Sparging on a Brewmagic/Kettle system w/ a march pump

I have a little issue I'm trying to solve, and I thought I'd ask the best group of brewing thinkers I know of.

In any case, I recently moved from a 10 gallon rubbermaid cooler mash tun, where I used a fly sparging technique (using a sparge arm) to the setup you see below (which is a brewmagic system). On the inside of the mash tun where the water comes in (at the top) there is a 1/2 in long inlet tube that is about 1/2 in in diameter.

The previous owner gave me a run down on how to use the system and has a hose hooked up to this inlet port. (it's just a piece of PVC tubing that fits it..) He said to sparge I should just let it drain down onto the grain bed while pumping water from my HLT. I asked him "Won't that disturb the grain bed??" He replied that if I was concerned about that I could put a plate or something on top of the grain to disperse the water.

With my cooler fly sparge system I was getting 75% efficiency or so. The gentleman who showed this to me was claiming to get 90% efficiency, which seems impossible with that method.

I made 6 batches of beer with that method. 3 were 10 gallon batches, 3 were 5 gallon batches. My efficiency was about 60%. After that I thought "I'll try to rig up some way to use the old sparge arm". I did that, and my efficiency did increase 10% in the last 3 batches. I'm okay with 70%, but there has to be a better way to do this.

What do you guys use/suggest?

Here's that picture (sorry for the crappy drawing, but it should serve okay).

Im not sure, I use a HERMS system w/ recirc, and I don't put a plate in or a sparge arm, and I get 80-85% w/ the method you're describing. I'd say something else w/ the new process needs a tweak, but not sure what. if you're using the sparge arm on the new system and still getting less than before, then its likely something else. not sure what? What else has changed? do you have a lot of free headspace on the tuns? are you losing heat too badly to keep the conversions going? Etc?

IMO, the lower efficiency is usually a symptom of sparging too fast. Ideally, you have an inch or so of water above the grain bed at all times. Adding water very, very slowly to this layer should not cause any problems. Key words being very and slowly. One of my friends has a BM and says he gets upwards of 90% efficiency on a regular basis. I use a PVC "H" shaped return distribution manifold on my RIMS that works well for me. My best efficiency is only 80% and often more like 75%, but I'm OK with that.

I too use a BrewMagic exactly as it is intended and achieve 80 to 90% mash efficiency.

Are you;

keeping 1 to 2 inches of water above the grain bed?

situating the output hose to flow along the outside wall of the MLT keggle?

playing with the outflow to generate a gentle swirl of water over top of the mash without causing foaming?

You have to find the middle ground on outflow volume. Too little and you aren't really moving the mash liquid, too much and you'll find the outflow erodes a channel and buries the hose.

More often than not, people using a BM are sparging way too fast and that is where their efficiency plummets. 1 hour minimum on a 5 gallon batch. Means your draining the tun with just a trickle. Many owners will do a hybrid fly on this system. Flood to 2 or 3 above and drain to just below, repeat until your calculated sparge volume has been added and then drain til the tun is empty.

Best fo luck. There is a forum for BM owners that has a wealth of equipment specific topics and answers. look for a link through Sabco's site on the BM.

What the previous owner of the brew magic is describing is a simple fly sparge. You simply lay the tubing on top of the grain bed. Let the sparge water fill the mash liquor tank until there is 1 to 2 inches above the grain bed. Drain the mash liquor tank into the boil while maintaining the 1 to 2 inches of sparge water above the grain bed until you get the desired volume in the boil kettle. You will not disturb the grain bed because you will need to match the flow of the sparge water to the flow from the mash tun to the boil kettle which will be slow enough not to disturb the grain bed.

Thanks for the great feedback. I did devise something out of a coat hanger that directed the hose to the side of the MLT, but I'm thinking I'm sparging too fast. Probably 1.5x - 2x as fast as described. I'll slow it down and see what happens! Thanks again.

- Noleaf

Noleafclover said:

Thanks for the great feedback. I did devise something out of a coat hanger that directed the hose to the side of the MLT, but I'm thinking I'm sparging too fast. Probably 1.5x - 2x as fast as described. I'll slow it down and see what happens! Thanks again.

- Noleaf

Click to expand...

I have a couple of sponge rubber thingies on my silicone hose so it floats on the 1 to 2 inches of sparge water as not to disturb anything.

There are so many factors that affect efficiency but I can say without a doubt, it has nothing to do with the method of delivering the sparge water to the top of the mash tun.

Crush and sparge speed (fly sparge only) are way up on the list.