BIAB and batch sparge

[JamieD]

Hi!
I am soon to move to AG. I have an ACE insulated boiler and was contemplating BIAB.
I read online that some home brewers have adapted the BIAB method to mash in a volume of water that is not the full boil volume followed by a dunk sparge in another vessel.
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I thought that I would try that method, but it occurred to me that the initial mash liquor could be run off from the ACE into a second vessel and a batch sparge done on the grain remaining in the bag in the ACE, i.e. treat the bag as a false bottom in a traditional mash tun.
Am I missing something?
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[GFHomebrew]

Gday Jamie d good to hear you on the forums.,I'm a biab brewer I'm not sure of your ACE insulated boiler as in not sure what it is? I Use a standard pub keg to brew in it serves the purpose as mash tun boil pot rolled into one no need to draw off mash liquor then sparge just lift the bag outta pot then sparge through hoisted grain bag. There is more than one way to skin a cat but. I get low 80s with a fine milled grain I'm glad with this simplified version of brewing.

You learn as you go too trial and error and helpful advise from the home brew community

Theoretically nothing wrong with what you're doing

 

[Brew Cat]

My process is to mash in a bag in my old cooler tun then get my sparge water heated to about 180 in my brew kettle. Pull the bag from the cooler let it drain a bit then drop into the kettle and stir it up. Let it rest a bit then pull and hang on a hook to drain while simultaneously firing the burner and draining or pouring the first part of the mash into the kettle. I do Ten gallon batches this way and get mid 80℅ extraction. Also my boil starts from about 170 deg so I'm saving time and fuel

 

[Brew Cat]

I split my water about evenly the first part gets the extra water for absorption

 

[oliver]

I'm a biab brewer...I Use a standard pub keg to brew in it serves the purpose as mash tun boil pot rolled into one no need to draw off mash liquor then sparge just lift the bag outta pot then sparge through hoisted grain bag.

how much much do you sparred with? and what is your sparge technique?

 

[GFHomebrew]

I mash with 25 lt and sparge with 5 lt thereabouts Oliver. I heat the 5lt in another,pot to 75 ish centigrade and using a measuring cup dribble sparge water through hoisted grain bag. As brew cat said whilst heating kettle to boil. Usually by the time I've Finnished my grain rinse the boil is almost reached. Cheers

 

[Mark D Pirate]

As usual I'm a little different , once I lift grain bag I use a second vessel as my sparge rig
Its just a 20 l food grade bucket with about 80 3 mm holes drilled through and rests in another bucket the same (I have spacers to prop drain bucket up )
I have my sparge water in a second pot for batch sparge , also use a plastic dinner plate to push down on grain bed to extract more if needed. Not ideal but i can get 80+% without too much effort

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Ive done it every which way, sparge over the top while hanging, dunk in the pot, dunk in buckets, it really just depends on your process, and what you have handy, I cant say which way is best or easiest, the turning point for me was using a pump to recirculate the rest from there was just to rinse the remaining wort of the grain

 

[Mark D Pirate]

Glad I'm procrastination procrastinating on my keggle build , it will have a pump added now

 

[oliver]

I brewed today, and for the first time I really really squeezed the grain bag. Mashed in 10 quarts, then squeezed the bag enough into the boil kettle. Sparged 3 quarts of liquid, and squeezed it a lot again, mixed it back into the boil kettle and hit my 3 gallon size perfectly. Always fixing my process.

 

[GFHomebrew]

I brewed today, and for the first time I really really squeezed the grain bag. Mashed in 10 quarts, then squeezed the bag enough into the boil kettle. Sparged 3 quarts of liquid, and squeezed it a lot again, mixed it back into the boil kettle and hit my 3 gallon size perfectly. Always fixing my process.

As I've read somewhere else on biab Oliver squeeze that bag like it owes you some money.

Now there is another thread question to squeeze or not to squeeze.

 

[Brew Cat]

I squeeze no problems.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

if you do not do a mash out its ok but if you bring your wort to 170 and the grain softens allot it can have a negative effect if you squeeze too much

 

[J A]

I cant say which way is best or easiest, the turning point for me was using a pump to recirculate the rest from there was just to rinse the remaining wort of the grain

Just got a pump myself. Cant wait to set it up.
I'd been using my brew pot to mash and then transferring the bag to a spigoted bucket for sparging. It worked fine.
along with my new pump I got a new, slightly bigger boil pot with a welded fitting for ball valve and a weldless kit to convert my current brew pot to a full-time mash tun with ball valve and false bottom.
I'll still use a bag and recirculate wort during mash while I'm using a hot plate with a digital temp controller to add heat as necessary. I'll heat water in a separate smaller pot and use the pump to sparge and run directly into the new boil pot. Should be a nice change from having to dip and pour boiling or 170 degree water with a 2 quart glass measuring cup.

 

[Mark D Pirate]

If I'm chasing maximum volume from third runnings for starters I'll push down on the bag with my full strength , get all sorts of gunk coming out of the bag that I wouldn't want in my batch

 

[GFHomebrew]

Sounds like Santa came early JA.

 

[Brew Cat]

if you do not do a mash out its ok but if you bring your wort to 170 and the grain softens allot it can have a negative effect if you squeeze too much

The water is 170 the mash probably about 160

 

[J A]

Sounds like Santa came early JA.

I hid back a little stash to cover some imrovements to the system. I didn't invest a lot, I guess maybe $300 or so but I found some good sales on line and took advantage of a good discount coupon from Adventures in Homebrew. I got enough stuff to upgrade to a double tap tower for my hacked keg fridge and set up a pretty decent brew system. Still far from state of the art, but miles beyond the hillbilly set up I've been using. It'll still require pretty constant monitoring and tinkering during mash and boil, but sparging and transferring liquor and wort will from tun to brewpot to fermenter will be much much easier.
If Santa was really being good to me, he'd bring me an extra day or two so I could have time to finish setting it up and brew some beer.
Been pretty busy getting the new house put together and looking nice on top of all the usual running around and entertaining during the holidays.

 

[GFHomebrew]

You know we'll be wanting a look at this new brew rig there JA. Good things come to those who wait eh.

 

[J A]

You know we'll be wanting a look at this new brew rig there JA. Good things come to those who wait eh.

I spent some time doing a little temp-control testing yesterday. Made sure the pump wasn't leaking (only a small drip) and got an idea of how close I can count on holding temp with circulation. For now I'll have to baby sit the controller. I've got it as an on/off controlling a hotplate with 0 degree over/under. It wants to overshoot when it heats up, but only by a degree so should be able to find a sweet spot. Eventually, I'll move to a simple RIMS tube set up with an in-line heater and I can use full capabilities of the controller to fine-tune the system.
I'll set it all up today and get a couple of pics.