DIY fly sparge!

[Danno81]

I'm a fairly new brewer with about 90 gallons under my belt in the last 6 months and I've been struggling with my brew house efficiencies. I have been batch sparging but never put any thought into fly sparging it was always a "higher level technique" boy was I wrong I just hit 80% (I was around 60% before) basically unused a piece if high temp hose, plugged the end with a wire nut, and installed some drip irrigation hose barbs. Very simple and it raised brew house efficiency 20%. Not bad for a fly sparge on the fly

 

[Trippel-A]

Very clever. But is batch sparging that inefficient?

 

[Danno81]

It's probably not but i never had any luck with it

 

[ACarver]

Very clever. But is batch sparging that inefficient?

I batch sparge and know others that do. I have heard about 70-80% is pretty common. I personally get about 75%.

When you get down to around 60% you might want to make sure your crush is not the culprit.

 

[cluckk]

I batch sparge everything. My last three batches were 85%, 87% and 90% mash efficiency. The biggest improvement came from getting my own mill and grinding finer. I also closely monitor my pH, but the crush made the biggest difference.

 

[mattd2]

I batch sparge and know others that do. I have heard about 70-80% is pretty common. I personally get about 75%.

When you get down to around 60% you might want to make sure your crush is not the culprit.

I wouldn't expect his crush to be the cause since fly sparging with the same crush jump to 80%. I would expect that there was not enough stiring going before the second/third runnings were drawn off. Basically stir like a madman to get all those taste sugars into the sparge water.

 

[gozarca2]

Im pretty new & dont know how to calculate my efficiency. I use brewtoad which i think estimates 75 or 80%, & my OG & FG is usually very very close to what their calculator says. Am i missing a cost significant savings by being more efficient? Thelocal HB store mills the grain for me. Is fly sparging that much better? (I'd need more equipment for sure)

 

[mattd2]

Im pretty new & dont know how to calculate my efficiency. I use brewtoad which i think estimates 75 or 80%, & my OG & FG is usually very very close to what their calculator says. Am i missing a cost significant savings by being more efficient? Thelocal HB store mills the grain for me. Is fly sparging that much better? (I'd need more equipment for sure)

Your not really missing out on a cost saving - for efficiency I personally think being consistant (or being able to acurately assume what your efficency will be) is more important that the actual numer.
If you are constantly getting 75% and you put the effort into bumping that up to 80% you would reduce your grain bill by 6.25%: = 1-(old_eff / new_eff)
For an average 11# malt bill that would be about $1 (assuming $1.5/# base malt - Northern Brewer Website)
For the OP going from 60% up to a "normal" 75% that would mean 20% less malt, or a saving of about $3.30.

I would take a lower efficiency that is consistant over a high efficiency that is all over the place