Partial Mash Sparging Technique... GO!

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Brewing Clamper

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So how do you sparge your PMs? So far, what I've done is put my sparge water in the bottling bucket and let it slowly drip into my 2gl cooler w/grains while the cooler drains into my boiling kettle. This is fly sparging right? Anyway, what do you guys/gals normally do?
 
I batch sparge, so I dump the sparge water into the mash tun, stir like hell, and then let it sit for 10 minutes and sometimes stir again. I vorlauf a couple times (all I've ever needed with the SS braid) and then let 'er fly into the brew kettle opening the ball valve all the way.
 
Batch sparge. Fly sparging can be a problem with shallow grain beds. On the other hand, you have a small cooler and the bed should be fairly thick.
 
Buford said:
I batch sparge, so I dump the sparge water into the mash tun, stir like hell, and then let it sit for 10 minutes and sometimes stir again. I vorlauf a couple times (all I've ever needed with the SS braid) and then let 'er fly into the brew kettle opening the ball valve all the way.

What does vorlauf mean?
 
Did a Google for you and here is what I found.

Vorlauf is the first step of wort collection (one translation of vorlauf into English is “forerun”) and serves two purposes — hitting mash temperature is not one of them.

The vorlauf removes weak wort from the under-plate area of a lauter tun and returns this weak wort to the top of the grain bed. Strictly speaking, a lauter tun is only used for wort separation and is filled with mash after mashing has occurred. The false bottom of a lauter tun is covered with water before filling and that is why there is weak wort in the under-plate area. The vorlauf also helps clarify the wort before sending it off to the kettle. Most commercial brewers vorlauf for about 20 minutes and this time permits about 40% of the liquid in the mash to be recirculated.
 
david_42 said:
Batch sparge. Fly sparging can be a problem with shallow grain beds. On the other hand, you have a small cooler and the bed should be fairly thick.

I use a round 2g cooler, so with 4lbs of grain the bed is at least 8"-10".
 
I set up a two-layer strainer with a muslin bag inbetween, and rinse my grain about a pound at a time:
6233-FirstPartialMash007.jpg
 
You are doing a partial mash right? so you will be adding Extract, and that will be where the majority of your fermentables will come from, the grains are more for adding flavor's. I used a system just like Torchiest, but would ladel wort over the the grain 's in the colander a couple times as I was heating the wort. I never used a cooler till I started AG'n. I just used a grain bag and a colander. Just remember don't squeeze the bag
 
Bsquared said:
You are doing a partial mash right? so you will be adding Extract, and that will be where the majority of your fermentables will come from, the grains are more for adding flavor's.

That's not necessarily true with all PMs. My last batch was only 25% extract. I'm moving into all grain though (hopefully), so I see it as practice.
 
Buford said:
That's not necessarily true with all PMs. My last batch was only 25% extract. I'm moving into all grain though (hopefully), so I see it as practice.

So you must have had a grain bill of 7-8lb? And you have that in a cooler, Might as well AG...just my 2¢
 
Yeah, my only PM was 4.5lbs. I think I'll stay in that range the next time I try it. I don't really think it would be easy or feasible to step up before going AG. I'll just make the full jump when the time comes.
 
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