Batch Sparging Idea

Wondering if anyone has attempted this. Im going to be doing a partial grain batch on friday. I don't have much for fancy equipment. What I was thinking of doing when it came time to sparge was to use my auto syphon and use that to get a slow pour of 170 degree water over the grains. Anyone tried this? Is it too hot for the plastic?

It should be fine for the tubing. Just make sure to stir up the grains because there is a good chance you will be channeling the sparge water through the grains and won't get a complete rinse. Alternatively, you can just do it as a fly sparge. Since you will be siphoning water, you can drain your first runnings while sparging. Just keep the water above the grain bed till the sparge water is gone.

The fly sparging method will probably be your best bet. You don't want to necessarily disturb the grains too much and channeling is a significant risk if you've drained your first runnings already.

i used to do this with my old setup, it always worked great and I got better efficiency then with a total batch sparge. This is basically a fly sparge and if you pinch the end of the hose a bit you can get it to spray a bit. just keep moving the hose around as you spray and you wont have any problems with channeling.

Hmmmm, I haven't read into fly sparging very much. Could you explain it in a little further detail? I'm planning on brewing tomorrow and I'd love to hear about it.

Fly sparging is when you're continuously draining from the lauter tun while continuously adding more water on top.

Theoretically it's more efficient than batch sparging but on the homebrew level most people find they're about the same. It really comes down to your equipment set up and how you want to do it.

I think your method sounds more akin to fly sparging, but you will probably have to regulate the flow out of the hot liquor bucket with a hose clamp. The draining out of the lauter tun should be very slow when fly sparging.