Quick question about sparging. When the mash time is complete, and it's time to sparge the grain, should I drain the liquid in the mash tun out completely and then, after the runoff halts, begin the sparge, or should I open up the mash tun and begin the sparge simultaneously so as to not allow the grain to run completely dry until the sparge is complete, or does it even matter? Thanks!
Sparge how?
- Thread starter bmantzey
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Dunerunner
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Draining before you begin running in the sparge water invites channeling through the grain bed.
I leave an inch or two of liquid above the grain bed throughout the sparge then drain at the end to make up the wert in the boil kettle, allowing for boil off.
I leave an inch or two of liquid above the grain bed throughout the sparge then drain at the end to make up the wert in the boil kettle, allowing for boil off.
azscoob
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are you using a stainless braid or a manifold? I use a braid, I drain completely then pour the sparge water in, stir and let sit 10 min or so, then drain completely again. if you are using a manifold you could fly sparge while draining your first runnings.
using batch sparging I get 83-87% eff. in my brews
using batch sparging I get 83-87% eff. in my brews
If you're batch sparging, recirculate a quart or two (vorlauf), then drain it all into the kettle. Then add the sparge water, stir, wait a few minutes for it to settle, vorlauf, and drain that into to kettle. Repeat with another batch if required.
If you're fly sparging, vorlauf, then start draining at the same rate you're adding water. I would recommend batch sparging, as it is a lot easier to screw up with fly sparging.
-a.
If you're fly sparging, vorlauf, then start draining at the same rate you're adding water. I would recommend batch sparging, as it is a lot easier to screw up with fly sparging.
-a.
Dunerunner
Well-Known Member
Well, with fly sparging there are a couple of things that can go wrong. Usually, it's something like channeling, where the water chooses the path of least resistance and channels through the grain bed. It's more common with a braid than a false bottom. A false bottom is spread over the whole bottom and less likely to cause problems in a fly sparge.
Also, it's possible to have some flavor issues from the lowered pH of the fly sparge. It's not really an issue at all with batch sparging, since the water is stirred up into the grain bed.
It's more time consuming to fly sparge, and it's important to do it very slowly, like over the course of an hour for a 5 gallon batch. You need to match the input of the water with the outflow of the wort, so the grain bed stays fluid and at least an inch of liquid covers it. That's sometimes hard to do.
Fly sparging isn't difficult, but it is more time consuming and a little more attention to detail is required. My preference is batch sparging, but my current system is for fly sparging.
monty3777
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Not that this adds much to the discussion, but I have tried different methods of sparging and I am sold on batch sparging. It saves time and doesn't require a lot of attention. For some reasons I always hit my gravity. I'd have to be given really good reasons to use any other kind of sparging (and I'm open to being educated).
Generally, no. The most common way is to simply sparge to reach your desired boil volume.
For example, you want 7 gallons in your boil kettle. You drain your first runnings and have 3 gallons. That means you'll need four gallons of sparge water. You get slightly better efficiency if you break that into two equal batch sparges, so you'd use 2 gallons in the first batch sparge. Drain, and use 2 gallons in the second sparge, and drain. That will give you your 7 gallon preboil volume.
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
as an example, I brewed an ale this past saturday, I heated 3.25 gallons to 165° and added to my preheated cooler/tun, I added my 9.75lb of crushed grain stirred to make sure that all the doughballs were broken up and checked temp, spot on at 154°, mashed for 60 min, stirred a bit at 50 min and vorlaufed at 60 and began collecting into my boil kettle, meanwhile I heated up approx 2 gallons of water (to make up for grain absorption) to boiling and added to the tun after draining all the frst runnings and shutting the valve. this 212° addition brought the grainbed to 170° and let it rest for 10 min, stirred at 5 min and vorlaufed again, while draining into the kettle, I heated 4 gallons to 170° and dumped into the now drained grains and let it sit for another 10 min, stirred at 5 and vorlaufed, the total collected wort was 7.25 gallonswhich was boiled down to 5.5 gallons.
long winded, but it should clear up the batch sparge process.
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
+1 to yoops suggestion on splitting the sparge volume into 2 if the quantity permits, I did not do it this time myself due to a tight schedule, but it does up the efficiency a bit, I hit 83% on that last batch, would have been closer to 85-87% on a split sparge.
JOHN51277
Well-Known Member
Reading through a LOT of threads when I started AG a year ago and trying to figure out the whole mash/sparge thing, THIS is one of the best I have read yet. Nicely put by a few posts!
azscoob
Brewpub coming soon!
That might have been the most useful info I have posted in a while. 
