New venture into brew in a bag

[davidgrace]

I have already done a couple of 1 gallon all grain brews but now want to move to 2 gallon. To make this easier I feel I should use the brew-in-a-bag method, but I have a couple of questions.
1. How do I prevent the bag from scalding when turning up the heat for "mash out"?
2. I have used a 26cm sieve for sparging with the 1 gallon. How can I sparge the larger quantity of mashed grain without using a sieve?

 

[Fil]

Hi n welcome..

1) slip a SS kitchen doo dah into the pot to keep the bag off the pot bottom our �£ shop sells diddy SS colanders for example, but a plate will do in a pinch too but be prepared for the odd rumble as bubbles lift it..

2) with the bag and a bucket you can 'dunk sparge' your grains..

do a search for forum posts on the subject there is an very good stove top how to thats been very inspiring that should help answer all your Q's

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
Try this to support your grain bag: https://tinyurl.com/y8f69lby
Take off the rubber feet!

 

[chub1]

Hi n welcome..

1) slip a SS kitchen doo dah into the pot to keep the bag off the pot bottom our ��£ shop sells diddy SS colanders for example, but a plate will do in a pinch too but be prepared for the odd rumble as bubbles lift it..

2) with the bag and a bucket you can 'dunk sparge' your grains..

do a search for forum posts on the subject there is an very good stove top how to thats been very inspiring that should help answer all your Q's

I'm a dunker
and it's a good method:thumb:

 

[davidgrace]

I've had a search around but I'm still not clear what "dunking" is. At the moment I think I will simply remove the bag from the pot and drop it into a bucket. Then I will pour water over the grain inside the bag until I reach the right amount or wort for boiling. That doesn't sound like "dunking" to me. Would that method be o.k.? Or is what you call dunking better? Is there a Youtube video that will show me what "dunking" looks like?
Thanks for your help for far.

 

[IainM]

I've had a search around but I'm still not clear what "dunking" is. At the moment I think I will simply remove the bag from the pot and drop it into a bucket. Then I will pour water over the grain inside the bag until I reach the right amount or wort for boiling. That doesn't sound like "dunking" to me. Would that method be o.k.? Or is what you call dunking better? Is there a Youtube video that will show me what "dunking" looks like?
Thanks for your help for far.

This is what I do with BIAB and it works well. I'd give the bag a very good squeeze before doing it, and also give the grains a good stir and leave them a few minutes after you've added the water.

 

[davidgrace]

Thanks. Your comments have been very helpful.

 

[Bigcol49]

Is there a Youtube video that will show me what "dunking" looks like?

Hi!
https://youtu.be/0Z43GVqo3F4
I always understood that a dunk sparge involved having the sparge water in a container into which you put the bag after squeezing it, hence the "dunk".

 

[Fil]

Aye post mash lift n drain your grain bag (squeeze too if you do that..) then with a bucket of warm water the same volume as you need to make up for your pre-boil volume :)

dunk the grain bag in, open it stir the grains in the warm water, lift drain and squeeze if your a squeezer, and the resulting liquor should bring you upto your preboil volume..

 

[JFB]

It can also be known as "batch sparging" if using a mash tun.
The "dunk" seems to be a popular method used by BIABer's including myself.
I just put the sparge water at 72c in a bucket then add the squeezed grain bag from my main pot give a good stir leave for ten minutes. The bag is then drained and squeezed again and liquor added back to pot for the boil.

 

[mcphail]

I'd been using the sparging method from the James Morton book, where I suspended the bag above the pot and poured sparge water from a jug through the grains. But after cleaning that mess from my kitchen floor, I'm going to try dunk sparging next time :)

 

[davidgrace]

Thanks for the video link. Really helpful to see someone doing a "dunk".

 

[foxbat]

I'd been using the sparging method from the James Morton book, where I suspended the bag above the pot and poured sparge water from a jug through the grains. But after cleaning that mess from my kitchen floor, I'm going to try dunk sparging next time :)

Try JFB's method at post #10. That's exactly what I do and it couldn't be easier. I also experimented with pouring water over a suspended bag but it's messy and my pre-boil gravity ended up lower than target indicating that it's not an efficient method or I wasn't doing it right. Whatever. Switching to a separate bucket-dunk-soak gives me the expected pre-boil gravity each time. I use 5 litres for my dunk-sparge if it helps.

 

[Duxuk]

I'm brewing as I type! I opened the "bag", which is actually just a sheet of net curtain, in an FV and added 6l of water. This was enough to cover the 3.75kg of grain. I gave it a good stir and left it to steep for 10 minutes before lifting it and squeezing. Better go check it, I'm halfway through the boil.