I’m saying that I get 83% batch sparging. Sure I could hook up a lift also, but at that point there is no labor saving over just building a cooler and using that.
I’d like to point out that cooler can just be hosed out once the majority of the gain has been removed. A BIAB bag is a bit more labor intensive to clean.
I brew 5 gallon batches, hoping to do 10-gallon batches on low gravity (1.030-1.035) beers. Right now I’ve got an SS 11-gallon Bayou Classic pot for my kettle, looking to upgrade to at least the 15-gallon version.
I’m running a High Gravity electronic brewing controller, with the water heater element installed in the bottom of the kettle. The nice thing about the bayou Classic pots is you can get them with a steamer basket, which holds the bag well above the burner, and makes it a bit easier to remove the bag and grain.
I have a few specific goals for the upgrade:
Support larger grain bills - Ideally up to 1.100+ for a 5-gallon batch.
Better water heater element - Using a paint strainer bag and a homemade hop spider is definitely impacting my hop utilization. I brew extract still, and just tossing the hops into the kettle with no confinement just yields bitterness that’s more in line with my goals vs. using the spider/strainer setup. However, with a standard water heater element unconfined hops end up getting stuck around the element and scorching. Looking at the Blichmann element, supposedly that’s low density enough that this isn’t a concern. Also, my high-density element will scorch the wort if I run it anywhere past 50% power. It’d be nice to have an element that I can better utilize.
Less wort loss/better trub removal - The way High Gravity lays out their kettles leaves much to be desired. Usually end up leaving as much as gallon of wort behind in some cases when trying to keep as much trub as possible out of the fermentor.
What kind of a bag are you using? Mine takes me about a minute, maybe less to clean.
I’m using a homemade one made from a fairly loose sheer curtain-like material. With the whole recirculation setup if the bag is too fine the wort starts to climb towards the rim of the kettle. (see my above comment on stuck sparges and BIAB)
As a result, grain likes to cling to the bag. While I don’t get every scrap off I do try and get most of it, and I find is to be a tedious job.
That’s just my scenario, YMMV.
I just throw my bag in the wash so no labor involved for me. I usually throw it in by itself on a small cycle with no detergent and that worked well but I accidentally had it run through with the clothes/detergent recently and it came out fine (as in no soapy/detergent taste in wort or grimy clothes).
My brew day cleanup is quick - take the kettle to the basement, give it a quick rinse/sponging, fill it up with hot water & oxyclean for a soak, drop all my misc stuff in there (spoon, funnel I use to fill the corny I ferment in, strainer), throw the bag in the wash and call it a day. I’ll come back later to drain the oxy solution and rinse.
You know I’ve never thought about running it through the washing machine, I’ll have to try that.
I own a condo, no space for a utility sink and we’ve got a galley kitchen, so I usually end up scrubbing my kettle and any buckets in a bath tub. Much of the issue with cleaning the bag is I have to either do it in the (tiny) kitchen sink, or lean over the side of the tub and do it. I’ll try your idea next time around.
I use paint strainer bags for BIAB and hops in the kettle. I clean in oxyclean to get most of the bits off and hang dry. Once dry a few good snaps in the air knocks all the bits off
For bag clean up I shake the “clingers” off in the yard hang it on the deck rail to dry then shake it out after its dry. At that point 90% falls off then into the sink with hot water and a soak with oxi clean. On another note trub is considerable but drops out during fermentation and my beers are usually pretty clear. I will try the strainer trick when I drain into the no chill container that may save quite a bit of trub getting into the fermentor!
Yea, I forget where I heard the washing machine idea but it’s great. Previously I would hose it off, let it air dry, then shake the bits off.
Yes, I I’ve been washing the bags in the machine for years with no detergent.
Hey guys, new to the AHA forum but I’m pretty active on the BIAB section of HBT as well as r/homebrewing (u/pricelessbrew)
Anyways, there’s no reason you can’t batch sparge with BIAB as well. I often do something I call ‘equal runnings biab’, where the volume after removing the bag is equal to the sparged volume, and you can find a thread on homebrewtalk with that title as well where I show some of my findings using a batch sparge simulator modeled after Braukaisers batch sparge efficiency analysis.
I have a BIAB mash calculator that has a bunch of nice features on my blog over at Http://Pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc and a testing page at Http://Pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/TestingO if you’d like to look at the lauter efficiency model, I have an updated version that hasn’t been published yet.
Can’t get your links to work.
I’ve considered adding a sparge process to my BIAB procedure. However, to me the key advantage of BIAB is everything happens in one pot. Once you add a second pot as an HLT, I think batch sparging in a cooler quickly becomes a better idea.
How are you going to heat your sparge water without a second pot?
Yeah I can’t really think of a good reason to sparge when doing BIAB, unless you are collecting starter wort afterwards.
I read that as he considered and rejected the idea. Either no pot and no sparge or batch sparge instead of biab.
I actually usually do a sparge with biab. I have plenty of pots around and I have to dirty something to keep the bag in anyway. It makes it so I can get up to boil quicker: the sparge water is around 180 instead of mash temp and I put the heat back on the mash tun while I rinse the bag of grain in the sparge water, then combine. Then I put the bag in the second kettle until it cools off enough to give to the chickens/compost.
I read it the same as pete does. Rejected the idea due to the need of another vessel.
On the other hand, you can sparge with faucet temperature water and that may only require a pitcher that never sees anything but water (so no cleaning involved either).
Do you have a small kettle or limited space? I guess I could see those as good reasons to do it. But if you like doing it and it makes you good beer then that is a good enough reason, really.
^ That’s what I meant. This is also why, in hindsight, I wish I’d just gone with cooler batch sparging in the first place. To me it appears more elegant solution than BIAB, though since I’ve invested this much I don’t see the point of scrapping my PID controlled electric BIAB setup and going batch sparge. I doubt I’d get back what I paid for everything.