Single or Double Batch Sparge...

Since I made the jump to AG I have yet to Fly Sparge. I brewed a couple of 5gal AG batches then made the jump to 10gal. Each time I have sparged with 2equal amounts. I havent had any issues hitting my volumes or gravity.

My next brewday will be 2 separate 5 gal batches, back to back, and I was looking at a few ways to shave off some time. It appears that going from a double batch sparge to a single would save considerable time. I know a lot (if not most) of you guys who batch sparge use just a single sparge.

My question(s) is, did the double batch sparge originate simply due to lack of Mashtun size?
Is there any noticeable gain in effeciency with a double?

Since these will be 5gal batches I will have more than enough room for a single sparge for each as they are both in the 1.065 range.

Thanks for the input in advance!!

Ill tell you what I learned about sparging yesterday during my first AG brew. I was making a 5 gallon batch (6.5 collected for the brew pot) of Biermuchers Centennial Blonde. My cooler MLT is probably way too big and my grain bed not nearly deep enough for a single batch sparge. I was able to do 2 gallons at a time without much disturbance to the grain bed but when I tried to sparge with 3 gallons (double sparge) I eneded up having to collect almost a gallon before the bed settled.

I eneded up pouring that gallon through a funnel with a hop bag to collect the floaties.

Maybe I didnt sparge slow enough or maybe I just needed to be working with more grain but Im going to have to do at least a double sparge with my current setup.

Did you let the sparge water rest a bit prior to vourlauf?

Hawgbranch said:

Since I made the jump to AG I have yet to Fly Sparge. I brewed a couple of 5gal AG batches then made the jump to 10gal. Each time I have sparged with 2equal amounts. I havent had any issues hitting my volumes or gravity.

My next brewday will be 2 separate 5 gal batches, back to back, and I was looking at a few ways to shave off some time. It appears that going from a double batch sparge to a single would save considerable time. I know a lot (if not most) of you guys who batch sparge use just a single sparge.

My question(s) is, did the double batch sparge originate simply due to lack of Mashtun size?
Is there any noticeable gain in effeciency with a double?

Since these will be 5gal batches I will have more than enough room for a single sparge for each as they are both in the 1.065 range.

Thanks for the input in advance!!

Click to expand...

Anyone else??

Hawgbranch said:

My question(s) is, did the double batch sparge originate simply due to lack of Mashtun size?
Is there any noticeable gain in effeciency with a double?

Click to expand...

I don't know how double batch sparges originated, but there is an increase in efficiency with double (and triple, quadruple) sparging. However it really isn't that great. There is a graph floating around HBT somewhere that shows theoretical efficency increases. As I recall, double sparging was maybe 10% more efficient than single, and triple 2% more than double - something like that.

edit: check this link.

Hmm...that's good to know. I will do another search and see if I can find that info.
10% may be worth the time and effort. Not in a terrible hurry anyway....

It's not even 10% more efficient. It's more like 4%. No matter how many sparges you use, the efficiency will be maximized the closer each RUNOFF is equal to the others.

IOW:
A single sparge where first and second runnings are exactly equal will be more efficient than the same single sparge where 1/3 of the volume was first runnings and 2/3 was sparge runnings.

The same is true for 2 sparges, 3 sparges etc. You can either adjust your mash ratio to accomplish this or add a touch of sparge water to the mash prior to first runnings.

I was an advocate of a double batch sparge for a while because I was on a quest for max efficiency as a challenge not necessarily for practical reasons. Those with small tuns and large grain bills are pretty much required to do it.

When I was using a cooler MLT with a braid, I double sparged all the time because fully draining it and vorlaufing was really easy. Now that I use a keg based MLT with a false bottom, it's more of a hassle so I single sparge.

This may have been caused by something else but I kept getting stuck sparges when I only did 1 sparge. But once I started doing two sparges I haven't had a single stuck sparge.

i am a single batch sparger. i dont see the point in doin split sparges. i get good enough eff. with a single sparge. not knockin the people who do it i am just to lazy i guess.