I did my first fly sparge today and got the same results as my batch sparges. It was a 5 gallon batch and I mashed in with 13 quarts of water and let it it sit for 60 minutes. I then fly sparged with 5.4 gallons of water, matching my input with my output, that took about 45 minutes. I got a 75% efficiency rate with is the same, or even slightly less than what I get when I batch sparge. BeerSmith did all the volume and temperature calculations for me. What am I doing wrong?
Dumb Question #2
- Thread starter GRHunter
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Trying to fix something that's not broke.
Edit:
Is there a limit on dumb answers?
Displaced MassHole
Well-Known Member
Are you using a braid/manifold or a false bottom? With fly sparging you need to make sure the wort doesn't channel it's way to the collection device leaving residual sugars behind.
Also I always mash for 90 use a false bottom and my eff. are always in the 85-90% range.
Also I always mash for 90 use a false bottom and my eff. are always in the 85-90% range.
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GRHunter
Well-Known Member
I am using a 10 gallon round cooler with a stainless steel false bottom.
Sorry. You are over the dumb question limit for today. Everyone is allowed one dumb question per day. You've exceeded this limit.
Ok, anyway....... this is definitely NOT a dumb question. It's not a guarantee that you'll get a higher efficiency with fly sparging, so you probably did nothing wrong. Often, the greatest impact on efficiency is the crush.
But, there are some things you can check to see if you did it "right". First, did you do a mash out? For fly sparging, a mash out is very helpful. It gets the grainbed up to 168 far faster than just sparging. Secondly, what kind of manifold/bottom to you have? If you don't have a false bottom, you may have had some channelling. Also, did you drain your first runnings only to the level of about an inch or two above the grainbed? You want to have that liquid above the grainbed to help avoid channelling.
I got a consistent 10% increase in efficiency by adding a mash out before starting the fly sparge.
-a.
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GRHunter
Well-Known Member
Crush was at .032 and I used a false bottom. But I did not do a mash out.
Did you check the temperature of the grainbed during the sparge? And what was the temperature of the sparge water.
I'm guessing that your grainbed never got above about 160, if that. For fly sparging, a mash out is much more important. As ajf mentioned, that alone can be the answer here.
But, I get about the same efficiency during my batch sparging as fly sparging, even doing every thing "right". I fly sparge now because it's how my new system is set up, with the HERMS. Even with a mash out, a slow sparge, etc, I don't get much higher efficiency that when I did a double batch sparge.
There isn't anything wrong with fly sparging, or batch sparging for that matter. Many of us change things up because we love to tinker with stuff. If your efficiency is 75% with batch sparging, and your only reason for going to fly sparging is to increase efficieny, you may find it disappointing. That said, you may easily get 78-80% efficiency by adding a mash out. Of course, you may not.
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GRHunter
Well-Known Member
Did you check the temperature of the grainbed during the sparge? And what was the temperature of the sparge water.
I'm guessing that your grainbed never got above about 160, if that. For fly sparging, a mash out is much more important. As ajf mentioned, that alone can be the answer here.
But, I get about the same efficiency during my batch sparging as fly sparging, even doing every thing "right". I fly sparge now because it's how my new system is set up, with the HERMS. Even with a mash out, a slow sparge, etc, I don't get much higher efficiency that when I did a double batch sparge.
There isn't anything wrong with fly sparging, or batch sparging for that matter. Many of us change things up because we love to tinker with stuff. If your efficiency is 75% with batch sparging, and your only reason for going to fly sparging is to increase efficieny, you may find it disappointing. That said, you may easily get 78-80% efficiency by adding a mash out. Of course, you may not.
Yeah, this definitely falls into the tinkering category.
