons, let drain/pump a little more to 2nd kettle 5) lifted the bag to let the sparged water drain, 6) pump wort back to anvil, 7) one quick/light squeeze of the bag to get about a quart or less to make my pre-boil volume of 8gallons.

As you can see in the pics, the 21.75lbs of grains and 7.5gal of strike water fit well (beersmith estimated about 9.18gallons of space needed) which looked about right. The mash was surprisingly looser than expected (especially compared to the malt-pipe which would likely have been a disaster). The method of draining the wort from the bag was great. Overall, I achieved my best mash/lauter efficiency ever 80% on the nose! rest of the brewday went well.
Very good information. While back I tried no pipe and had other issues so used the pipe last brew. In error I left the lid off by mistake so mash temp went south and had a terrible time trying to sparge with a cinched hanging bag. I will try the extra kettle next time (did you heat the lautering kettle?). I also will borrow your idea to hang the recirc disk.

Related to your (and Oginme) earlier post I when setting up my BeerSmith profile though the space between the pipe and wall should be considered dead space but others disagree.

Might try to brew this week without the pipe. I'm itching to try pressure fermentation with my new Fermzilla All-Rounder.
 
Always helpful to see what others do. Funny you didn't really use the Anvil exactly as intended, but made it work. That's huge no matter how you look at it.

Agreed that its not how it was intended but with this big of a grain bill, it was necessary for sure. This was only my second time not using the malt-pipe and the first was a full volume pale ale so there was no need for me to transfer to a 2nd kettle since everything fit within the foundry's 10.5gal limits. The setup was a little hodge podge but allowed me to see if this was some process I might want to use going forward. I will likely try this on a NEIPA with a grain bill that I previously used with the bag in the malt-pipe for a more accurate comparison.

The plus's for this approach for me regardless of grain bill size: 1) the mash was a lot more consistent and loose (despite being at a qt/lb ratio of 1.375) compared to the malt-pipe - never even a thought of a stuck mash with recirc, 2) when being able to sparge with the bag in place (not lifting it would like I would in the malt-pipe), the lautering seemed to me very effective, 3) my conversion efficiency was 97% with not using the malt-pipe and my calculations are a bit lower ~90% with the malt-pipe. 4) without the malt-pipe I hit my initial mash temp after dough in perfectly and Ive struggled with this a bit with the malt-pipe. Although Im not sure conversion can really be measured accurately with the malt-pipe because the mash isn't homogenous due to water on the sides which explains a lot of why many, including myself, see refractometer readings drop before vs after lifting the malt-pipe for sparging.

terrible time trying to sparge with a cinched hanging bag
This is exactly what I didn't want to do myself when thinking of this. didn't want to do a lot of moving a hanging bag around to put in colander to drain or batch sparge etc. Having borrowed my buddy's extra kettle was a nice easy solution for me. This is a very nice advantage of the malt-pipe: you can easily prop it up and sparge with nothing overhead needed.
I will try the extra kettle next time (did you heat the lautering kettle?)
Yes. I always heat all mash and sparge water in the foundry together to strike temps and then remove the the sparge water to a small 4gal stock pot that I hold off to the side. This brew, I heated my sparge to about 200degrees on kitchen stove and then put it into the separate kettle for warming for about 15 minutes. When I removed it, my sparge water was at 165! Got lucky on that one lol.
Related to your (and Oginme) earlier post I when setting up my BeerSmith profile though the space between the pipe and wall should be considered dead space but others disagree.
You may be right, not sure to be honest - I always kept them at all 0s: you are referring to the "recoverable dead spaces" right? Still trying to dial in beersmith profiles myself.

Good luck with the all-rounder! Those look great! Wish they'd fit into a mini fridge without putting a collar on it though.
 
So to update on this stout. I brewed this today and went very well I think. Not perfect, but well.

In short my process was: 1) ditch the malt pipe, and use the bag only with a brewzilla modified false bottom, 2) mash the 21.75lbs of grain (1lb of rice hulls) for 90 minutes, 3) drain the bag in place by transferring the wort to another (2nd) kettle, 4) sparged 2.25gallons, let drain/pump a little more to 2nd kettle 5) lifted the bag to let the sparged water drain, 6) pump wort back to anvil, 7) one quick/light squeeze of the bag to get about a quart or less to make my pre-boil volume of 8gallons.

As you can see in the pics, the 21.75lbs of grains and 7.5gal of strike water fit well (beersmith estimated about 9.18gallons of space needed) which looked about right. The mash was surprisingly looser than expected (especially compared to the malt-pipe which would likely have been a disaster). The method of draining the wort from the bag was great. Overall, I achieved my best mash/lauter efficiency ever 80% on the nose! rest of the brewday went well.

I think I might start doing a sparge, was looking at electric induction plates that I could setup in the garage. I've got an Anvil 7.5G pot that I'm not using anymore...seems like a good use for it.

Regarding GFCI stuff...my installed circuit in the garage doesn't have a GFCI breaker installed and is typically vacant except when I've plugged in the Anvil. I elected for an extension cord with a GFCI inline.

https://www.galco.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/wa/wcat/catalog.htm?searchbox=GFI23A7NN-CWD
For some reason...when I ordered this, it was about half the price of one with a significantly shorter...and perhaps more reasonable length. I don't get it...but whatever. I installed some waterproof plugs and I'm good to go. If I ever chose to do so, I could lug my Anvil onto my back patio and brew back there. Today however...the zip ties that shipped with it to keep it from sprawling all over the place are still there.
 
I think I might start doing a sparge, was looking at electric induction plates that I could setup in the garage. I've got an Anvil 7.5G pot that I'm not using anymore...seems like a good use for it.

Regarding GFCI stuff...my installed circuit in the garage doesn't have a GFCI breaker installed and is typically vacant except when I've plugged in the Anvil. I elected for an extension cord with a GFCI inline.

https://www.galco.com/scripts/cgiip.exe/wa/wcat/catalog.htm?searchbox=GFI23A7NN-CWD
For some reason...when I ordered this, it was about half the price of one with a significantly shorter...and perhaps more reasonable length. I don't get it...but whatever. I installed some waterproof plugs and I'm good to go. If I ever chose to do so, I could lug my Anvil onto my back patio and brew back there. Today however...the zip ties that shipped with it to keep it from sprawling all over the place are still there.
That is the same cable I have. I, too, was a little nervous at how amazing that price was. By all accounts, it is perfect (for me, at least) because it is not much more than 100ft of 10/3 cable without the gfci and for some reason it is about cheaper than a gfci breaker and I can run that thing all over my house and brew anywhere I want, pretty much.
 
Has anyone ran boiling wort through the anvil pump? Can it handle it? Just wondering if I need to disconnect and run a clean through it before transferring to fermenter or just run some hot wort through.
 
I have accidentally run boiling wort through the Anvil pump. It will handle it, but it is not good for the pump. The pump relies on the wort to help lubricate the moving parts from wearing on the stationary parts. Boiling wort will flash steam and may cause excessive wear.

Your pump and line will be adequately sanitized if you run wort over 165F through it for at least 15 seconds. There is no need for the wort to be boiling to achieve this condition.
 
It fits a 1 3/4” hole. 2” TC up top. You might want one a little taller as the clamp tightener thingy is close to the lid. Works well for me.View attachment 708060
Do they make these weldless TC bulkheads taller? Also, how well does the TC2 fit the hole? Brewhardware.com suggests the TC15WLF 1.5" TC fitting on its website when showing a configuration of the steam slayer mounted to the foundry lid. Hmmm.
 
Do they make these weldless TC bulkheads taller? Also, how well does the TC2 fit the hole? Brewhardware.com suggests the TC15WLF 1.5" TC fitting on its website when showing a configuration of the steam slayer mounted to the foundry lid. Hmmm.

I’m not sure... I already had a 2” piece for the top, so it works out for me. It would be nicer if it was 1/2” taller. I just got excited I found something that worked for me.
 
Had a great brew day yesterday. I used a false bottom & bag and also sparged the drained bag in a 5-gallon Igloo cylindrical cooler because didn't see a way to sparge a cinched bag (think it's called dip sparging). My mash efficiency was 80.2%! My previous 3 brews on the AF were around 70%.

Instead of my 6" diameter hop basket I used one of those enclosed dry hop torpedoes. Was looking for better boil-off and I got it. With the higher ME and higher boil off I overachieved the OG by 6 points (1.065-->1.071).
 
Had a great brew day yesterday. I used a false bottom & bag and also sparged the drained bag in a 5-gallon Igloo cylindrical cooler because didn't see a way to sparge a cinched bag (think it's called dip sparging). My mash efficiency was 80.2%! My previous 3 brews on the AF were around 70%.

Instead of my 6" diameter hop basket I used one of those enclosed dry hop torpedoes. Was looking for better boil-off and I got it. With the higher ME and higher boil off I overachieved the OG by 6 points (1.065-->1.071).

This is great man! So, you did this similar to how I outlined it with my russian imperial stout? ie drain first runnings into the cooler and then sparge with the bag in place, then transfer back? how much did you sparge? Curious what was the general grain bill size and composition for your brew. I will probably use this same method a few more times and if I can be consistent with it, just may adopt it for all my brews.
 
This is great man! So, you did this similar to how I outlined it with my russian imperial stout? ie drain first runnings into the cooler and then sparge with the bag in place, then transfer back? how much did you sparge? Curious what was the general grain bill size and composition for your brew. I will probably use this same method a few more times and if I can be consistent with it, just may adopt it for all my brews.
Yes - got the idea from you! Although, I drained the bag into the boiler for 5-10 minutes before putting it in the cooler. Let it sit a few minutes and lifted it up/down a few times then lifted the bag and let it drain in the cooler. I did squeeze it a bit but not much. I brewed a NB Winter Warmer all-grain kit. Almost 13# of grain. I use BeerSmith software (with modified AF profile) and used 6.5 gallons in mash and 3/4 gallons sparge. This worked very well since without the pipe it's difficult to sparge.
 
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