sparging BIAB

[breweRN]

I was wondering why it is needed to sparge a BIAB at the temp of 170 or above.

What is the purpose of the sparge?

I think I read somewhere that sparge was for 2 reasons..

1) to eliminate stuck mash. - BIAB shouldn't get stuck.

2) something about halting conversion. - well, if you already pulled the bag and are sparging in a separate container, why do it?

 

[JayDubWill]

Ive been doing BIAB for about a year now, ive always set the bag in a large collander placed over the boil kettle and drizzeled water over it. The main purpose of doing this is to rinse the grains of all those precious sugars. It also helped to top off the wort to pres boil volumes.

 

[breweRN]

Rinsing the grains does make sense, but does it really need to be at sparging temperature?

 

[acidrain]

Rinsing the grains does make sense, but does it really need to be at sparging temperature?

No, it does not.
This really is only for fly-spargers because it takes so long.
There have been experiments showing that room-temp batch sparging gives the same efficiency as hot sparging.

 

[woknblues]

I have done sparging BIAB to see if it mattered and to get more sugar out of the grains. So far, I don't think it has made much of a difference, but I will likely continue to pour over the grains just to liquefy some of the residual sugars and whatnot. I don't think it does much, as the spent grains without rinsing were not sticky or sweet when pulled out and drained.

 

[jcam91]

I biab and the way I see it is if I need that preboil water anyway, whats it hurt to poor it over my grains right?

 

[RM-MN]

Simple tests that I have done show me at about 80% efficiency with no sparge but really squeezing the wort out of the bag. A quick sparge with hot water got me to about 85% efficiency and with cold water I got the same but the bag of grains was cooler so it was easier to squeeze with my hands. YMMV

 

[christpuncher123]

If you want to rinse your grains, why not drain the wort from the bottom of the kettle and use that liquid? Its like a vorlouf, you will end up with clearer wort. I have been doing it for the last couple of batches, it has reduced the amount of trub considerably. The grain acts as a filter just like in a mash tun! Just don't let the mash tun nazis know that you can do this, this is the only thing they have left in their argument why biab sucks, LOL!

 

[bhondorp]

Higher temperature water has greater capacity for solutes (i.e. sugars). So when you raise the temperature of the mash for mashout (or 170 sparge/dunk with biab), you are increasing the solubility of deliciousness from the grains, and allowing more of them to go into the mash, thus improving efficiency. I have gained 5-10% with a mashout and another 1-5% with a 1 gallon 170* rinse. Total efficiency is about 70-80% now.

 

[BetterSense]

I get more efficiency when I sparge BIAB, even over bag-squishing, but whether I do it or not just depends on my mood. I might opt to just buy more grain, but if the grain bill is big I might sparge to save a pound or so.

When my mash is done, I lift the bag out and let it drip while the wort heats up. When the dripping gets slow I put the grain bag in a bucket with 1-2 gallons of cold water in it. I use rubber gloves and stir the grain up real good with it still in the bag, pick it up and squish it. I would need a separate burner to heat up sparge water so I don't. This all happens while the wort is heating, so it doesn't slow me down too much.

 

[SudsyPaul]

I was distracted, on the weekend, and forgot to do a mash-out and my efficiency went from 78% to 65%. I always sparge with 165-170F water, but the lack of mashout screwed me in the butt for my last BIAB. (Was aiming for 1.038, got 1.032...)

 

[JayDubWill]

Higher temperature water has greater capacity for solutes (i.e. sugars). So when you raise the temperature of the mash for mashout (or 170 sparge/dunk with biab), you are increasing the solubility of deliciousness from the grains, and allowing more of them to go into the mash, thus improving efficiency. I have gained 5-10% with a mashout and another 1-5% with a 1 gallon 170* rinse. Total efficiency is about 70-80% now.

Another thought on why to use warm (170'ish) water vs cold in addition to the above is simply to not lower the temp of the wort in the boil kettle too much. I know it takes me a lot longer (= more propane) to go from 100F to boiling vs 160F to boiling.

I also use this time to first wort hop and don't want to do that in cool wort either.

 

[johns]

I would never sparge with anything over 170. This would cause astringency problems. The reason (like others here have stated), for sparging is to increase effiiciency. If sparging is done then I would recommend water thats between 165-170, but not over 170.

Personally I dont sparge but I am playing with effiiciency and toying with my grain mill.

Hope this helps

 

[RM-MN]

I would never sparge with anything over 170. This would cause astringency problems. The reason (like others here have stated), for sparging is to increase effiiciency. If sparging is done then I would recommend water thats between 165-170, but not over 170.

Personally I dont sparge but I am playing with effiiciency and toying with my grain mill.

Hope this helps

You only have astringency problems if your pH goes too high. You can have that happen if you fly sparge or if you do multiple sparges but not with a single batch sparge unless your water is really bad. The people who do decoction take part of their mash (lots of grains in it) and boil it. They don't have astringency problems.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Higher temperature water has greater capacity for solutes (i.e. sugars). So when you raise the temperature of the mash for mashout (or 170 sparge/dunk with biab), you are increasing the solubility of deliciousness from the grains, and allowing more of them to go into the mash, thus improving efficiency. I have gained 5-10% with a mashout and another 1-5% with a 1 gallon 170* rinse. Total efficiency is about 70-80% now.

Yes agreed, higher temperatures yield higher capacities for solutes, but at the temps we are talking I believe this to be irrelevant, even room temperature wort will hold high gravity dissolved sugars. Raising the mash temp to 170, will not dissolve more sugar, all the sugar is already in solution at the end of the mash.

 

[MMJfan]

I only have a 7.5 gallon kettle and I've found that if I don't do a mash out and then a sparge (which I do in a separate 5 gallon kettle) that my efficiency goes for high 70's to low 80's to efficiencies in the 60's. if I had a 10 to 15 gallon kettle where I could do full volume BIAB I would probably do things differently...

 

[Nimbus]

My method is to suspend bag, bring wort to a boil and in the interim give 2 or three squeezes. No sparging. Now with a 10 gal batch the weight of my grain bag is not trivial so maybe that's what makes me lazy in this regard. I suppose I could run off some wort and rinse but my intent post mash is to get the boil going asap. Although my efficiency is in the mid 70's with no sparging I seem to hit the numbers when using recipes from this site, from books or from Jamil's podcasts without adding more base grain. For me, BIAB is the quest to simplify my brew day as much as possible.

I Just ordered a plate chiller, hope to shave yet another 40 minutes off my day vs. my old home made immersion chiller. It will be interesting to see how my current hopping regimen changes the hop profile in my beer once my beer goes from boil to fermenter in a (hopefully) faster time period, especially in late hope addition brews like american pale ales.