I'm only about 5 or so batches into my new foray into traditional all-grain brewing, but something dawned on my in my last batch - I love fly sparging so much more than batch. Is it just me?
Maybe I'm lucky, weird, or doing something wrong (It's likely all three). But batch sparging was just so much more work for me. Batch sparging seemed like vorlauf, run-off, heat aprge water, stir, let sit, vorlauf, run off, repeat. Whereas fly sparging was almost "set it and forget it." With the occaisonal check to make sure your flow rates are consistent and your "inch of water" on top of your grain bed isn't getting too big or small, the water seems to do all the work for you, freeing up time to prep other stuff or like I did last brew day, put away laundry.
Maybe I was over complicating batch sparging and maybe I'm under-complicating fly sparging, but I sure know which one I prefer- and I'm killing my efficiency.
Also, I am terrible at vorlaufing, maybe that's part of it. I grasp the concept but I can never seem to not get grain bits in my runnings. *Shrug*
Maybe I'm lucky, weird, or doing something wrong (It's likely all three). But batch sparging was just so much more work for me. Batch sparging seemed like vorlauf, run-off, heat aprge water, stir, let sit, vorlauf, run off, repeat. Whereas fly sparging was almost "set it and forget it." With the occaisonal check to make sure your flow rates are consistent and your "inch of water" on top of your grain bed isn't getting too big or small, the water seems to do all the work for you, freeing up time to prep other stuff or like I did last brew day, put away laundry.
Maybe I was over complicating batch sparging and maybe I'm under-complicating fly sparging, but I sure know which one I prefer- and I'm killing my efficiency.
Also, I am terrible at vorlaufing, maybe that's part of it. I grasp the concept but I can never seem to not get grain bits in my runnings. *Shrug*