Batch Sparge In A Bucket - Biab

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BrewDaddy

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Hi - I'm trying to piece together a technique to do an all grain brew with limited equipment.

My plan is based on the Maxi-BIAB concept, but I'm aiming for the highest possible pre-boil volume so I don't have to worry about boil additions. Can anyone see any major flaws in the following.....

Mash 4.8kg of grain (in a bag) in my 20l brew pot in 12 litres of water (2.5l per kg)

Near the end of the mash, heat another 12l of water to sparge temperature (I'll take the brew pot of the burner while mashing to free it up to heat the sparge water).

Add this 12l of sparge water to a bucket (I'm thinking a spare plastic fermentation bucket).

When mash is over, pull the bag, let it drip before dropping into sparge water in fermentation bucket, stir, squeeze, dunk etc.

Meanwhile start heating liquid left in brew pot.

When done sparging, tip water out of fermentation bucket into brew pot and commence boil.

By my calculations....

from the initial 12l litres of mash water, Ill be left with approx 7.2 litres in the brew/mash pot (12l less absorption of grains own weight (4.8l))

addition of 12l from sparge bucket

total initial boil volume of 19.2l

Post boil, I'll top fermenter up to desired volume (21 litres) diluting to desired gravity.
 
This is just the maxi biab technique which works quite well. I used to do this all the time in my 20 lite urn before I brought a 40 litre urn.

Whilst mashing I would add about 4 litres of boiled water to a bucket. At mash out I would put the bag into the bucket and then pour another 4 lites or so of boiled water on top and stir and let sit for 15 mins. Then add this to the boil kettle and repeat. But on my second batch sparge I would add the runnings with 60 mins boil time left (90 min boil total) pour it in slowly so you dont stall the boil.

This allowed for evaporation loss in the fist 30 mins so I ended up with larger volumes. Without these two batch sparges I only ended up with 9 litres of beer.

Just search for maxibiab.
 
This is just the maxi biab technique which works quite well. I used to do this all the time in my 20 lite urn before I brought a 40 litre urn.

Whilst mashing I would add about 4 litres of boiled water to a bucket. At mash out I would put the bag into the bucket and then pour another 4 lites or so of boiled water on top and stir and let sit for 15 mins. Then add this to the boil kettle and repeat. But on my second batch sparge I would add the runnings with 60 mins boil time left (90 min boil total) pour it in slowly so you dont stall the boil.

This allowed for evaporation loss in the fist 30 mins so I ended up with larger volumes. Without these two batch sparges I only ended up with 9 litres of beer.

Just search for maxibiab.

Do you think the 2nd sparge helps?? I'm trying to streamline my process and stick with a 60 minute boil.
 
Even if you sanitize your face off I wouldn't be crossing any container that holds a mash to fermentation. Keep the equipment you use to boil seperate to the fermentation vessels or your risking infections from bugs on your grain.
 
Do you think the 2nd sparge helps?? I'm trying to streamline my process and stick with a 60 minute boil.


It depends on how much volume you want to end up with. If you start of with 19 litres after your first sparge and boil for 90 mins and lose aound 3-4 litres per hour your going to end up with 13 litres at EOB then less trub loss and fermenter trub loss so probably less than 9 litres of beer. The second sparge at around 60 mins brings your volume back up to 19 litres so you might gain an extra 2-4 litres overall.

Some dudes are happy with a smaller batch and some are not.
Its really up to you. I did it that way and made good beer. Now I have a 3v herms and make really good beer.

Just to add I found by doing two bach sparges I always ended up with a higher gravity beer which also allowed me to dilute back to SG in the fermenter. The second batch sparge really rinsed out all those extra sugaz. YMMV.
 
Hi - I'm trying to piece together a technique to do an all grain brew with limited equipment.

My plan is based on the Maxi-BIAB concept, but I'm aiming for the highest possible pre-boil volume so I don't have to worry about boil additions. Can anyone see any major flaws in the following.....

Mash 4.8kg of grain (in a bag) in my 20l brew pot in 12 litres of water (2.5l per kg)

Near the end of the mash, heat another 12l of water to sparge temperature (I'll take the brew pot of the burner while mashing to free it up to heat the sparge water).

Add this 12l of sparge water to a bucket (I'm thinking a spare plastic fermentation bucket).

When mash is over, pull the bag, let it drip before dropping into sparge water in fermentation bucket, stir, squeeze, dunk etc.

Meanwhile start heating liquid left in brew pot.

When done sparging, tip water out of fermentation bucket into brew pot and commence boil.

By my calculations....

from the initial 12l litres of mash water, I'll be left with approx 7.2 litres in the brew/mash pot (12l less absorption of grains own weight (4.8l))

addition of 12l from sparge bucket

total initial boil volume of 19.2l

Post boil, I'll top fermenter up to desired volume (21 litres) diluting to desired gravity.

This is pretty much the same process I have used for the last 10+ brews. About 10lt sparge water fills up 19lt pot to the top.

Have also done a batch with 5.6 kg of grain and still got 70-75% efficiency
 
Hi - I'm trying to piece together a technique to do an all grain brew with limited equipment.

My plan is based on the Maxi-BIAB concept, but I'm aiming for the highest possible pre-boil volume so I don't have to worry about boil additions. Can anyone see any major flaws in the following.....

Mash 4.8kg of grain (in a bag) in my 20l brew pot in 12 litres of water (2.5l per kg)

Near the end of the mash, heat another 12l of water to sparge temperature (I'll take the brew pot of the burner while mashing to free it up to heat the sparge water).

Add this 12l of sparge water to a bucket (I'm thinking a spare plastic fermentation bucket).

When mash is over, pull the bag, let it drip before dropping into sparge water in fermentation bucket, stir, squeeze, dunk etc.

Meanwhile start heating liquid left in brew pot.

When done sparging, tip water out of fermentation bucket into brew pot and commence boil.

By my calculations....

from the initial 12l litres of mash water, Ill be left with approx 7.2 litres in the brew/mash pot (12l less absorption of grains own weight (4.8l))

addition of 12l from sparge bucket

total initial boil volume of 19.2l

Post boil, I'll top fermenter up to desired volume (21 litres) diluting to desired gravity.

This is pretty much exactly my process, but at a much larger scale. (98L and 50L pots, I use 25L in the 50L pot to get about 22L extra)

Don't just 'dunk' your bag in the sparge water, put it in, reopen the bag, and give it a good stir etc to re-wet the grain... agitate it periodically over 5-10 minutes, then pull and drain

Your goal is to get the sugars trapped in the grain matrix to dilute with the sparge water, and then re-drain the sparge water. The loss is then the diluted sugars still trapped in the grain matrix

Not so important to squeeze the bag too much
 
Your goal is to get the sugars trapped in the grain matrix to dilute with the sparge water, and then re-drain the sparge water. The loss is then the diluted sugars still trapped in the grain matrix

+1

Dunk sparging is more than a dunk.
 

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