Am I batch sparging when I vorlauf for extended time

[johnwpowell]

I usually recirculate with a pump for 5 minutes to vorlauf before going into the kettle and starting to fly sparge. I got to thinking today that 5 minutes is probably a long time to vorlauf and was wondering if I am actually batch sparging. What do you think?

 

[doug293cz]

No, you are not sparging. To sparge you have to use fresh water. Recirculating the wort will not extract any more sugar from the mash, it just moves it around. Sparging is rinsing to remove residual sugar left after draining. The sparging liquid has to be lower in sugar concentration than the original wort in order to remove any residual sugar from the grain bed. Water is obviously the most efficient rinsing agent. With fly sparging the draining and addition of the rinse water are going on simultaneously.

Brew on