Stirring a fly sparge?

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foxtrot

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I've been fly sparging for a long time and was thinking about doing a grist stir at about the half way point of sparging. I would collect the first runnings after the stir as usual. Has anyone tried this? Would it help with the pH issue? Would it help with efficiencies? I guess you could call it "batch-fly sparging".
 
You'd need to add enough water back in to vorlauf and reset the grain bed. I'm not sure that it would be worth it at that point. You may as well just batch sparge. Not sure what it would do for pH, I don't pay much attention to that myself (ok I don't pay any attention :D). I'm sure some much more knowledgeable folks than I will chime in shortly.
 
Seems to me pH is pH, whether you stir or not. What exactly do you mean?

Combo fly/batch seems like the bad of both methods. An advantage to fly sparge is setting the grain bed and no more stirring or additional vorlaufing. Batch sparge is nice 'cause it's quick. Doing a slow batch stirred fly sparge seems like lots of effort. Just my $.02 :)
 
Some people rack the top inch or two of the bed to close off channels, but I haven't heard of anyone trying what you are proposing. I doubt it would impact the pH at all.
 
I think it would create more problems than solutions. If you want to stir, batch sparge. If you want to slowly and evenly flow your sparge water throughout the grain bed, fly sparge.
 
I thought I read somewhere that in fly sparging the pH can change adversely because the grains on the top of the bed are being over-rinsed. I could be wrong.

Also, if any channeling is occurring, a stir at half-way point would redistribute the grains and a more complete rinse of the grains could be ensured.

Just posing the question and wondering if anyone has tried it. I think I'll just follow the old adage: don't fix what's not broken!!

Thanks all for your input.
 
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