To sparge or not to sparge

[Haydn-Juby]

So I'm just wondering do you guys normally sparge your BIAB's ? I did about 3 BIABs with pretty low efficiency and newer sparged in them just using all my water in the kettle. I've noticed that this is what most people seem to be doing online without any efficiency issues.

I've now taken to sparging and upped my efficiency sufficiently. What do you do personally ? And do you do anything to make up for not sparging if you don't ?

Thanks

 

[smyrnaquince]

I don't spare and my efficiency is fine (80's). Do you use a bag big enough to fit your pot in? If not,then your grains don't have enough room and that might be a source of your problem. Also, do you do a good, thorough stir after adding your grains to make sure there are no dough balls?

 

[soccerdad]

I do a sorta sparge kinda mash out .. and it does seem to get me a couple more points. After a one hour mash I grab the top of the bag, lift it to get it off the bottom of the kettle, bump the heat until I get to 168, cut the heat again, drop the bag, cover the kettle, throw the towel on and set the timer for 10 min. I am doing this with a max of 12 pounds of grist usually so there is light weight and good buoyancy .. I also bounce the bag up and down as the temp is rising to more or less 'rinse' the grains. YMMV.

 

[Haydn-Juby]

I don't spare and my efficiency is fine (80's). Do you use a bag big enough to fit your pot in? If not,then your grains don't have enough room and that might be a source of your problem. Also, do you do a good, thorough stir after adding your grains to make sure there are no dough balls?

Yah, my bag is plenty big. I do 3 gallon batches in a 5 gallon size one. I always check for dough balls too. Can crushed grain that's been sitting for an extended period loose some efficiency? That might be an issue.

 

[RM-MN]

I've been getting about 80% efficiency with no sparge and over 85% with a small sparge step. I had been mashing for 30 minutes but I've just done 2 brews where I only mashed for 10 minutes with about the same efficiency.

 

[lebucheron]

I like to sparge my grains - I just stick the bag in a colander that sits in a pot and I pour water (sometimes hot, sometimes not) over the grains. I only do about 2 gal like this though - the rest of the pre-boil I just add to the kettle. I got really great efficiency when I did really thin mashes, but that lead to trouble with PH so now I do 1.5 and my efficiency dropped quite a bit. Something to adjust for - I just tossed in a little DME to make up the difference last time.

 

[bradg89]

Very interested in this. I'm planning on doing my first BIAB next week and have heard answers all over the place. I don't mind putting in extra work to get a few points since I'm not doing BIAB for the simplicity but rather because it's what my current set up permits.

I'm trying to decide whether to just let my bag hang from a pulley over my kettle until it's dry or drain 2 gallons of my strike water into a small insulated cooler, mash then press and drain my bag in a bucket ( http://www.brewgeeks.com/biab-bag-press.html ) then rinse the grains with the 2 gallons of saved water.

Very interested in everybody else's process and effiancy

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

ive been hitting 75% on no sparge

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Yah, my bag is plenty big, giggity giggity. I do 3 gallon batches in a 5 gallon size one. I always check for dough balls too. Can crushed grain that's been sitting for an extended period loose some efficiency? That might be an issue.

Sorry lol

 

[Euphist]

I get 85% - no sparge with a mashout.

I should note that I mill my grains extremely fine...quite a bit of flour.

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[Rdom]

I don't sparge. Get 72-73% efficiency pretty consistently. Get a good crush from LHBS though not a lot of flour. If you're not sparging but expect >75% efficiency, you should probably crush pretty fine as the previous poster said. I've also gotten more consistent efficiency since I started trying to control pH more aggressively by using acidulated malt.

 

[jtratcliff]

Yeah, crush 'em fine. Double crush at the LHBS if possible. If you have your own mill, someone on here somewhere said to tighten it until you're scared and then tighten it a little more.

You don't need intact husks to act as a filter... you have the bag.

I have a 10G pot in which I do 6.5 gal batches. I usually mash in with 6.5 gal then dunk sparge in smaller pot with 1.5. It's sometimes a little too tight in the 10G to do full volume for larger grain bills.

I also squeeze my bag

... Like it owes me money

 

[vNmd]

I do a small sparge. I never used to. Before I really watched efficiency I would do a 7 gal mash and overshoot the recipies OG every time. I now do 6 gal mashes and a 1 gal sparge (not dunk). My OG's have been hitting the recipe every time and I have started to check efficiency (low to mid 80's).

 

[smyrnaquince]

I do a small sparge. I never used to. Before I really watched efficiency I would do a 7 gal mash and overshoot the recipies OG every time. I now do 6 gal mashes and a 1 gal sparge (not dunk). My OG's have been hitting the recipe every time and I have started to check efficiency (low to mid 80's).

So without sparging you were overshooting your OG, but with sparging you hit your OG? Then your extraction efficiency was better without the sparge. Stop sparging!

 

[billl]

It's pretty easy to calculate the theoretical maximum efficiency for no sparge. Grain holds about 0.125 gallons/lb. If you have a 12 lb grain bill that is 1.5 gallons "trapped". If you have a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons, that means you need 8.5 gallons to mash. If you get 100% conversion, your efficiency should be around 7/8.5=82%. If you are significantly less than that, then you aren't getting full conversion and should consider mashing longer or grinding finer.

Of note, a smaller grain bill should result in higher efficiency as would a higher boiloff rate/preboil volume or squeezing the bag to release some of that trapped wort.

 

[Pelican521]

I've done a half dozen or so BIAB and got the best efficiency in my latest brew, a nut brown ale.

My OG was several points higher than what Brewtoad predicted so I figured I was around 80 percent.

After my mash I put my grain bag in a colander over my brew kettle to drain, heated up my sparge water to 169 in my mash tun and dunk sparged the bag a bunch of times and then let it sit for about 10 min. After that, I had a remaining 8-9 qts that I heated to 169 and did an additional sparge while the bag was in the colander again over my brew kettle. Seemed to work well and wasn't that time consuming...

 

[wilserbrewer]

Lately I have taken to performing a small sparge by slowly pouring a gallon or so slowly over the bag as it is suspended over the kettle.

This helps efficiency as well as making the process easier. I mash a gallon or so short, then just sparge to reach preboil volume.

Very simple, just ballpark the initial strike volume, then sparge to an accurate preboil volume.

Cheers!

 

[bradg89]

Lately I have taken to performing a small sparge by slowly pouring a gallon or so slowly over the bag as it is suspended over the kettle.

This helps efficiency as well as making the process easier. I mash a gallon or so short, then just sparge to reach preboil volume.

Very simple, just ballpark the initial strike volume, then sparge to an accurate preboil volume.

Cheers!

Do you open the bag before you pour the sparge water onto the grains? I figured if it was closed the water would run over the outside of the grain?

By the way Wilser thanks for the bags, I can't wait try them out!

 

[RM-MN]

Do you open the bag before you pour the sparge water onto the grains? I figured if it was closed the water would run over the outside of the grain?

By the way Wilser thanks for the bags, I can't wait try them out!

I have my bag of grains set in a colander that sets in a bowl. I open the bag and stir the water in as much as I can. That gets water to all the grains so when I squeeze it out it carries the sugars with it. Yes, most of the water will just run over the outside of the bag if you don't open it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Do you open the bag before you pour the sparge water onto the grains? I figured if it was closed the water would run over the outside of the grain?

By the way Wilser thanks for the bags, I can't wait try them out!

No, I leave the bag closed and attached to the pulley. Surprisingly, the water pours easily through the side of the bag above the grains and trickles out the bottom center of the bag. I use a plastic pitcher for sparge water and hold that against the empty top portion of the bag and slowly pour water through the bag different locations to hit the all the grain, I guess the voile is so non restrictive that the water easily pours through the fabric and hits the grain, this works far better than I ever imagined, but thought I would try it! Laziness fosters great invention sometimes.

As I said above, I like this method both for ease of sparging, and making volume adjustments on the fly is caveman simple. All you really need to know is preboil volume in your kettle!

Basically, I start the batch with approximately my preboil volume in the kettle (plus / minus), and after extracting the bag, I sparge a gallon or so, whatever I need to reach preboil volume, likely about what was absorbed by the grain.

Cheers!

Yes, most of the water will just run over the outside of the bag if you don't open it.

Sorry RM-MN, not my experience at all, seems i can get a pretty thorough rinse by pouring through the side of the bag. But perhaps you are doing smaller batches, or are using different materials. I use poly voile for batch sizes 7-15 gallons.

While this may or may not be the MOST efficient or BEST sparge procedure, I like it cause it is easy and effective!

 

[smyrnaquince]

Of note, a smaller grain bill should result in higher efficiency as would a higher boiloff rate/preboil volume or squeezing the bag to release some of that trapped wort.

If you keep the grain-to-water ratio the same, why would a smaller grain bill result in a higher efficiency?

 

[bradg89]

Are you guys real particular about your sparge temp? I've heard of people cold water sparging

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[wilserbrewer]

Are you guys real particular about your sparge temp? I've heard of people cold water sparging

Nope not really, I heat the sparge water so as not to lose temp in the kettle. I would not hesitate to cold sparge if that's what you can do, but it will take longer to reach boiling w/ a cold sparge FWIW.

 

[bradg89]

Okay, cool. I was planning on putting 2 gallons of my strike water to the side to dunk sparge after the mash. Wasn't sure if I needed to keep it hot in a cooler but it looks like a bucket will do just fine then

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[RM-MN]

If you keep the grain-to-water ratio the same, why would a smaller grain bill result in a higher efficiency?

It wouldn't, but some of us are limited in the size of pot we can work with so a bigger grain bill means things get a little more tight in the pot.

 

[ArcLight]

>.If you keep the grain-to-water ratio the same, why would a smaller grain bill result in a higher efficiency?

Because you can more effectively squeeze it. Chances are with a bigger grain bill you have more trapped wort. Its easier for me to squeeze 5 pounds than 20 pounds. I'm not saying this will be huge, maybe a few percent.

 

[billl]

"If you keep the grain-to-water ratio the same, why would a smaller grain bill result in a higher efficiency?"

If you are using the full water volume to mash, then you specifically aren't keeping the ratio the same. If you are keeping the ratio the same, then you would be having some extra water to sparge with for the smaller grain bill. Either way, smaller grain bills result in higher efficiencies. Plus 15 lbs of grains just holds more wort than 10 lbs no matter how you drain or squeeze.

 

[wobdee]

I've been doing some 90 min boils lately so it made sense to me to do a little sparge to make up the kettle volume. I use about a gallon of hot tap water and pour it over my s/s basket as it drains. Efficiencies have been in the 85-90% range in my little 3 gal batches.

 

[Fat_Maul]

If you keep the grain-to-water ratio the same, why would a smaller grain bill result in a higher efficiency?

I think they meant different grain bill as in a different recipe of the same volume (lower OG) therefore changing the ratio