Sparging a 1 gallon BIAB

[Kassad]

I am getting ready to do my first 1 gallon BIAB and I am trying to decide between two choices for sparging.

They both start with heating a gallon of drinking water up to 160-165 degrees, then adding your grain bag and letting sit for an hour. While waiting, heat a gallon of sparge water to 170-180 degrees F.

On to sparging. Two methods:

1. Place the drained grain bag in the 1 gallon of heated sparge water and let sit for a few minutes. Then, pour the sparge water back into the mash kettle. Hopefully I'll have about 1.5 gallons of wort in the kettle. My first question with this method would be, how long to let the grain bag sit in the sparge water (how long is 'a few minutes)?

2. Place the drained grain in a strainer, colander, or similar kitchen device, above the mash kettle. Sprinkle the sparge water over the surface of the grain, attempting to rinse them evenly and slowly, using a ladle or measuring cup for this process. Stop sparging once you’ve got about 1.5 gallons of liquid in the kettle. Dispose of the spent grain.

So which method works best - soaking the grains in a gallon of more water, or running the same amount of water over the grain bag into the brew kettle?

 

[cubalz]

Go for the first option, it is way easier and less messy. All you have to do is place the bag in the sparge water for 10 minutes, pull the bag and squeeze it like it owes you money, combine the liquids and begin your boil. You will end up with approximately 1.5 gallons pre-boil.

 

[Kassad]

Go for the first option, it is way easier and less messy. All you have to do is place the bag in the sparge water for 10 minutes, pull the bag and squeeze it like it owes you money, combine the liquids and begin your boil. You will end up with approximately 1.5 gallons pre-boil.

Sounds good. I'll do just that. And in case anyone's curious, here's my recipe (I was planning on dividing everything by 5 for my batch, but .25 oz of Galaxy hops divided by 5 seems very little):


Golden Ale Clone:
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
0.25 oz Galaxy hops [14.00 %] Boil 60 min.
1 Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 15 min
0.50 oz Citra [12.00 %] - Boil 5 min
Us-05 Yeast.

Mash at 150 to 152.

Dry hopped 1.5 to 2oz of citra hops

 

[soccerdad]

Sounds like you got it figgered out, but I am curious .. with a one gallon batch, do you not have kettle space to do a full volume mash and skip the sparge step?

 

[Weezy]

there's not much point to letting the bag sit in the sparge water for very long at all. You're only trying to rinse the wort off that is adhering to the grain particles. When I did stove top small batch, I dunked, mixed well with a wisk, pulled bag, & squeezed.

Soccerdad has a good point though. 1 gallon batch is well suited to full volume, no sparge, biab.

 

[Kassad]

I have a 2 gallon pot and a 1.5 gallon pot. I'll use the 2 gallon for the mash, then the 1.5 gallon for my sparge water. Using method 1 above I will put the soaked grain bag into the 1.5 gallon pot (full of 1 gallon of water), let it soak 10 minutes, then pour that into my 2 gallon pot of wort.

 

[Kassad]

there's not much point to letting the bag sit in the sparge water for very long at all. You're only trying to rinse the wort off that is adhering to the grain particles. When I did stove top small batch, I dunked, mixed well with a wisk, pulled bag, & squeezed.

Soccerdad has a good point though. 1 gallon batch is well suited to full volume, no sparge, biab.

How big of a brew\mash kettle do I need for a full volume, no sparge, BIAB?

 

[Weezy]

2 gallons of mash water for a 1 gallon batch? That is already full volume biab. That's like 8 quarts per pound mash thickness. There's not enough sugar on the grain to warrant sparging at all.

Im not sure what your boil off rate is but whatever you have left from the 2 gallons after pulling bag is probably enough to just boil for an hour and get down to your 1 gallon batch size. Done. Easy peasy.

 

[Kassad]

2 gallons of mash water for a 1 gallon batch? That is already full volume biab. That's like 8 quarts per pound mash thickness. There's not enough sugar on the grain to warrant sparging at all.

nooooooooo.. 1.5 gallons for the mash in a 2 gallon pot.

So I am just getting into this, and just read John Palmer's Skip the Sparge at https://byo.com/stories/item/1375-skip-the-sparge

So I need to increase my grain bill to account for not sparging, and use 1.5 times of water for the mash.

 

[Weezy]

nooooooooo.. 1.5 gallons for the mash in a 2 gallon pot.

So I am just getting into this, and just read John Palmer's Skip the Sparge at https://byo.com/stories/item/1375-skip-the-sparge

So I need to increase my grain bill to account for not sparging, and use 1.5 times of water for the mash.

sounds good, good luck and have fun!

 

[kevin58]

Unless your kettle is not big enough why not mash in the full volume of water needed for the entire brew and skip the sparge?

 

[Kassad]

Unless your kettle is not big enough why not mash in the full volume of water needed for the entire brew and skip the sparge?

First let me preface with this will be my first all-grain, and my first BIAB. So I had to go do some research with these terms that are flying around.

After reading some very interesting articles it seems there are some calculations that need to be done, and recipe modifications, which I am not sure I can do.

Here is the 5.5 gallon batch size grain bill:
7 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US
1 lbs 8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L

To make my 1 gallon BIAB batch , the two questions I would like help answering are:
1. What would be the new grain bill for full volume no sparge
2. How much strike water

If I was sparging my plan was just to divide each ingredient (including the hops) by 5, or 5.5 but I read that if you are doing a full volume no sparge you'll need to increase your grain bill.

Taking into account evaporation during the one hour boil (which can vary), our increased grain bill, and the fact that we're not sparging, how do I calculate the amount of strike water needed?

 

[soccerdad]

For grain, I would just divide by 5 .. A pound and a half of 2 Row and 4 and a half ounces of C20.

Try the priceless calculator (https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced) to get your full volume of water for a no sparge mash. You can use your own data for grain absorption, boil off and kettle size, but he will start you out with some standard values. Essentially, you need the gallon you will package PLUS what you leave in the fermenter PLUS what you have absorbed by grain and hops PLUS what you boil off PLUS any break material you leave in the kettle. I'm gonna guess that you need 1.75 to 2 G of total water .. closer to 1.75.

Enjoy it. BIAB is great.

 

[kevin58]

Software such as Beersmith would be a valuable investment. It will scale batches up and down, convert extract to all grain and vise versa. Even help with water volume calculations. I'm at work now but I will try to remember when I get home to enter your grain bill into Beersmith and resize it for you.

 

[doug293cz]

Go for the first option, it is way easier and less messy. All you have to do is place the bag in the sparge water for 10 minutes, pull the bag and squeeze it like it owes you money, combine the liquids and begin your boil. You will end up with approximately 1.5 gallons pre-boil.

You'll get better efficiency by squeezing the bag before the sparge. That way there is less wort and sugar in the grain prior to the sparge, and overall you'll collect more sugar for the same amount of water used. Squeezing after the sparge also helps, but not as much as squeezing before the sparge.

there's not much point to letting the bag sit in the sparge water for very long at all. You're only trying to rinse the wort off that is adhering to the grain particles. When I did stove top small batch, I dunked, mixed well with a wisk, pulled bag, & squeezed.

Soccerdad has a good point though. 1 gallon batch is well suited to full volume, no sparge, biab.

Yes, stirring is more effective than letting the mash sit. The goal is to get all the high SG wort stuck to the grains diluted and mixed into the sparge water. That way you leave less sugar stuck to the grains after the sparge (better efficiency.)

Brew on

 

[kevin58]

This is what Beersmith converts your grain bill to for a 1 gallon batch.

1lb 5.5 oz Pale Malt
11oz Caramel/Crystal 20

What worries me is the percentage of crystal 20. it's almost 30 percent at that rate. So I dropped it down while increasing the pale malt and came up with this...

2.11 lbs Pale Malt
6.0 0z Caramel/Crystal 20

That ends up with the same OG of 1.054 and same ABV of 5.5% but drops the crystal to just 15% so the beer won't be too sweet. Throw in .25 oz of Cascade hops for 60 minutes and another .25 oz at 15 minutes and it should be a pretty drinkable beer.

 

[Kassad]

This is what Beersmith converts your grain bill to for a 1 gallon batch.

1lb 5.5 oz Pale Malt
11oz Caramel/Crystal 20

What worries me is the percentage of crystal 20. it's almost 30 percent at that rate. So I dropped it down while increasing the pale malt and came up with this...

2.11 lbs Pale Malt
6.0 0z Caramel/Crystal 20

That ends up with the same OG of 1.054 and same ABV of 5.5% but drops the crystal to just 15% so the beer won't be too sweet. Throw in .25 oz of Cascade hops for 60 minutes and another .25 oz at 15 minutes and it should be a pretty drinkable beer.

Interesting that the total grain bill went from 2.03 lbs up to roughly 2.5 lbs.
Any chance you could tell me the amount of Caramel/Crystal 20 if I go with 2 lbs of Pale Malt instead of 2.11? In hindsight I should have ordered more but since this will be my first attempt I only ordered 2 lbs. Hopefully the amount of Caramel/Crystal won't increase too much as to make it too sweet.
Maybe 2 lbs of Pale Malt and 7.0 oz of Caramel/Crystal 20?

 

[Kassad]

For grain, I would just divide by 5 .. A pound and a half of 2 Row and 4 and a half ounces of C20.

Try the priceless calculator (https://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/#Advanced) to get your full volume of water for a no sparge mash. You can use your own data for grain absorption, boil off and kettle size, but he will start you out with some standard values. Essentially, you need the gallon you will package PLUS what you leave in the fermenter PLUS what you have absorbed by grain and hops PLUS what you boil off PLUS any break material you leave in the kettle. I'm gonna guess that you need 1.75 to 2 G of total water .. closer to 1.75.

Enjoy it. BIAB is great.

Your grain bill is with a sparge correct?

 

[soccerdad]

No, sorry, I pretty much always assume full volume mash and no sparge. I think the numbers out of Beersmith will serve you better either way - sparge or no.

 

[Kassad]

This is what Beersmith converts your grain bill to for a 1 gallon batch.

1lb 5.5 oz Pale Malt
11oz Caramel/Crystal 20

What worries me is the percentage of crystal 20. it's almost 30 percent at that rate. So I dropped it down while increasing the pale malt and came up with this...

2.11 lbs Pale Malt
6.0 0z Caramel/Crystal 20

That ends up with the same OG of 1.054 and same ABV of 5.5% but drops the crystal to just 15% so the beer won't be too sweet. Throw in .25 oz of Cascade hops for 60 minutes and another .25 oz at 15 minutes and it should be a pretty drinkable beer.

For what its worth, the OG of the beer should be 1.044 per the recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=478385


So I am still interested in the grain bill, and volume of water for a no sparge 1 gallon BIAB.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

1.43 lbs total. Approximately 1.6 gallons (I assumed 0.5 gallon boil off rate, which is common for small batch brewing).

5 oz C20.

1 lb and 2 oz of pale malt / 2 row.

If you have a good mash, and squeeze the bag, you should be around 1.044 at 1 gallon.

 

[Kassad]

1.43 lbs total. Approximately 1.6 gallons (I assumed 0.5 gallon boil off rate, which is common for small batch brewing).

5 oz C20.

1 lb and 2 oz of pale malt / 2 row.

If you have a good mash, and squeeze the bag, you should be around 1.044 at 1 gallon.

Wow, only 1.43 lbs. That amount of 2 row seems a little low. I'm assuming it is because the 1.044 is a little low, so unless someone says I shouldn't, I might raise the 2 row up to 1.75 pounds and the C20 to 6 oz. I'm also looking at 1.75 gallons but that's just a guess, I don't know what beersmith or any other calculators would say.

The hops additions for the 5.5 gallon batch is:
.25 oz Galaxy (60 minute)
.50 oz Citra (15 minute)
.50 oz Citra (5 minute)

Should each of these get divided by 5 for my 1 gallon?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

It's low because small batches tend to get higher efficiency, since you have a higher percentage boil off rate typically.

The 15 and 5 minutes get divided by the batch size ratio. The 60 minute addition will need to be adjusted manually until the intended ibus match the original recipe