Well I changed up my system again. I was doing 10 gallon biab in my boil kettle with a big strainer and a pour over. This time I put my bag in my cooler tun with 25 lbs and 8 gallons. In my brew kettle I heated another 8 gallons to 180. When the mash was done pulled the bag with my pully system and drained it over the tun and then swung the bag over the kettle and dropped if in for ten minuets. Pulled it and let her hang while I refired the burner and started draining then tun into the kettle. The boil started fairly quickly and I got good efficiency. I can’t take credit for this system since I know guys on the forum have mentioned it or something similar
My BIAB is using a basket submerged and my TOTAL volume of water is in the keggle. With the pump running I recirc the whole time at mashing temp. I will push my discharge hose down into the grist quite often. I have been watching my final efficiency and git into the high 80’s and 2 where into the 90’s! I pull the basket and it sits on top of a wire rack over the keggle while I ramp up the temp, and rinsing the grain. The last batch, Doppelbock, I did press the grain to get more out of it. After 170* I shut off the pump and proceed to the boil. I am getting done on average 30-45 minutes sooner than my old gravity system. The only change now will be a 20 gallon kettle purpose designed for my system… Sneezles61
I do have a 20 gallon pot but no pump. I was doing the pour over with separate sparge water could only get about 70%. This new method I got over 80% no squeeze. Now I’m wondering if I do full volume and just pour over wort would it increase the efficiency. I’m really trying to avoid using a pump on this system. I have plans for a small indoor electric system which will use a pump but that’s down the road.
I enjoy what the pump brings to my brew day, also, I never had as good of efficiency… I do know that 20 pounds of grist is about maxing my basket out, so I will need to git a bigger one when I changer up… Sneezles61
Is there any reason you couldn’t do this on a smaller scale with a 10gal round cooler for 5 gal batches?
Sure you could. Does your cooler have a spigot?
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It does, like the push button kind. I thought I might be able to use the BIAB and sparge into the same cooler, then drain or pour it out into my kettle. Then use the same cooler for temp control on my ferments. Just got some ice packs today.
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Sounds like you are doing a dip sparge(?) in your kettle which sounds ingenious. This will be my first time doing all grain so of course I want to get as much out of it as possible.
I didn’t see this conversation til now…
I used a 10 gallon cooler like that for quite a while. But I didn’t try it for a fe renter chamber. There is no reason other than the fermenter not fitting. I did remove the spigot and replaced with a valve and a false bottom. So maybe you’ll need to find that stuff to make the cooler alot easier for lautering (draining the wort). Then for a swamp cooler, something to hold the fermenter above the weld less valve…
Sneezles61
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