Sparge Time

It takes me forever to sparge sometimes close to 2 hours? I fly sparge and find that when I go this slow I get a really great efficiency but the time it takes up sucks I hear it can be done in an hour I tried to speed it up once but got very low gravity. Any suggestions.

voodoochild7 said:

Any suggestions.

Click to expand...

Batch sparge? I got 75% on my last brew and the sparge time was only about 15 minutes.

It should take at least an hour to fly sparge 5 gallons. Slower is better (unless the grain bed is so compacted that it's almost stuck), but two hours for 5 gallons seems a bit excessive. Batch sparging is much faster and easier, and it can yield great results.

I built my rig for fly sparging, so that's what I do. My last batch had about 75% efficiency or so.

voodoochild7 said:

It takes me forever to sparge sometimes close to 2 hours? I fly sparge and find that when I go this slow I get a really great efficiency but the time it takes up sucks I hear it can be done in an hour I tried to speed it up once but got very low gravity. Any suggestions.

Click to expand...

what kind of sparge arm do you have? It takes mine about an hour at the slowest possible rate. 2 hours seems like an eternity.

If I batch sparge how to I know how much water to use to get my seven gallons I mean I drain all the wort out first correct. Then how much water do I throw in? I don't use a sparge arm I let it trickle in over a cool whip lid

voodoochild7 said:

If I batch sparge how to I know how much water to use to get my seven gallons I mean I drain all the wort out first correct. Then how much water do I throw in? I don't use a sparge arm I let it trickle in over a cool whip lid

Click to expand...

Well... once the grain has soaked up water from the initial mash, it's not going to soak up any more in the sparge. SO, whatever you throw in for sparge water will come back out of the tun.

7 - X = sparge water needed, where X == the amount of liquid you got from the initial run off.

Walker-san said:

Batch sparge? I got 75% on my last brew and the sparge time was only about 15 minutes.

Click to expand...

truth

but it takes me a bit longer.

Chimone said:

truth

but it takes me a bit longer.

Click to expand...

Well.. that was a "drunk" 15 minutes, so it was probably more like 30.

I batch sparge too. It probably takes me about 20 to 30 minutes for 7 gallons of pre-boil depending on how long I let the second batch of water steep.

I vorlauf into a 2 quart plastic beer pitcher and have my silicon hose already in my kettle, so I connect the hose to the valve without closing it. As soon as the hose is on, the valve goes wide open and the vorlauf pitcher is gently poured back on top.

I got 83% efficiency last time which I give credit to the Barley Crusher.

Batch Sparging is the way to go.

Another vote for batch sparging. From the end of the mash, it takes probably 25 - 30 minutes before I'm ready to start the boil. Just add some water to the mash before taking the first runnings, stir, let sit for ten minutes, vorlauf, drain, and repeat once. 79% efficiency last time.

Read this link, it's a great description of the process.
http://www.hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/

Even if I could squeeze another 5% efficiency by fly sparging, it wouldn't be worth it to me - I'd rather just toss another pound of 2-row in the mash.

I fly sparge and even though it does take quite a while, I have learned to use that time to do other things like drink, clean, drink some more, fire up the grill, drink some more, cook, transfer last batch and did I mention drink.. But doing this has raised my eff on my last 2 batches to 95% and 96%, so I think I can live with the sloooooow sparge......

96%? Really? How?

I didn't think even the big guys got efficiency like that.....

I don't know but that's what Promash is telling me and I have it set on default of 75%. I also take my OG in the kettle before boiling....

I think fly sparging was what caused my first batch this weekend to be so low. I may have been a little to hasty with it. I got a Phil's Sparger when I bought the bulk of my equipment and tried using it. I couldn't seem to get the outflow to equal the inflow if that makes sense. If I slowed the inflow to much the sparge arm would not spin. To much and I thought I was at to high a flow rate and going too fast. I may try batch sparging on my next go around to see how it goes.

When you drain off the initial sparge water do you dump the whole rest of the heated water in the second time around or do it in say three or four stages?

I've hit 90% on a batch sparge but normally it's 80%

Just waiting for Brewman to chime in here...

I think there were a few hundred posts about this a while back.

I fly sparge and have gotten 87% and 86% on the last two batches. It usually takes me about an hour and a half to do a mash out, vorlauf and sparge. I have gotten the sparge itself done in 45 minutes but my efficiency sucked. Usually the sparge alone will take me close to one hour, maybe a couple of minutes more. Two hours seems sort of long and I bet you could increase your outflow. I find that I run the ball valve at around 50% gives me a good flow.

Lil' Sparky said:

Just waiting for Brewman to chime in here...

I think there were a few hundred posts about this a while back.

Click to expand...

He's still quoting everyone... it'll be awhile.

jdoiv said:

It usually takes me about an hour and a half to do a mash out, vorlauf and sparge. I have gotten the sparge itself done in 45 minutes but my efficiency sucked.

Click to expand...

Going AG soon.....what the he** is "vorlauf"?

Sorry for the thread jack

Kayos said:

Going AG soon.....what the he** is "vorlauf"?

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Vorlauf