mmonacel
Well-Known Member
My MLT has a false bottom with a dip tube. The space below the FB is probably 1.5 gallons. With the dip tube, I can pick up all but 1/4 gallon. I double batch sparge.
When sparging I'm concerned that much of the water I add is mostly sucked up by the space below the screen and not really soaking the grains and extracting the remaining sugars. It's somewhat "wasted" water since it's contact with the grains is minimal as it passes through and settles on the bottom immediately. Unfortunately, this water is part of the runnings so when double batch sparging I have about 3 gallons never really in contact with the grainbed rinsing the good stuff.
I typically determine my total sparge volume by taking my target volume minus what first drained out of my tun. Should I be adding more to compensate for this dead space? In doing so I'll end up with more runnings than I'll need and those runnings will be somewhat diluted. Thoughts?
When sparging I'm concerned that much of the water I add is mostly sucked up by the space below the screen and not really soaking the grains and extracting the remaining sugars. It's somewhat "wasted" water since it's contact with the grains is minimal as it passes through and settles on the bottom immediately. Unfortunately, this water is part of the runnings so when double batch sparging I have about 3 gallons never really in contact with the grainbed rinsing the good stuff.
I typically determine my total sparge volume by taking my target volume minus what first drained out of my tun. Should I be adding more to compensate for this dead space? In doing so I'll end up with more runnings than I'll need and those runnings will be somewhat diluted. Thoughts?