BIAB sparge?

StevieDS · Oct 7, 2013

I was just wondering if anyone here who employs the BIAB method, as I do, does a sparge on their grain after removing the bag?
If so how exactly do they do it?
I seem to be getting a fairly poor 70% efficiency and wondered if a sparge would help.

alymere · Oct 7, 2013

I don't sparge but then again I'm new to it. I do a 90 minute mash followed by a mash out for 15 mins. Then I give the bag a really good squeeze. I use a pulley system to left the bag out. Is the low efficiency into boiler, fermenter or into packaging?

StevieDS · Oct 7, 2013

alymere said:
Is the low efficiency into boiler, fermenter or into packaging?

Good question, I'm not sure tbh. I use brew mate software and I'm able to work out efficiency from that. I think it's brewhouse efficiency tho I could be wrong.

Jeltz · Oct 7, 2013

I do MaxiBIAB. I mash over night with 20L of water then sparge by dunking the bag in a 19L pot with 10L of water that is @77Â°C for 10 minutes.
Looks like this and I get an efficiency of 80-85%

anthonyUK · Oct 7, 2013

I don't think 70% is so bad. What's the difference in grain cost for a 5% increase compared to additional time/hot water/effort etc?
Or are you simply chasing figures?

Pinchy · Oct 7, 2013

I'm not very experianced but for my 1st and only brew I used aditional grain (calculated by BIABacus) and added plain water to the boil to reach my required volume. Ended up with a 67.5% effiency. Hopefuly my next batch will be better as I will be doing a full volume BIAB in a 40L Buffalo Boiler

StevieDS · Oct 7, 2013

anthonyUK said:
I don't think 70% is so bad. What's the difference in grain cost for a 5% increase compared to additional time/hot water/effort etc?
Or are you simply chasing figures?

Well if I can get efficiency up to 80 - 85% like Jeltz by carrying out an extra simple step, I think that's better than paying for extra grain, even if it is a small amount. That was the reason for my question.

pittsy · Oct 7, 2013

alymere said:
I don't sparge but then again I'm new to it. I do a 90 minute mash followed by a mash out for 15 mins. Then I give the bag a really good squeeze. I use a pulley system to left the bag out. Is the low efficiency into boiler, fermenter or into packaging?

Squeezing the grain isn't a good idea , you may release tannins which can have off flavour to your beer

RobWalker · Oct 7, 2013

you can squeeze the bag, but a natural, non forced squeeze. it's really just rinsing it out. :p

I noticed a jump in 5% efficiency, and an extra few litres of yield, just by dunking the grain bag into about 4L of pre-heated water after squeezing it out a bit. might be a good toe in the water for you. you're sure to wash some sugar out of the grain whatever happens.

Duxuk · Oct 7, 2013

I have been doing 20l brews for a while by BIAB. Recently I have had 77-80% efficiency. Tomorrow I intend to add 4 litres less water at the start and use the 4l at 77C to do a sparge. I'll do a post on my results whether I get increased efficiency or not.

alymere · Oct 7, 2013

Just checked the figures of my 2 biab brews.
Burton Bridge Golden Delicious Clone
89% into kettle
80.2% into fermentor

London Pride Clone
88.2% into kettle
75.6% into ferment or

With regard to the squeezing I had no hint of tannins or off flavours. I followed this advice and it proved to be correct in my case http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=2256&p=29&hilit=squeezing#p29

Fireblade · Oct 7, 2013

I've tried a couple of different methods. I BIAB in a 33l pot, so I can't get the full mash volume in.

I used to take the bag out, balance it in a colander over an empty FV, open the top and trickle hot water onto the grain from above - as much like a 3-vessel style sparge as I could. Seemed to work OK.

In my most recent beer I drained the bag then just set it in the bottom of the FV, then added the missing volume of hot (75-80C) water and let it sit for 10 minutes before draining and adding the result to the boil as needed - the tea-bag sparge. There was more sparged wort at the end than with method 1, and had to liquor back very little post-boil. The beer's now in secondary, I'll let you know how it turns out but this method's definitely easier.

the-erl · Oct 8, 2013

With regard to the squeezing I had no hint of tannins or off flavours. I followed this advice and it proved to be correct in my case http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php ... eezing#p29

I second this. Just looked at my last brew and end of boil efficiency was 88%, efficiency into fermentor was 81.9%.

Try using the BIABacus at the biabrewer website for your next brew.

Erl :drink:

andybrew · Oct 8, 2013

With regard to the squeezing I had no hint of tannins or off flavours. I followed this advice and it proved to be correct in my case http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php ... eezing#p29

How can you get efficiency of over 100% :?

anthonyUK · Oct 8, 2013

sdsratm said:
anthonyUK said:

I don't think 70% is so bad. What's the difference in grain cost for a 5% increase compared to additional time/hot water/effort etc?
Or are you simply chasing figures?

Click to expand...

Well if I can get efficiency up to 80 - 85% like Jeltz by carrying out an extra simple step, I think that's better than paying for extra grain, even if it is a small amount. That was the reason for my question.

Are you doing a mash-out?
Some people have a 5% gain from this and you have to heat the water up anyway so can easily be inserted into a BIAB process.

LeithR · Oct 8, 2013

I BIAB but I don't squeeze, I have a small 8L boiler on the go in the background and once I have removed the bag from the brew I set it down on top of an upturned colander in my spare bucket to let the wart drip from the bag, then towards the end of the boil I use some/all of the 8L of water to sprinkle over the bag using sufficient to bring my brew length back to that planned. The recovered wart is then put into the boil for the last 10 mins or so. Works well for me.

StevieDS · Oct 8, 2013

anthonyUK said:
sdsratm said:

anthonyUK said:

I don't think 70% is so bad. What's the difference in grain cost for a 5% increase compared to additional time/hot water/effort etc?
Or are you simply chasing figures?

Click to expand...

Well if I can get efficiency up to 80 - 85% like Jeltz by carrying out an extra simple step, I think that's better than paying for extra grain, even if it is a small amount. That was the reason for my question.

Click to expand...

Are you doing a mash-out?
Some people have a 5% gain from this and you have to heat the water up anyway so can easily be inserted into a BIAB process.

Yeah I'll give this a go on my next brew for sure. I also like the idea of the 'tea bag' sparge :hmm:

Duxuk · Oct 8, 2013

I used only 4l of 80 degrees (ish) water for a mini sparge today. Got somewhere between 5 and 10% improvement in my efficiency figure. 4l wasn't enough to cover the grain, so I had to try to stir it enough. I did the sparge whilst bringing the wort to a boil, so it didn't add any time to the day. In future I think i'll reduce the water at the start by 7 litres so I can cover the grain for my sparge and get even bettter results. :thumb: Efficiency was a best ever 87.27%

StevieDS · Oct 8, 2013

Wow 87% is pretty impressive :clap:
I think I'll give ur process a go myself on my next brew see how it turns out :thumb:

Jeltz · Oct 8, 2013

I do about 20L mash and 10L sparge mine gets to between 80&85% efficiency. Efficiency on a 1.063 beer was 80% while on a 1.040 beer was 86%. I'm using Bairds which isn't renown for its efficiency and do an overnight mash.

BIAB sparge?

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