Fly Sparge VS Batch Sparge: Facts

i guess i still dont understand, if a person is agitating the grain bed as in batch sparging, isnt that letting the proteins & fines penetrate to the bottom and into the wort, where an undisturbed fly would hold them at the top? or am i lost? wouldnt suprise me! thanks! ken

metlcutr55 said:

i guess i still dont understand, if a person is agitating the grain bed as in batch sparging, isnt that letting the proteins & fines penetrate to the bottom and into the wort, where an undisturbed fly would hold them at the top? or am i lost? wouldnt suprise me! thanks! ken

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IMO, you are correct in that stirring the grain bed will allow particulates to reach the bottom and potentially exit the mash tun entirely. There will inevitably be some particulates in the wort whether fly sparging or batch sparging. The solution is to do a vorlaugh as I have previously mentioned. This is good practice for either method. The grain bed then acts as a filter and the wort should run clear (free of particulates, not necessarily completely transparent). You can do the vorlaugh procedure either manually or with a pump. Sometimes cycling on a gallon or so will do the job. Other times it may require several gallons. It's a simple procedure and doesn't require a huge amount of effort or finesse.

I've been Kit brewing for a couple years, and just finished gearing up for all grain. Batch sparging yielded me 78.4% efficiency on my very first run. I just completed my 2nd run that gave me 83.36% The only difference between the runs was that I let my infusions rest for 20 min, then 15 min instead of 10 each on the first run.

Very happy

this topic is a 50/50...I have always fly sparged and would never do it any other way. many are on the other side of he fence.

I've done both. All the advantages are with my process. Let this die three years ago.

Quite a few homebrewers prob mash inside using the stove for hot water and boil outside via propane. A batch sparge will get you out and on the kettle quicker where as a long fly sparge will allow your wort to cool somewhat and take even longer to bring to a boil once it makes it to the kettle

DKJeremy said:

Quite a few homebrewers prob mash inside using the stove for hot water and boil outside via propane. A batch sparge will get you out and on the kettle quicker where as a long fly sparge will allow your wort to cool somewhat and take even longer to bring to a boil once it makes it to the kettle

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I begin heating the runoff as soon as I have the bottom of the BK covered. The wort is at or very near a boil at the end of the sparge. I'm usually not in a big rush when I brew.

I've always fly sparged -- looking forward to my first double batch sparge next week. Should be fun to see what efficiencies I hit and how much time I can shave off my brew day (less time sparging, less temperature two regain at the start of the boil after a 1 hr fly sparge). Who said this thread was dead? What the thread needs is more objective comparisons of brewers trying both techniques on the same rig. Pair that with descriptions of what sorts of rigs perform best with which sparge techniques -- that way people can match their objectives (efficiency, time etc) with equipment.

Here's are some real world anecdotes to chew on.

If you have a lot of dead space in your mash tun, fly sparging will be more efficient than batch.
If you rely on a siphon tube in your tun, such as in a converted Keg MLT, fly sparging is actually easier than batch sparging due to the inherent and repeated loss of siphon at the end of each run.
If you have a MLT with a stainless braid/bazooka tube, batch sparge.
Efficiency variations between low OG and high OG batches are minimized with fly sparging (not by much, but it's noticeable).

Bobby_M said:

Efficiency variations between low OG and high OG batches are minimized with fly sparging (not by much, but it's noticeable).

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What are you thinking of as high OG? My efficiency remains pretty much the same up to the mid 80s OG.

Denny said:

What are you thinking of as high OG? My efficiency remains pretty much the same up to the mid 80s OG.

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Interesting. I crush my own grains and have a very consistent fly-sparging procedure. My mash tun volume is 12.5 gallons and has a slotted "figure eight" CPVC manifold at the bottom that is well-spaced from the walls of the tun.

My fly-sparge efficiency ranges from 87% on smaller beers (1.040's) to 70ish% (1.075+).

It seems odd that your efficiency could remain the same across such a wide range of gravities, given that the volume of water passing through the differing volumes of grain is about the same...

Bobby_M said:

Here's are some real world anecdotes to chew on.

If you have a lot of dead space in your mash tun, fly sparging will be more efficient than batch.
If you rely on a siphon tube in your tun, such as in a converted Keg MLT, fly sparging is actually easier than batch sparging due to the inherent and repeated loss of siphon at the end of each run.
If you have a MLT with a stainless braid/bazooka tube, batch sparge.
Efficiency variations between low OG and high OG batches are minimized with fly sparging (not by much, but it's noticeable).

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Good stuff Bobby. Can't wait to try my first DBS.

Denny said:

What are you thinking of as high OG? My efficiency remains pretty much the same up to the mid 80s OG.

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I've noticed very consistent efficiency loss as OG goes up without any particular OG threshold. It's pretty linear in my experience and tracks closely with Kai's analysis:



I've only been fly sparging for a short time so I don't have as much sample data but I've noticed less variation in efficiency between batches in the 1.040-1.070 ranges.

I'd be interested to know what others are finding in this regard, especially those who have done both for many batches and cared enough to note such things. Since I barely find time to brew, I'm much less likely to sweat details like this and am happy enough to make maltose water.

Bobby_M said:

You realized you quoted a post from over two years ago right? And the guy you're talking to hasn't posted here in over a year.

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Information that helps a new member (like me) is still valuable...even over 7 years past the OP. Thank you all very much !

bigbeergeek said:

Good stuff Bobby. Can't wait to try my first DBS.

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This is funny to read 6 years and hundreds of double batch sparged brews later!