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BIAB sparge?
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Martybhoy
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I BIAB in an ACE mash tun/kettle, which is a down market version of your system.
To sparge I use 2 plastic buckets and 9L tea urn.
One Bucket sits on garage floor and an oven shelf sits on that. Upon the oven shelf sits the second bucket which I cut a rake of slices into the bottom of using a small grinder, turning it into a sort of high-sided colander. I dump the bag into the top bucket and let the water from the urn pour on top of it, normally filling the top bucket so it gets a steep as it slowly dribbles through the slices.( If you don't have a grinder then drilling a lot of holes would be just fine.) Once the bottom bucket is full I pour it into the kettle, which has been climbing in temp ready to boil.
I find the volume perfectly takes me to max vol in the kettle, replacing the volume of the dry grain and the water it absorbed. I add a bit of a Campden tablet to the mash tun and to the urn to remove the chlorine from the tap water before the mash. About a quarter tablet in total.
The urn was £35, the buckets were 89p.
An alternative would be to simply use more grain and to up with cold water after the boil, (chlorine wouldn't be an issue post boil, as that burnt elastoplast flavour is a reaction with the grain and the chlorine would come out of solution and float off during fermentation. Chloramines wouldn't do that but the top up volume would be small enough not to matter. Also Highland tap water is super soft) but the increased waste bothers me and this hobby attracts people who like to maximise efficiency in systems.
Sparging with BIAB only gets you a bit more beer, not better beer, so good luck with whatever you do.
To sparge I use 2 plastic buckets and 9L tea urn.
One Bucket sits on garage floor and an oven shelf sits on that. Upon the oven shelf sits the second bucket which I cut a rake of slices into the bottom of using a small grinder, turning it into a sort of high-sided colander. I dump the bag into the top bucket and let the water from the urn pour on top of it, normally filling the top bucket so it gets a steep as it slowly dribbles through the slices.( If you don't have a grinder then drilling a lot of holes would be just fine.) Once the bottom bucket is full I pour it into the kettle, which has been climbing in temp ready to boil.
I find the volume perfectly takes me to max vol in the kettle, replacing the volume of the dry grain and the water it absorbed. I add a bit of a Campden tablet to the mash tun and to the urn to remove the chlorine from the tap water before the mash. About a quarter tablet in total.
The urn was £35, the buckets were 89p.
An alternative would be to simply use more grain and to up with cold water after the boil, (chlorine wouldn't be an issue post boil, as that burnt elastoplast flavour is a reaction with the grain and the chlorine would come out of solution and float off during fermentation. Chloramines wouldn't do that but the top up volume would be small enough not to matter. Also Highland tap water is super soft) but the increased waste bothers me and this hobby attracts people who like to maximise efficiency in systems.
Sparging with BIAB only gets you a bit more beer, not better beer, so good luck with whatever you do.
I am a full volume no sparge BIAB er (most of the time anyway, smaller batches I sparge on my kitchen top)
Obviously equipment differences aside I would say average full volume of water that goes into the pot at the start is around 32l for a 23l in the FV. So a Peco is really pushing this so would probably have to shorten your volumes.
With sparging you get a better efficiency aswell.
However with good and consistent practices you can get 70%+ efficiency without a sparge on BIAB. The brew day is quite a bit simplier aswell.. you mash in.. mash out (some people do not even mash out) and boil all in one vessel. Sparging is far from a PITA however not having to do it does make it even simplier..
So either way works well there are pros and cons to each method..
I do still do some brews with the sparge method but I honestly personally really like the simple and consistent full volume no sparge method.. just pick what suits you.
Obviously equipment differences aside I would say average full volume of water that goes into the pot at the start is around 32l for a 23l in the FV. So a Peco is really pushing this so would probably have to shorten your volumes.
With sparging you get a better efficiency aswell.
However with good and consistent practices you can get 70%+ efficiency without a sparge on BIAB. The brew day is quite a bit simplier aswell.. you mash in.. mash out (some people do not even mash out) and boil all in one vessel. Sparging is far from a PITA however not having to do it does make it even simplier..
So either way works well there are pros and cons to each method..
I do still do some brews with the sparge method but I honestly personally really like the simple and consistent full volume no sparge method.. just pick what suits you.
