Lil' Sparky said:
Ah, I see. You really are taking some measurements to tell. It just sounded like you weren't.
No more hand calculation by me, either. I let BeerSmith do all the work.
I don't calculate efficiency. I set brewsmith, and if I get close, I call it a day. Yes, I take a hydrometer reading before I boil, just to see how close I got. If'n I'm a bit over, then I smile. If I'm a bit under, I smile and say this is going to be .3% weaker than I thought...oh well.
I will say, from a newbie point of view (ie: 12-15 batches total, only 3-5 being AG): I do think batch sparging is as simple as it gets. How hard can it be to pour water into a cooler with some grain and let it sit an hour, drain it and pour more water in?
I don't open the thing up to stir. I stir when I put the grains in at the beginning, and I stir when I put the sparge water in. Then the sparge sits for 15 minutes and I drain it.
Hell, I don't bother vorlaufing either. I put a nice grain bag on the end of my hose to catch anything that comes out, the rest goes right into the brewpot.
Now, setting up a sparge arm (or suitable tinfoil substitue), regulating water flow, hoping against channeling, etc, etc...it's definately not easier than: Pour water in, let sit, pour water out. It's also not that much harder either.
I've never fly sparged, so I don't know how long it takes, but I'm sure it's about the same in the end. The only difference is a little bit less equipment to batch.
In the end, if 2 brewers mash with the same grains, and come out within .005 of each other, then neither one is better.