Batch Sparge Water:Grain Ratio

What is the minimum amount of water per pound of grain to use for effective batch sparging? I'm thinking about 1 quart per pound or so?

I'm trying to figure out how much sparge water I need to use for a barley wine. I'll be draining the tun of first runnings then doing two batch sparges.

I always do 1:3 because I have a 70qt, I dont think anything is wrong with 1:1 as long as you dont go below that.

I havent heard many people going below that

Right now I'm thinking about mashing with 1qt/lb and doing two separate batch sparge infusions at about the same ratio. I'm wondering if those two batch sparges will be too thick? They are thicker than what I normally do. I'd like to keep the boil time to 120 mins or less.

Charlie P says 1/2 gallon per pound of grain.
and mash with 1/4 gallon per pound.

He says it in liters and pints and stuff....but I understand gallons, and they get close enough.

Quickly looking over my notes, I see I normally sparge with anywhere from 1.1 to 2.0 qts per pound (following a mash-out). So, sparging at 1.0 qt/lb isn't too far out of my usual routine. I think I'll go for it and just see what happens. I'll still make beer!

I routinely sparge with 1 qt/lb. I asked the same question a while back and Bobby_M responded with:

"I've taken some guesses that efficiency would only really start suffering when it gets so thick that it's hard to adequately stir. Judging by my experiences with different grain bills, I THINK .5qts/lb is where it goes south."

Yup, that's about where it gets like dough. Let me further qualify that you can get away with a stiffer sparge mix if you've got a wide, shallow grainbed like in a large rectangular cooler. When it's tall and skinny, a lot of the sparge falls to the lower end of the grainbed leaving the top really dry and thick.

If you're going for a barleywine, you ought to go with just the first runnings and use the sparge runnings for another beer.

[size=+2]Barley Party Big[/size]
[size=+1]19-B English Barleywine[/size]
Author: Bobby
Date: 6/29/2008



Size: 5.0 gal
Efficiency: 53.52%
Attenuation: 70.0%
Calories: 402.33 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.118 (1.080 - 1.120)
|=======================#========|
Terminal Gravity: 1.035 (1.018 - 1.030)
|===============================#|
Color: 14.01 (8.0 - 22.0)
|==============#=================|
Alcohol: 11.06% (8.0% - 12.0%)
|====================#===========|
Bitterness: 64.1 (35.0 - 70.0)
|=====================#==========|

[size=+1]Ingredients:[/size]
28.0 lb Maris Otter
1 lb White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
2.0 oz East Kent Goldings (6.2%) - added during boil, boiled 60.0 min
3.0 oz East Kent Goldings (6.2%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min
1.0 ea Fermentis US-05 Safale US-05

[size=+1]Schedule:[/size]
Ambient Air: 85.0 °F
Source Water: 68.0 °F
Elevation: 0.0 m

00:03:00 Dough In - Liquor: 10.81 gal; Strike: 160.34 °F; Target: 152.0 °F
01:13:00 Sac Rest - Rest: 70.0 min; Final: 152.0 °F
01:27:05 Mash Out Ramp Up - Heat: 14.1 min; Target: 167.5 °F
01:42:05 Batch Sparge - First Runnings: 0.0 gal sparge @ 153.0 °F, 5.0 min; Sparge #1: 6.5 gal sparge @ 170.0 °F, 10.0 min; Total Runoff: 14.31 gal (the 6.5 sparge runoff became my ESB).

[size=+1]Notes[/size]
Making a huge assumption that the 7.75 gallon first runnings would be equal to about 50% efficiency at about 1.073 preboil on the Big beer. It actually came to 1.079 preboil at 7.5 gallon for a first runnings efficiency of 60%. Second runnings will become small beer.