Best techniques for pour sparging

[mgr_stl]

Just did my first BIAB a couple days ago and things went quite well. Hit my numbers for the most part (priceless biab calculator worked well for me).

I decided to sparge by pouring 1.5 gallons of room temp water over my grains that were hanging over my kettle. The grain bag was hanging from the ceiling of my garage via an archaic pulley setup.

It was pretty awkward trying to hold the bag open while pouring the sparge water while making sure it went in the kettle. Maybe I'm just not coordinated, but I wanted to see if any of you had suggestions for doing this type of sparge in a way that maximizes the acquisition of sugars from the grains.

Maybe I'll try a dunk sparge next time.

 

[eadavis80]

I'll be doing my first BIAB tomorrow which will probably require some sort of sparging due to the grain bill (10.5 pounds) and my kettle size (8 gallons). I THOUGHT sparge water was supposed to be 165ish. You said yours was room temp. Does the temp not really matter in terms of sugar extraction from the grain?

 

[misterkidd]

When I sparge (which is rarely) I rest my grains in a big colander resting on the top of the kettle, and ladle the hot sparge water (165f sounds about right) over. Then I give the bag a little squeeze and discard the spent grains.

 

[mgr_stl]

I THOUGHT sparge water was supposed to be 165ish. You said yours was room temp. Does the temp not really matter in terms of sugar extraction from the grain?

The reason I decided to go with room temp sparge water was so that I would be able to squeeze the grains after without burning my hands. I just look at it as trying to rinse some of the remaining, already extracted sugars from the grains, so I don't think temp matters a whole lot. I could be totally wrong, but I did hit my planned starting gravity.

 

[mgr_stl]

When I sparge (which is rarely) I rest my grains in a big colander resting on the top of the kettle, and ladle the hot sparge water (165f sounds about right) over. Then I give the bag a little squeeze and discard the spent grains.

The colander is a good idea. I think I may have something that would work.

 

[bionut]

When i brew in the kitchen i use a 30 liter keggle, which is not big enough for a full volume mash, so i need to sparge to get my volumes right. To do so i put the bag in a pot or plastic fermenter and pour over it a volume of water at mash out temperature (probably this is a overkill, but i heat the water while mashing). Then i just open the bag and stir the malt like i would do for a mash, and let it sit for a few minutes while i turn the fire under the keggle of wort. After that i just pull the bag out and squeeze the wort and add ir to the keggle.
This is similar to the maxi biab method.

 

[TexasWine]

If you want to pour the water into the bag, directly on the grains, just find something to rest the bag on above the kettle. A colander, as mentioned, will work, but so will a bbq grill grate, an oven grate/rack, a couple of mash paddles crisscrossed on the kettle lid.

Here's another idea. Attach a caribiner to the business end of your archaic pulley system (the end you attach to your bag). Lift the bag, then get a bucket and slip the bag full of grains into it, and attach the bucket handle to the caribiner as well. The weight of the bag will now be supported by the bucket and pulley allowing you to open the bag and sparge to your heart's content.

You could even drill small holes in the bottom of bucket so the water gradually trickles back into the kettle, sort of like a fly sparge would work.

 

[ArcLight]

I'll be doing my first BIAB tomorrow which will probably require some sort of sparging due to the grain bill (10.5 pounds) and my kettle size (8 gallons). I THOUGHT sparge water was supposed to be 165ish. You said yours was room temp. Does the temp not really matter in terms of sugar extraction from the grain?

The wort is no where near saturated so sparging with room temperature water is fine.

I do a dunk sparge, rather than a pour sparge.

For a pour sparge you want to relieve pressure on the bag, so resting it in a collander on top of the pot, then slowly pouring water around will do ok.

 

[eadavis80]

So for a dunk sparge, I can just fill my 5-gallon kettle with say like 2-3 gallons of water and put the grain bag in there after I have drained it the first time above the 8-gallon brew kettle? Then, after I let the grain bag sit in the 5-gallon kettle (with a few stirs, I'm guessing) for 10 or so minutes, lift the grain bag out of the 5-gallon kettle, let drain above the 5-gallon kettle, and pour the contents of the 5-gallon kettle into the 8-gallon brew (boil) kettle?

 

[MaxStout]

I use a pulley for BIAB, and hoist the bag until it is not touching the wort, but still hanging part way in the kettle. I use a measuring cup to scoop up and slowly pour sparge water over the bag. I don't open up the bag for this; the sparge water will pass through the bag and into the grain. At this time I'm also firing up the burner. By the time the sparge is done and the bag has mostly drip-dried, the wort is just about ready to boil.

 

[doug293cz]

So for a dunk sparge, I can just fill my 5-gallon kettle with say like 2-3 gallons of water and put the grain bag in there after I have drained it the first time above the 8-gallon brew kettle? Then, after I let the grain bag sit in the 5-gallon kettle (with a few stirs, I'm guessing) for 10 or so minutes, lift the grain bag out of the 5-gallon kettle, let drain above the 5-gallon kettle, and pour the contents of the 5-gallon kettle into the 8-gallon brew (boil) kettle?

Yes, that's a good process. Lots of stirring is good. You need to calculate the amount of sparge water so you don't get too much or too little.

Sparge volume = Tgt boil volume - First runnings volume​

Assuming that you squeeze (or don't squeeze) the same way after first runnings and sparge. If the squeezes aren't the same, then you have to account for the different amounts of wort obtained by squeezing.

Brew on

 

[wilserbrewer]

I use a pulley for BIAB, and hoist the bag until it is not touching the wort, but still hanging part way in the kettle. I use a measuring cup to scoop up and slowly pour sparge water over the bag. I don't open up the bag for this; the sparge water will pass through the bag and into the grain. At this time I'm also firing up the burner. By the time the sparge is done and the bag has mostly drip-dried, the wort is just about ready to boil.

This! It is incredibly simple and also rather effective. The funny thing is it works far better than one would imagine. Prior to trying it, I assumed the sparge water would run outside the bag and quickly to the kettle, while in practice the poly voile bag is so porous that the slow pour over sparge actually is dispersed well over the grain bed. While I might also think putting the bag in a separate vessel, adding sparge water and stirring will give you 25 pennies more malt sugar, it sure is a hassle that I feel is not worth the effort.

A side benefit of this method is that one merely sparges to reach preboil volume....rather than calculating where you think you at be. Just measure where you are.
Simple simple.