I sparge for about 1-1.5 hours. I have been wondering recently if I could speed this process up somewhat and get the same efficiency (75%). How long does it take you to sparge?
That seems like a long time fly or batch. I fly for maybe 1/2 hour. Mid 80's efficiency. IMO, you won't gain much drawing this out. Especially with batch sparging.
i double batch sparge for 10min each time, i get 80% total efficiency, for beers above 1.080 i set up beer smith at 75% but i set aside gallon or so of wort for starters
That is a nice long sparging time, but to only get 75% is odd. I sparge for about 45 minutes max and typically fall in the 78 to 82 % range. Possibly the crush could be increased to bring a little more out? Are you performing a mash out temperature step and bringing the mash up to around 168F? I find that this adds a couple percent to efficiency.
I used to batch sparge, but now I fly the helicopter for an hour.5 and drink beer. (It’s old, and sounds rather like the windmill in the opening scene of the movie, Once Upon A Time in the West (1968).
Batch sparging is easier and quicker, to be sure, but – for me – I really like that extremely clear beer that comes out from an hour long settled grain bed.
I can only get into the 80s efficiency if I take well over an hour to lauter. Sparging time is only about 40min - actually sprinkling sparge water over the grainbed - but lautering is much longer, more like 1:25.
If time is money, spend it on a few more handfuls of grain and remove the efficiency field from your BeerSmith main page.
I usually do batch sparging, but with multiple batches. Usually first runnings and 4 more. I get over 90% and it takes me about 45minutes. It usually takes my stove that long to boil anyway.