Fly sparging

[Cody s]

This maybe a strange question but here it goes.
To ease my sparging labor I am curious about using a pump sprayer to sparge my BIAB. I could get a stainless steel one for hot water or always get a cheaper plastic one and sparge with warm water. I can't imagine I'm the first one to think of this.
Any thoughts?

 

[wilserbrewer]

My experience is that is not so complicated, you can simply pour your sparge water slowly at a trickle into \ over your bag of grain hanging over your kettle.

Think simple you can use a pitcher or a coffee mug to pour a few ounces at a time.

Works well even though intuitively one would think it would not.

Try it you’ll be surprised how well it works....I was.

Easier than dunk sparring your grain bag in another pot / bucket.

 

[LittleRiver]

Here's the easiest way to sparge, it also yields great brewhouse efficiency.

• Mash with 50% of your total water volume.
• Drain the wort into a bucket, leaving the bag and grains in place.
• Add the remaining 50% of the water, and stir thoroughly.
• Raise the bag. Fire the heat for the boil. Pour the bucket of wort into the kettle.

Let the bag drain over the kettle during the entire boil. There'll be no need to squeeze it.

 

[Smellyglove]

Dripping water over a mash bag isn't technically "correct" fly sparging. I see a lot of brew-in-one-systems advocate this, and almost every user asks how to up their mash efficiency.

To fly sparge you need to keep the grainbed under water all the time, and drain as much water as you add, to a second vessel. This works by diffusion.

To easy labor doing this you need a float valve or such so it happens "automagic". When doing BIAB I see no reason just not to batch sparge for efficiency and labor. If you don't have space for wort+sparge water+ grain bag then just drain the same amount of wort as you'll be adding sparge water to a second vessel (can be your FV, just sanitize it afterwards), stir, pull out bag, add wort from second vessel back in. Let bag drip into while you start heating to boil.

 

[kh54s10]

Any of those sparging techniques that require a second vessel seem to defeat the main draw to BIAB which is to do everything in one pot!

I would either do a pour over sparge like wilserbrewer suggested or maybe even a no sparge and take the efficiency hit.

 

[applescrap]

My experience is that is not so complicated, you can simply pour your sparge water slowly at a trickle into \ over your bag of grain hanging over your kettle.

Think simple you can use a pitcher or a coffee mug to pour a few ounces at a time.

Works well even though intuitively one would think it would not.

Try it you’ll be surprised how well it works....I was.

Easier than dunk sparring your grain bag in another pot / bucket.

Isnt that how they do it in grainfather? I have been struggling to make hg wort in 15g kettle for 10g batch. Usually I do a dunk. Need to find a way to try this.

To OP your idea doesn't seem terrible to me, especially if you like brewing and dont mind spending the extra time. Yeah follow basic fly procedures with your spray arm. I think it sounds cool. Not necessary, but cool. I wouldn't worry to much, iiac, about spray because you want to keep the grain bed covered with an in or two of water. Not quite sure, never tried fly sparging and never will because brewing quick is my joy.

 

[IslandLizard]

I'd say dunking in enough sparge water, 1/4-1/3 of your total preboil volume, followed by a good drip out or a squeeze is more efficient than just a pour over. I used to do small batches (1-2 gallons) using that method.

In my cooler mash tun I use about 1/2 the total water for the mash, followed by 2 batch sparges of about equal volume, which is about 1/4 of total volume each. That gives me 82-85% mash efficiency (under 1.070).

 

[AlDogWV]

Without sparging and simply letting the bag drain for 15-20 minutes with some squeezing, I get at least 80%. I mash in with full water volume. Do people not get 75-80% efficiency or something? I don't say this to offend anyone, of course, but I guess I don't really understand why people still insist on sparging with BiaB. I've seen 84% on a batch or two, but if I'm at 80, i'm tickled. I just feel like I'm missing something maybe?

 

[LittleRiver]

I normally don't sparge because I can get low 80's brewhouse efficiency without it (using a .025 grain crush). But if I'm shooting for a higher ABV, then I'll sparge.

I don't do a dunk sparge because moving a hot drippy bag can be a drippy mess. I don't do a pour over sparge because I don't like the tedium of slowly pouring that much water over a hanging bag. The sparge process I outlined above doesn't have those issues.

 

[applescrap]

I normally don't sparge because I can get low 80's brewhouse efficiency without it (using a .025 grain crush). But if I'm shooting for a higher ABV, then I'll sparge.

I don't do a dunk sparge because moving a hot drippy bag can be a drippy mess. I don't do a pour over sparge because I don't like the tedium of slowly pouring that much water over a hanging bag. The sparge process I outlined above doesn't have those issues.

Right, you move the liquid, not the grain. That technique would make it easier to do two or three batch sparges. Without a wench it's a lot harder to move the grain 3x, I suspect.

 

[applescrap]

Without sparging and simply letting the bag drain for 15-20 minutes with some squeezing, I get at least 80%. I mash in with full water volume. Do people not get 75-80% efficiency or something? I don't say this to offend anyone, of course, but I guess I don't really understand why people still insist on sparging with BiaB. I've seen 84% on a batch or two, but if I'm at 80, i'm tickled. I just feel like I'm missing something maybe?

92 percent sounds cool! Ultimately I dont care but if I could get 90 plus with ease I would.

 

[kh54s10]

"Without a wench it's a lot harder to move the grain 3x, I suspect."



I need to get me a wench to help out with my sparging.

Beer wench:

 

[applescrap]

"Without a wench it's a lot harder to move the grain 3x, I suspect."



I need to get me a wench to help out with my sparging.

Beer wench: View attachment 635695

http://tenor.com/Sodz.gif

 

[NTexBrewer]

This maybe a strange question but here it goes.
To ease my sparging labor I am curious about using a pump sprayer to sparge my BIAB. I could get a stainless steel one for hot water or always get a cheaper plastic one and sparge with warm water. I can't imagine I'm the first one to think of this.
Any thoughts?

Can you describe your setup, kettle size, indoor kitchen stovetop, outdoor propane etc. etc. give an example of a recent brew with your mash volume and how much water you are spaging with. That will help people give you better advise.

As an example, I have a 8 gallon electric BIAB system. This works great for 3 gallon batches full volume mashing. I can also brew 5 gallon batches but can’t do full volume mashing so I go the simplest route and just top off with water to get my pre boil volume. Usually this top off volume is about a gallon or less so I don’t consider that worth trying to pour over or dunk with. I could probably get a few more points with a pour over or dunk sparge but just find it simpler to just top off.

 

[IslandLizard]

I think much hinges on the fineness of the grist. Regular run of the mill LHBS (and large vendors') crush isn't fine enough for good efficiency. Dunk sparging, squeezing, pour overs, etc. won't cure that. The answer is to mill finer. Using a bag, stuck mashes and slow lauters are rarely an issue.

A sparge of some sort helps getting some of the trapped high gravity wort out, gaining a few extra points, possibly raising mash efficiency a full 5-7% net, like from 80% to 85-87%.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Without sparging and simply letting the bag drain for 15-20 minutes with some squeezing, I get at least 80%. I mash in with full water volume. Do people not get 75-80% efficiency or something? I don't say this to offend anyone, of course, but I guess I don't really understand why people still insist on sparging with BiaB. I've seen 84% on a batch or two, but if I'm at 80, i'm tickled. I just feel like I'm missing something maybe?

Agree...I started off doing a dunk sparge in a bucket but decided the best way to "ease my sparging labor" was to move to full volume mashes. The dunk sparge was fairly easy and did not add much time to my brew day and boosted my efficiency by 5% to 10%, but it added more steps, and some complexity to my water volume and water treatment calculations. I measure right around 75% overall efficiency which is good enough for me.

 

[Ridenour64]

Here's the easiest way to sparge, it also yields great brewhouse efficiency.

• Mash with 50% of your total water volume.
• Drain the wort into a bucket, leaving the bag and grains in place.
• Add the remaining 50% of the water, and stir thoroughly.
• Raise the bag. Fire the heat for the boil. Pour the bucket of wort into the kettle.

Let the bag drain over the kettle during the entire boil. There'll be no need to squeeze it.

The second half of the water, does it matter if it is heated to your mash temp or a mash out, or is straight from tap fine? (I don’t treat water yet)

 

[RM-MN]

The second half of the water, does it matter if it is heated to your mash temp or a mash out, or is straight from tap fine? (I don’t treat water yet)

If you heat it to mash out you get the wort to boil quicker and if conversion isn't complete it speeds up the remaining. If you heat it to mash temp and conversion isn't complete, it may go to completion and it is closer to boil so it takes less time to get it to boil. If your conversion is complete (as it should be) tap water will be fine for sparging but take just a little longer to bring the full volume of wort to boil.

 

[LittleRiver]

The second half of the water, does it matter if it is heated to your mash temp or a mash out, or is straight from tap fine? (I don’t treat water yet)

Either way works fine.

Just do what works best for you and your setup.

 

[Ridenour64]

Every time I’ve brewed I’ve just done full volume mash. Never had an interest to sparge. But with a technique that easy and a possible gain in efficiency, i think I’ll try that out next brew day. Thanks.

 

[LittleRiver]

With a .025" grain crush I can hit or exceed recipe targets without sparging, so for "normal" ABV beers I don't bother. But for the occasional bigger beer I do sparge.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

To the OP's original question, IME if you crush fine with BIAB (which, of course, is one of the biggest benefits) water sprinkled over the top of the bag just tends to run off the the top and down the sides, rather than through the grains, making it ineffective. My grain mill is cheap and dodgy - it won't crush finer than about 0.035", but I still get about 80% efficiency with BIAB just using a single dunk sparge.