When to stop sparging...

[Monk]

I batch sparge and usually try to collect a preboil volume of about 7 gallons because most of my recipes are around 10 lbs grist. But I was wondering, if you are doing a very light beer, like an ordinary bitter, and the grist is only 7 lbs, would you stop sparging at around 5 gallons or so, and add water to the kettle? I was thinking too much sparging water would start to extract tannins.

 

[bradsul]

When batch sparging it's pretty much impossible to extract tannins unless you use water that is way too hot. Because you're just stirring and then running out immediately the pH is never really an issue like it would be with a prolonged fly sparge. By sparging less and topping up you'll most likely get much lower efficiency.

 

[Monk]

Thank you! That will really help my AG technique. I've been worried about tannins for no reason, basically. And I've been undersparging I think. Cheers.

monk

 

[Bobby_M]

On a bill like 10lbs, you'll find that your last runnings gravity are still up near 1.020 when you get your 7 gal. When you scale back to 8lbs, it might get down to 1.012-15ish, still safe.

 

[Monk]

Cool. Like I said, this is going to help my AG technique quite a bit, I think. Thanks guys.

 

[bradsul]

Good luck, let us know how it goes!

 

[RedSun]

If your runnings don't get low enough, 2 boils is always an option. I've had to run a 6.5 and 1.5 gal boil a few times on the grande brews that I wanted to maximize eff on. 1.5 is easy to boil on the stove and combine later.

 

[steinsato]

Raising the dead. I'm a fly sparger and was wondering at what gravity do I need to stop sparging. I think I remember hearing, once your last runnings drop below 1.008 you want to stop sparging and use top off water...does this sound correct?

 

[mrk305]

I just sparge until I get to the boil volume I want. Like RedSun posted, I do a two pot 8 gallon 90 minute boil.

 

[Frodo]

Raising the dead. I'm a fly sparger and was wondering at what gravity do I need to stop sparging. I think I remember hearing, once your last runnings drop below 1.008 you want to stop sparging and use top off water...does this sound correct?

That's what Palmer says IIRC, 1.008 or about 2 brix.

 

[ajf]

I stop at 1.010 (2.5 brix). This is usually about 1g short of my required pre-boil volume.
I used to sparge until I got the required volume. Sometimes this was OK, but other times, I got excessive tannin extraction. Stopping at 1.010 doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference to efficiency.

-a