Sparging with biab

[jnetzel]

How do you sparge your grains? Especially if BIAB? Also assume i don't use tap water and instead have to use filtered water. So what equipment would you use to sparge? I was going to use my siphon and fill an extra carboy with the water I need (say 4.25 gallons) and rinse the grains... but I would like a better way to do this with more pressure than my siphon

 

[Whisky River]

The answer to your question depends a lot on what equipment you are using, and then consequently what process you adopt. Many people here advocate for using a full volume no sparge method, if your vessel can accommodate the full amount of fluid and grain. Otherwise it depends a lot on what gear you have. If it’s a commercial all in one system with some kind of structured mash basket, many people will do a simple pour over sparge with the basket draining into the boiler. If you are just using a bag, a dunk sparge in a separate vessel is pretty common, but adds one more thing to clean/store.
There are plenty of other methods as well which I’m sure will be suggested by others.

As for the water, yes if you are going to sparge it should be the same type as your strike water, RO, filtered, store bought etc and you might want to be mindful of its PH valve as that can have some negative impacts if it gets out of control.

 

[jnetzel]

I use a 42qt stainless steel pot to mash and boil. I want to sparge because it i think will lead to a better taste. Though honestly I have no idea. If it increases efficiency by even 5% though I think its worth adding it to the process. I'm planning on step mashing the grains in less water because I think temperature with the equipment (nuwave induction cooktop) i will be using will be easier to control with less water. Then sparge the remaining preboil water through say 4-6 grain bags. Idk what do you think about that process? I will use my stove to bring it to boil after

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

Last beer I brewed (tropical stout, 1.067, 3 gallons), after mashing and squeezing the hell out of the bag, I did a rinse of the grain bag (grist: 6.5 lbs malt) with a quart of RO water. And got a gravity reading of 4 brix on the refractometer. Decided it wasn't worth the trouble of extending my boil for that tiny bit of extra wort.

 

[odie]

sparging will probably not improve your taste. Only efficiency. "how" you sparge will affect your lauter efficiency.

 

[doug293cz]

The most effective way to sparge when doing BIAB is to dunk sparge using about 60% of your total water for mashing, and the remaining 40% for sparging. Since grain absorption losses only affect the initial run-off volume (grain is already saturated during the sparge, so no additional absorption losses occur), this will get you close to equal volumes of wort from the initial mash and the sparge, which is the optimal condition for lauter efficiency.

The grain absorption rate has a large effect on lauter efficiency for both no-sparge and batch sparge, with lower absorption rates leading to higher efficiency. You can decrease your grain absorption rate by draining for a longer time, or squeezing the bag.

A pour over sparge is kind of like a fly sparge, but you don't have control over the drain rate, so can't do much to mitigate channeling in the grain mass (which reduces the effectiveness of the sparge), nor allow more contact time with the sparge water to allow sugar to diffuse into the sparge water (the sparge water will not pick up as much sugar on the way thru as it could under optimal conditions.) Pour over sparges are less controllable than batch/dunk sparges, so will have a higher variability batch to batch, and once you have acceptable efficiency, consistency is more important than getting another 1% of lauter efficiency.

Here's how to conduct a dunk (batch) sparge:

1. At the end of the mash, open the bag and stir the mash aggressively to homogenize the wort.
2. Lift the bag out of the wort, and allow to drain well. The longer you drain, the lower your grain absorption and the higher your efficiency will be.
3. (Optional) Squeeze the bag. Doing so will reduce your grain absorption even further than the initial drain alone, again increasing lauter efficiency.
4. Lower the grain bag into a bucket containing your sparge water (can be hot or cold, doesn't matter for lauter efficiency), open the bag, and stir aggressively to make sure the sugar is rinsed off/out of the grits to the maximum extent possible. Optionally, you can put the grain bag in the bucket first, and then add the sparge water.
5. Lift the bag out of the sparged wort, and allow to drain well. The longer you drain, the lower your grain absorption and the higher your efficiency will be.
6. (Optional) Squeeze the bag. Doing so will reduce your grain absorption even further than the drain alone, again increasing lauter efficiency.
7. Proceed to boil. It's fine to start heating the initial run-off wort while you are sparging.

If you only want to squeeze once, you should do it prior to the sparge, as this will have a larger positive effect on your lauter efficiency than just squeezing after the sparge.

Cold sparge vs. hot sparge: A hot sparge will reduce the time required to bring the wort to a boil after the sparge is complete, but will not reduce the total energy required for heating water & wort. If your conversion was not complete at the time of your initial wort draining, AND you have not done a mash-out, a hot sparge may allow some additional conversion to occur during the sparge, which would improve your conversion efficiency a little.

Here's one of my favorite charts that shows how grain bill size, sparge process, and grain absorption rate affect lauter efficiency:

Brew on

 

[hiphoppotamuss]

The most effective way to sparge when doing BIAB is to dunk sparge using about 60% of your total water for mashing, and the remaining 40% for sparging. Since grain absorption losses only affect the initial run-off volume (grain is already saturated during the sparge, so no additional absorption losses occur), this will get you close to equal volumes of wort from the initial mash and the sparge, which is the optimal condition for lauter efficiency.

The grain absorption rate has a large effect on lauter efficiency for both no-sparge and batch sparge, with lower absorption rates leading to higher efficiency. You can decrease your grain absorption rate by draining for a longer time, or squeezing the bag.

A pour over sparge is kind of like a fly sparge, but you don't have control over the drain rate, so can't do much to mitigate channeling in the grain mass (which reduces the effectiveness of the sparge), nor allow more contact time with the sparge water to allow sugar to diffuse into the sparge water (the sparge water will not pick up as much sugar on the way thru as it could under optimal conditions.) Pour over sparges are less controllable than batch/dunk sparges, so will have a higher variability batch to batch, and once you have acceptable efficiency, consistency is more important than getting another 1% of lauter efficiency.

Here's how to conduct a dunk (batch) sparge:

1. At the end of the mash, open the bag and stir the mash aggressively to homogenize the wort.
2. Lift the bag out of the wort, and allow to drain well. The longer you drain, the lower your grain absorption and the higher your efficiency will be.
3. (Optional) Squeeze the bag. Doing so will reduce your grain absorption even further than the initial drain alone, again increasing lauter efficiency.
4. Lower the grain bag into a bucket containing your sparge water (can be hot or cold, doesn't matter for lauter efficiency), open the bag, and stir aggressively to make sure the sugar is rinsed off/out of the grits to the maximum extent possible. Optionally, you can put the grain bag in the bucket first, and then add the sparge water.
5. Lift the bag out of the sparged wort, and allow to drain well. The longer you drain, the lower your grain absorption and the higher your efficiency will be.
6. (Optional) Squeeze the bag. Doing so will reduce your grain absorption even further than the drain alone, again increasing lauter efficiency.
7. Proceed to boil. It's fine to start heating the initial run-off wort while you are sparging.

If you only want to squeeze once, you should do it prior to the sparge, as this will have a larger positive effect on your lauter efficiency than just squeezing after the sparge.

Cold sparge vs. hot sparge: A hot sparge will reduce the time required to bring the wort to a boil after the sparge is complete, but will not reduce the total energy required for heating water & wort. If your conversion was not complete at the time of your initial wort draining, AND you have not done a mash-out, a hot sparge may allow some additional conversion to occur during the sparge, which would improve your conversion efficiency a little.

Here's one of my favorite charts that shows how grain bill size, sparge process, and grain absorption rate affect lauter efficiency:

View attachment 877568

Brew on

Always been a No-Sparge BIAB guy but I gotta try this next time!!

 

[kevin58]

I don't sparge using BIAB. That method was developed to significantly simplify the brewing process and part of it was using a full volume mash. But that doesn't mean you can't sparge if you don't mind adding back that extra step.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I don't sparge using BIAB. That method was developed to significantly simplify the brewing process and part of it was using a full volume mash. But that doesn't mean you can't sparge if you don't mind adding back that extra step.

Yep. I biab and don’t spage. I typically get around 72-75% mash efficiency and I’m fine with that.

 

[doug293cz]

Just to be clear: I am not advocating for or against sparging. I'm just trying to provide the best and most complete information I can, so that individual brewers can make informed decisions about how to proceed, based on the criteria that are important to them.

Brew on

 

[Bobby_M]

I use a 42qt stainless steel pot to mash and boil. I want to sparge because it i think will lead to a better taste. Though honestly I have no idea. If it increases efficiency by even 5% though I think its worth adding it to the process. I'm planning on step mashing the grains in less water because I think temperature with the equipment (nuwave induction cooktop) i will be using will be easier to control with less water. Then sparge the remaining preboil water through say 4-6 grain bags. Idk what do you think about that process? I will use my stove to bring it to boil after

It will not improve the taste. If anything, it's possible to degrade the taste if your water is alkaline.
It WILL improve your efficiency but at the cost of extra fiddling.

 

[RM-MN]

I use a 42qt stainless steel pot to mash and boil. I want to sparge because it i think will lead to a better taste. Though honestly I have no idea. If it increases efficiency by even 5% though I think its worth adding it to the process. I'm planning on step mashing the grains in less water because I think temperature with the equipment (nuwave induction cooktop) i will be using will be easier to control with less water. Then sparge the remaining preboil water through say 4-6 grain bags. Idk what do you think about that process? I will use my stove to bring it to boil after

The sparge will increase the alcohol content of the beer but shouldn't change the taste. Doing a step mash, whether with a electric element, propane/natural gas cooktop, or induction will require constant and vigorous stirring to avoid overheating the bottom of the mash and denaturing the enzymes you need for conversion. The mash will be thick enough that you will not get the convection currents to mix the hotter water with the colder mash.

 

[mac_1103]

If it increases efficiency by even 5% though I think its worth adding it to the process.

Full volume no sparge advocates would say that the extra 5% efficiency is only saving you a buck or two and the juice just isn't worth the squeeze. That is to say that 10 lbs of 2-row will make a 1.050 wort at 75% brewhouse efficiency, but if your efficiency is only 70% you'd need a whopping ten extra ounces of grain to get the same OG. OTOH, even they would probably say to go ahead and sparge if you don't have a big enough kettle to do a full volume mash.

 

[phbern]

When I send to do BIAB, I used a thing from Norther Brewer called a Sentinel (got to :20 in the vid below). It's actually to prevent a boil over, but I put my grain bag on it and sparged by pouring over it. Unfortunately I can find them any more, but you could certainly make something similar.