So I made the venture into all grain in August, after roughly 3 years of brewing primarily partial mash.
Anyways, I elected to go with the 10gal drink cooler + bazooka screen method with batch sparging.
So far, with a low to medium gravity batch, I get around 75-78% efficiency. When I sparge, I do 2 roughly equal large sparges followed by a final adjustment in case I didn't hit boil volume.
The water I use for sparging is usually around 190F, sometimes getting down in the 180s. I dump roughly half my sparge volume in, stir it up thoroughly, wait about 20-30 secs, then vorlauf and drain. I then repeat again, and finally sparge any small amount remaining to reach boil volume. So far, I've noticed no ill effects on my beer, and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Does anyone have any suggestions on my sparge methods? Is 190F too hot? I haven't noticed any weird flavors unless I've just made a bad recipe period, but I'm curious as to whether there's something I can fine tune there.
Anyways, I elected to go with the 10gal drink cooler + bazooka screen method with batch sparging.
So far, with a low to medium gravity batch, I get around 75-78% efficiency. When I sparge, I do 2 roughly equal large sparges followed by a final adjustment in case I didn't hit boil volume.
The water I use for sparging is usually around 190F, sometimes getting down in the 180s. I dump roughly half my sparge volume in, stir it up thoroughly, wait about 20-30 secs, then vorlauf and drain. I then repeat again, and finally sparge any small amount remaining to reach boil volume. So far, I've noticed no ill effects on my beer, and have been enjoying the fruits of my labor.
Does anyone have any suggestions on my sparge methods? Is 190F too hot? I haven't noticed any weird flavors unless I've just made a bad recipe period, but I'm curious as to whether there's something I can fine tune there.