beerme70

Recipes 

Which do you prefer, and why? How much of a difference in the quality of your wort?

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It all comes down to one question, WWJB? (What Would Jesus Brew?)

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Primary: empty
Secondary: Cranium Crusher (my attempt at a Skull Splitter clone)
Bottled: Just killed the last of Sven's Shetland Stout
On Tap: Not kegging yet, but soon!
Fixin' to Brew: ????????????

Beerthoven

Recipes 

I batch because it's much quicker and easier than fly and gives me 90% efficiency

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Primary/Secondary:

Kegged: #77 Newcastle Brown, #79 California Common, #80 Old Bushy Tail Special Bitter

Planned: American IPA, Dusseldorf Alt, American Amber

I use secondaries!

Brew-boy

Recipes 

I am a fly guy because I built my system around fly sparging. I tried the batch route but my efficiency suffered. Now I get 85% when I fly plus I like to tinker and it keeps me busy.

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Next:American Brown Ale.
Primary:
On Tap: Dusseldorf Alt, Cream Ale, Belgian Pale Ale.
Aging: Imperial Oatmeal Stout on Vanilla beans.

I rather owe you a dollar than cheat you out of it.."Dad"

http://lapeerareabrewers.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LapeerAreaBrewers/

knowltonm

Recipes 

Big debate here, no right or wrong, just how you want to do it. Batch sparging is easier with more systems, fly sparging has more variables. Done right each method will give you good results. Personally, I fly sparge...like brew-boy I like playing with little things here and there and fly sparging lets you do that with manifolds, false bottoms, sprinkler systems, HLT possibilities, etc. In the end, I think batch sparging is easier to do with fewer variables to worry about.

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Primary: 20 min IPA (14oz cascade/5gal), partigyle pale
Secondary: Mead
Bottled: Orange Cream Ale, Big Red Ale, RIS, American Stout, Nut Brown Ale, American Amber Ale, Brown Porter

ajf

Recipes 

I fly sparge 90% of the time, and batch sparge the other 10%.
(I have a 5g MLT which makes batch sparging of bigger beers rather difficult.)
I get about 5% more efficiency when fly sparging, but it took a long time to get my efficiency where it is now.
I also think my beers come out a bit better with a fly sparge, but that's probably because I prefer beers with an OG that is too high for a batch sparge with my equipment, and also because I've had a lot more practice.
If you are starting out, I would definitely go with batch unless there's some reason why you can't. It's faster, cheaper, easier, and unless you have a system and process that is tuned for fly sparging, more efficient.

-a.

uglygoat

Recipes 

i've done both. i like the quickness of the batch, but if i'm in no hurry, or working on a really big beer, i'll fly.

been making mostly session beers this year, so i'm just doing a simple batch sparge, at about 80 percent eff.

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A barrel of malt, a bushel of hops, you stir it around with a stick
The kind of lubrication to make your engine tick

never argue with an idiot, they'll just drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

maltMonkey

Recipes 

Fly because the first book I bought on homebrewing said that's how to do it.....I'm hard-headed and have been doing it ever since.

Jumbo82

Recipes 

I fly sparge, I've never done a batch sparge. I like the idea of doing a single vorlauf. It just makes more sense to me and I don't see any reason to switch now.

Got Trub?

Recipes 

I've done both. I prefer to batch because of its simplicity and focus my energy on other parts of the process. I do brew alot more session beers now so that probably favours batch for me as well as I get 75-80% eff. If I was doing alot of big beers the drop in efficiency would make it worth fly sparging again. Or maybe I'd just parti-gyle and batch sparge anyways!

GT

BeerSmith

Recipes 

I usually fly sparge, but there is nothing wrong with batch sparging. Here's a summary with some advantages/disadvantages.

Cheers,
Brad

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Author of BeerSmith Software -- Carpe Fermentum!