2nd all-grain attempt tonight, first one I may have screwed up the sparge

I'm hoping this is the right forum for this; it might be more of a beginner thing but... okay.

I bought 2 all-grain kits from AHBS.

We went with the 2-cooler method of all-grain, and the mash went fine, heating the strike water to 170 and after mixing with our grains we were at 149. It was at 148 after 60 minutes so I think we were okay.

The kit instructions said to recirculate the wort by drawing it off the bottom and returning it to the top until it was free of any detritus, which we did.

Then the sparge - instructions said to sparge at a rate of 12 minutes/gallon, which seemed really really slow but okay, we attempted to do it that slowly. Problem was, the sparge arm wouldn't rotate unless we had a certain amount of flow, and that flow rate was easily more than 12 minutes/gallon. We ended up being out of sparge water way too early and we were done with the sparge in about half the time that the kit said it should've taken; ie we averaged about 6 minutes per gallon.

Is this really really bad, or just something we shouldn't worry about, or something in between? The starting gravity, once we chilled our wort and added yeast and all that, was actually right on target, in fact, it was a touch high, so I figure it's okay, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask for advice here. Thanks!

rockout said:

Is this really really bad, or just something we shouldn't worry about, or something in between? The starting gravity, once we chilled our wort and added yeast and all that, was actually right on target, in fact, it was a touch high, so I figure it's okay, but I thought it couldn't hurt to ask for advice here. Thanks!

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RDWHAHB! I think you answered your own question!

maybe try batch sparging next time? After all I've read on here and elsewhere I still have yet to be convinced that the extra time it takes to fly sparge is worth the effort

+1. I was given a fly sparge arm but haven't used it as batch sparging has done me right so far.

yeah, i'm having a homebrew, in fact (an extract brew from 2 months ago!) right now!

I just thought I'd ask. Thanks for the reassurance.

Does anyone have a good link to a step-by-step batch sparge instruction set?

rockout said:

yeah, i'm having a homebrew, in fact (an extract brew from 2 months ago!) right now!

I just thought I'd ask. Thanks for the reassurance.

Does anyone have a good link to a step-by-step batch sparge instruction set?

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find a post by Bobby_M and check out the link in his signature.

Batch sparge: dump in sparge water, stir, wait 10, drain. Repeat until you have enough for boil.

passedpawn said:

Batch sparge: dump in sparge water, stir, wait 10, drain. Repeat until you have enough for boil.

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reading this cleared up a ton of questions even though it wasnt even my thread.

thanks

Has anyone had problems with batch sparging pulling out excessive burnt flavors with chocolate malts/dark grains? I waited 10-15 minutes with each batch sparge on my last imperial stout. It was my first attempt at AG brewing and my stout seemed to have a more burnt after taste than many of the commercial examples I tried. It finally settled out after two months...but I was wondered if I dod something wrong...

Could just be over use of specialty grains. Need to see a recipe to make a determination. Highly doubt that the method of sparging would cause this effect.

madisoneyes said:

Has anyone had problems with batch sparging pulling out excessive burnt flavors with chocolate malts/dark grains? I waited 10-15 minutes with each batch sparge on my last imperial stout. It was my first attempt at AG brewing and my stout seemed to have a more burnt after taste than many of the commercial examples I tried. It finally settled out after two months...but I was wondered if I dod something wrong...

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What temp was your sparge water? It sounds like high temps could be one potential answer to that.

The important thing to remember is that you still made beer and everything is going to be ok.

One thing to remember for next time though is that if you are mashing at 149, you may want to go a little longer than 60 minutes or at least check for conversion after 60 minutes. At a lower temperature it takes long to convert and I know it sounds weird, I thought when I started, what is the difference between 149 and 155? Well there is a whole lot of difference when it comes to mashing.

Doubt it was the temp. Lower temps will result in dryer beer (more fermentable sugars in wort).

You probably should just note this in your recipe log and back off the specialty grain.