How long does your sparge take?

Just wondering how long you take to do your sparge. Just trying to get an idea from a bunch of people to see where I come in at compared to the average.

Thanks.

 

5 gallon: 45min-1 hour

 

12 to 15 minutes a gallon.

 

I double-batch sparge, each runoff takes about 15-20 min, so 45min-1hr total.

 

i fly sparge, probably 35-40 minutes max, i should probably go slower, but i get above 80% eff on average, next brew day im gonna runoff slower than usual and shoot for an hour to sparge and see what it gets me maybe like a quart every 2 minutes

 

Fly sparge = 1 hour

 

What am I missing here? I drain my 5 gallon igloo cooler in less then 5 minutes, then refill with 170 degree water. I let that in the mash tun for 15 minutes then drain that in less then 5 minutes. I always get 80%+ efficiency with this. Why do you guys take upwards of an our to sparge???

 

I batch sparge. So, about 5-10 minutes. i get 80% efficiency as well. It takes waaaaay waaaay longer for people to fly sparge b/c they trickle sparge water in and trickle it out as well.

 

45 minutes to and hour fly sparging...sometimes even 1.5 hours

And you know what.....my efficiency sucks!

But I've been fly sparging for years...that's how I learned and I've stuck with it.

Guess what...I'm gonna batch sparge from now on....so...if anyone is interested in a good used sparge arm...let me know....I'm done with fly sparging.

 

Same here...what is the appeal/ rationale for fly sparging? Do you get something we batch spargers don't? Besides an hour or two longer brew day I mean

 

"apparently" you get better efficiency. But 90 minutes is worth waaaay more than 5% in efficiency.

 

i tried fly-sparging. got 70-73% efficiency. dropped from my 80% with batch. went back to batch, right back up to 80

 

I guess fly makes sense if you have a fancy RIMS or HERMS system, but my 10gal cooler, a stainless braid, batch sparging, and I get along JUST fine at 83-88% efficiency. AND I know my efficiency comes from conversion and not extraction and I'm not oversparging :rockin:

 

To fly sparge a 15 gallon batch - at least an hour. If the OG exceeds 1.040, it's probably more like 2-3 hours. Frame your question better - what size batch, what sparge method, what is the typical OG?

 

wow.. i guess you dedicate a whole day to brewing?

 

Exactly... Why would you get less efficiency and add more time to your brew day just because you're a creature of habit?

 

Don't you?

 

Fly sparging usually takes me about 45 minutes.

 

When doing an AG batch absolutely!

If I'm pressed for time, well, that's what extract and PM brewing is for.

 

2-3 hours to sparge? wow i didn't realize fly was that much work.

i batch sparge, so it's pretty quick, but i'm not getting great efficiency, i'm stuck at about 70%.

i recently had an AG brewday done in 3.5 hours. orfy's mild, single infusion, one batch sparge, no mashout. twas awesome.

 

i double batch sparge - 15 mins per sparge

 

0 minutes. Love no-sparge. 70% efficiency, minimum.

 

So, I guessing the question should have been,
"How long does it take you to lauter for a five gallon batch of 1.050 wort."

But hearing the difference between peoples batch and fly times in interesting.

For me it's about a half hour batch sparging. Could probably drain faster, but I think I get clearer wort with less chance of getting stuck when I go a little slower.

 

I fly sparge because my MLT with a false bottom is set up for it, because it will not run off fast enough for batch sparging, because I'm in no hurry, because I want to, because I'm not too hip on telling other people or being told what to do or is cool or is better.

What is the reason some folks get so horny when it comes to the question of lautering? You can make your beer with a can of sterno and a claw foot tub for all I care. A guy asks a simple question and others have answers to that question. Keep it in your pants please.

Oh, and just to fan the flames, I believe fly sparging is nearly always more efficient, assuming you have a sufficient amount of sparge water. When fly sparging, you end up with final runnings at like 1.010 if you want. Batch sparging ends up with higher gravity final runnings usually. That said, Batch sparging is fine by me. My second choice in fact.

 

I won't speak for anyone else, but I was not flaming anyone for fly sparging. I was truly curious as to the reasons why some fly sparge and whether I was missing something.

 

5 gallons at 1.050, about 40 minutes fly sparging with a 10g rubbermaid MLT
With a 5g MLT, it takes me about 60 minutes
If I batch sparge, I can save about 15 minutes, and lose a few points in efficiency.
5 gallons at 1.075 used to take me 90 minutes with the 5g MLT. Batch sparging with the 5g MLT at that gravity just wasn't possible.

-a.

 

I guess I could benefit from keeping it in my pants too.

 

Hi Jkarp, can you tell a limitless about your no-sparge?

 

Stupid phone! That was supposed to be "a little about your no-sparge."

 

I hear you gain 10% efficiency if you leave it out though.

 

Sure. Build thread here. Short version published in the Nov '09 BYO.

 

I fly sparge. It usually takes me about 30 min for 5 gallons. I get 80-85% efficency.

 

Please help me understand why fly sparging takes longer than batch sparging. You end up with the same amount of liquid in the boil either way, which means that you have to pass the same amount of liquid out of the mash either way.

Batch sparging requires two time-consuming steps relative to fly sparging: 1) mash tun must be fully drained before second batch of water is added, and the draining loses pressure the whole time as the head is reduced. 2) mash must be stirred and vorlaufed.

On the fly side, I can only think of one reason why it might take longer to drain the same amount of liquid: since there is no stirring of the mash bed, perhaps the mash bed gets compacted relative to the second batch of a batch sparge? Seems farfetched to me.

So what is it about fly sparging that consumes the extra time?

 

In fly sparging rinsing of the grains is accomplished by slowly filtering water through the grain bed so that no channeling occurs. With batch sparging rinsing is accomplished by stirring the crap out of the grain bed and draining as fast as your system allows.

 

Well I batch sparge but I still drain pretty slowly. I have found that I sometimes get a stuck sparge, and always get murkier wort if I just crank my valve open, even if I vorlauf.

 

That would mean a 10% loss for me, I always brew au natural.

 

For me, 1st runnings then 1 sparge. Every time.

Batch Sparge:

1. Add water & stir = 1 minute.
2. Vorlauf = 5 minutes.
3. Drain with pump: 2 minutes.

I get great efficiency and my beers taste fine. I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

What do you use for a MLT manifold? My False Bottom with a braid on the pick up tube runs slow. With no braid, it clogs. I'll likely be doing a 10 gallon batch sparge affair soon. I might put in a braid by itself for that batch.

 

I almost always do 11g batches. I have a bazooka screen (in a keggle), which is just a much more robust braid. I've been meaning to go to a false bottom, but there's no hurry as everything works great now.

I don't even use rice hulls with wheat beers. Maybe I'm lucky, but with about 50 batches behind me I'd say I'm beyond luck.