BIAB equipment and mash setup with "sparge"

i've done a lot of researching over the past week but still have no idea how i should setup my mash profile. i think my equipment setup is okay (image attached at the bottom) but not entirely sure. here's an overview of my process for brewing 2 gallon all grain BIAB batches, help is much appreciated!

- brew kettle is a large 20 qt / 5 gallon pot
- fill pot with 3 gallons of water, add 6 LB's of grain into bag when temp ~155
- after 60 minutes, pull bag and prepare to "sparge"
- sparge consist of putting entire bag in large pasta strainer over 4 qt / 1 gallon pot
- run 1 gallon of 170 degree water over and put into brew kettle
- run another half gallon of 170 degree water over and put into brew kettle
note: the water that collects in the kettle after "sparging" is definitely a wonderful brownish color, seems to be adding a lot of fermentable sugars in this step

Boil Volume Estimates
- start with 3 gallons of water before adding the grain
- being generous the 6 LB's of grain absorb 1 gallon
- after pulling the bag i have 2 gallons in my brew kettle (started with 3, grain absorb 1)
- after sparging i've added back 1.5 gallons
- total volume before boil starts is 3.5 gallons
- after a 60 minute boil i lose 1 gallon, left with 2.5 gallons
- lose half a gallon due to trub, left with 2 gallons to put into fermenter

OG - 1.068
FG  - 1.016
ABV - 6.83%

i think the equipment part is fine (attached a photo below) just no idea at all how to setup the mash profile given my BIAB / "sparge" method given its 2 gallons.

any and all help is greatly appreciated, thanks!!

Cheers!

My first question is that if you have a 5-gal kettle, why bother with doing a sparge step?  It is much easier and faster to do a full volume mash.

Regardless of that, you need to treat this mash profile as a single infusion with sparge step.  To do this, the BIAB box needs to be unchecked.  In reality, you are treating this as a mash tun type of set up, with the bag being your filter and then sparging separately.  One thing you will need to adjust is your grain absorption number (found in the options > advanced section) for the standard to be equivalent to what you have for a BIAB batch.

i can only fill up the 5 gallon kettle with 4 gallons of water, after the grain absorption there's only about 3 gallons for the boil so i need an extra half gallon.

Rather do a sparge step which seems to yield some good colored sugary filled wort vs just adding water straight up into the kettle before boil

When adding this second step, how long should i put the step time for? Is anything like the attached image close to what i need to do?

thanks for your help

When I do a batch sparge with BIAB, I do a 20 minute rest and skip the mash out. 

JFYI, I do 2.7 gal batches in a 5.5 gal kettle with no problem until I get to gravities above 1.080.  Do you squeeze the bag to minimize water absorption?

before i switched to the sparge step i used to squeeze the hell out of it but i also was never able to get above 6% on my IPA's even with 6LB's of grain (96% 2 row, 4% C60). The first time i did the sparge i was able to get to 6.8% so it does seem to yield good results. Also given the color of the water/wort after sparging makes me think it really goes get alot of extra sugar out of the grain.

Maybe i'll try another straight up BIAB soon and make sure the grain is crushed really well and see if i have better results. In the meantime i think im going to stick with the sparge step.

Is there anything in that screenshot i need to adjust? both of the steps are type "infusion"

thanks for your replies so far, much appreciated

Are you doing a batch sparge in addition to a mash out?  If so, I think your mash profile looks fine.

The steps being 'infusion' is just what they are supposed to be labeled, as you are adding water to make the temperature change. 

no mash out - just my sparge step after pulling the bag from my large brew kettle

i just brewed a porter and i'm confused by all the red dots on the bottom left of the mash profile tab saying i dont have enough room

Ok, the red dots are because the software does not recognize the second infusion step as a sparge.  You do not need to enter the sparge step in your mash profile, as beer smith will calculate it for you.

Take your present mash profile and make a copy of it.  In the copy, erase your second infusion step.

Now copy your recipe and use your first mash in one and look at the steps in the brewday report.  In the second, change to the new mash profile without your second infusion step.  Now look at the brewday report.  You will see in the second that this sparge step is already put in the steps for you

I should have added to the last response that the red dots indicate that the volume exceeds the capacity of your kettle.  This is because the software does not recognize that you are removing the grains from the water and transferring them to another pot. 

Anyway, when you look at your mash profile, under the batch sparge section, check the box which reads "drain mash tun before sparging" to have the brew steps come out in order.  I have attached captures of the mash profile for my system and the resultant brew steps showing how the sparge is already added.

it's all making sense and working much better now - thanks so much for your help on this!!!

guess my next steps are to pay closer attention to what my pre-boil volumes are to help hone in what my efficiency really is.

Combination of that and your help will make creating new recipes and tweaking old ones much easier and precise

thanks again!

Oginme said:

When I do a batch sparge with BIAB, I do a 20 minute rest and skip the mash out. 

Click to expand...

What does this mean exactly?

skibrew said:

before i switched to the sparge step i used to squeeze the hell out of it but i also was never able to get above 6% on my IPA's even with 6LB's of grain (96% 2 row, 4% C60). The first time i did the sparge i was able to get to 6.8% so it does seem to yield good results. Also given the color of the water/wort after sparging makes me think it really goes get alot of extra sugar out of the grain.

Click to expand...

Check your gravity of your sparge water.. surprisingly little sugar in there.

I did a BIAB over the weeked.  4.5G batch.  I had about 15lbs of grain (shooting for 1.085) and started with 5.5 gals..  that was at 1.7 SG after a mild squeeze.  Dunked it in 3.5 Gat at 176 for 15 minutes..  That came out 1.005 SG...  Nicely colored, not much sugar apparently.

Javaslinger said:

Oginme said:

When I do a batch sparge with BIAB, I do a 20 minute rest and skip the mash out. 

Click to expand...

What does this mean exactly?

Click to expand...

I remove the bag from my main kettle and place it in my second kettle with the sparge water already in it.  I open the bag and mix thoroughly to redisperse the grains into the sparge water, then I cover and allow it to sit for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes I remove the bag and do my final squeezing to drain out all the free wort I can.

Oginme said:

I remove the bag from my main kettle and place it in my second kettle with the sparge water already in it.  I open the bag and mix thoroughly to redisperse the grains into the sparge water, then I cover and allow it to sit for 20 minutes.  After the 20 minutes I remove the bag and do my final squeezing to drain out all the free wort I can.

Click to expand...

Have you checked the gravity of your sparge?  Is there much sugar in there in your experience?

I only do a sparge with my BIAB set up with brewing very high gravity.  I generally pull first wort off saturated and the sparge comes out generally from 1.020 to 1.032 depending upon the grain bill and my target gravity reading.  It will keep my mash efficiency up in the low 80's and closer to my standard mash efficiency for lower gravity recipes.