Autosparge vs fly sparge

Auto sparge vs fly sparge. What are the pros and cons? What do you prefer?

I think you mean batch vs fly sparge. I do batch or BIAB, never bothered with fly.

samc said:

I think you mean batch vs fly sparge. I do batch or BIAB, never bothered with fly.

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Ha yes sorry ! I had the blichmann auto sparge on my mind .....

What are the merits? Is one easier to do? Does one approach have less maintenance? Is one way cheaper to build?

Supposedly Fly sparging is more efficient. Many batch spargers will tell you that ain't so.
Batch sparging is easier and faster although if you are already proficient in Fly then it isn't much effort, just takes longer. Fly sparging is just a continuous stream of water into the mash at the same rate it is coming out as wort, whereas batch requires that you add the sparge water, mix and drain, which you can do more than once if you split the sparge additions. I actually prefer BIAB which is putting your entire mash into a fine woven bag and leaving it in the total (some do partial with a sparge) volume of water and then drain & squeeze the bag at the end.

Next we wait for the Fly guys/gals to promote the FS process!

IMO the dennybrew article does a good job with this. dennybrew I have done both and will say that fly is the obvious way to go with HERMS/RIMS given the grain bed filter you establish and for large grain bills (and therefore large volumes) that would be difficult to BIAB or stir.

However, as long as you know your equipment and your efficiency both work just fine.

I used to batch sparge... then I went off and tried a fly sparge... WOW.

To me, it was much easier. Instead of drain, infuse, stir, wait, drain, infuse, stir, wait, drain... it was, drain (HLT into mash), drain (mash into kettle), drink a beer.

Plus, no question of getting the proper pre-boil volume, and *I* got instantly better efficiency.

I batch sparge, but I'm looking real close at BIAB. I'm currently switching a keggle to electric and the BIAB is so simple with less to mess with. A temp control and a pump with hoses. I even see were some are use cold water to sparge, easier on the hand instead of squeezing a hot sack. Knowing your equipment is key in every case though. Cheers

My first few AG brews I batch sparged. Intrigue and the desire to hit greater efficiency led me to try fly sparging pretty quickly. I don't use a sparge arm, my mash tun is a double bucket setup so my grain forms pretty deep so just putting the hose from my boiler straight into the tun and rest it on top of the grain, it doesn't matter if the very top of the grain is disturbed a little.

I found my efficiency increased by at least 8 percentage points, which I was pretty pleased with, getting between 78-80% efficiency

I will chime in and say a good middle ground is a 2 vessel system with one pump.

I did brew in the bag / no sparge and really liked the process but hated the bag so I went to a second vessel and use the pump to transfer the liquid, recirculate and to whirlpool chill.

Its a great way to start all grain and you can use a boil kettle and a cooler combo. No pump is necessary either if you want to hand transfer the liquids with a bucket.

With a bit of manual labor and a plastic bucket or something to hold sparge water you can also batch sparge with this setup.

I fly sparge and find it so simple that I've never been tempted to move over to batch.

Fly is as easy as draining water from hlt to mt at the same (or very nearly the same) rate as you drain from mt to bt. I err on the side of more water in to mt than out and then adjust a bit. It's pretty much set and check

I just had a tube that tested just above the grain bed and trickled water sideways. My bed rig will use a dripper head of some kind, more for the cool factor than anything.else.

No mixing. No measuring out batches of sparge water.

I batch sparge at the moment since my system is single-tier and I only have one pump..

But, what steps are necessary to ensure that your drainage flow rate from the mash tun to the BK, and from the HLT to the mash tun are the same? Is it just as simple as opening the valves to the same degree, or are there other things that need to be worked out?

I go back and forth!

I fly sparge about half, and batch sparge about half. A couple of reasons- one is just because of my HERMS setup. I can't run my HERMS correctly with only a 5 gallon batch (as I need more water in the HLT to cover my HEX coil) so I often go ahead and batch sparge it. When I do a 10 gallon batch, I often fly sparge unless I'm in a hurry.

My efficiency never varies more than 1-2% either way. It's a matter of your system (I have two pumps), your false bottom (with a braid it's probably best to do a batch sparge), your personal preference, and how easy vorlaufing is. I don't think one way is "better" than another at all.

Stankonia said:

I batch sparge at the moment since my system is single-tier and I only have one pump..

But, what steps are necessary to ensure that your drainage flow rate from the mash tun to the BK, and from the HLT to the mash tun are the same? Is it just as simple as opening the valves to the same degree, or are there other things that need to be worked out?

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Yes, it's about that simple. If you have a sight glass, you can watch the sight glass on the HLT and it should be draining at the same level the BK is filling.

I have always fly sparged. It only takes about a half hour. You don't need fancy pumps or anything either. All you have to do is keep the water line slightly above the mash while you are running the wort out at about 0.25 gpm. You can even transfer from the hlt with a pitcher if you don't have anything else.

Stankonia said:

I batch sparge at the moment since my system is single-tier and I only have one pump..

But, what steps are necessary to ensure that your drainage flow rate from the mash tun to the BK, and from the HLT to the mash tun are the same? Is it just as simple as opening the valves to the same degree, or are there other things that need to be worked out?

Click to expand...

yep, that's it. I start the sparge a bit before the drain just to let a bit of water build up, and watch the flow rates... Takes me about two minutes and its good...