Batch sparge times

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Cos

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When batch sparging, do you add the water and immediately start to drain?

Not sure why, but I thought I was supposed to let my mash set 15 min after adding the sparge water before draining. I do 2 rounds of batch sparging, 15 min each. I've been getting 85-90% efficiencies.

I don't do a mash out, so I guess each sparge is like doing another 15 min. mash.

Is there any harm?
 
After the mash I add 2 gallons of water, sitr and recirculate then drain to kettle. If the brix or sugar content is high enough I add another 2 gallons of water or 1 gallon depending on how close I am to 4brix. I have a refractometer and I keep an eye on the run off into the kettle, Once I get to 4brix I stop. I stop because I dont want to oversparge, and extract tannins, plus anything under 4brix is not worth it to me. There is allot of debate over this and mash ph and extracting tannins. Allot of the info contradicts each other.
Some know what the grain will absorb and know what they will loose in the mash tun and they just add it all recirc and let it rip, my efficiency is better doing it the other way. Still today I am not sure which way is best.
To answer your question, what ever works the best for you, but if you add all of your water stir and let it sit for ten minutes or so then recirculate you might get better efficiency it wont hurt anything as long as your ph is right.
I dont let mine sit I add the two extra gallons after the mash recirculate and drain into kettle.
Good Luck!
 
It won't hurt anything, but I don't think it takes that long for sugars to enter solution. If you stir well and then vorlauf, you can probably go ahead and drain with the same results. Give it a try and see. If you come up short, let everyone know.
 
You will not me mashing with each sparge because you should already have full conversion.
You will hopefully be disolving and removing sugar from the grain.

15 minutes is fine. I leave mine 5 minutes.
 
I stir for a solid 5 minutes after dumping my sparge water in. It then takes me another 2 minutes to vorlauf 2-3 quarts, then I let it rip. It doesn't seem to take much time for the sugar to find the fresh water. My efficiency has averaged near 90% so I doubt adding 20-30 minutes to my brewday would help much.
 
My sparge water is hot enough to work as a mash-out. I stir for 5 minutes and let it sit for 5. This means the 2nd & 3rd runnings hit the kettle about the time the boil restarts. Cuts down on the total time for a batch.
 
I used to let it sit for 10 minutes between sparges, but now I add my sparge water while stiring the mash, vorlouf, then drain. Because I depend on gravity to power my rig, by the time that I have added the sparge water and finished vorloufing, its been 10 minutes or so. I have goten between 75-85% on my last 2 batches that I have done this.
 
I also only wait about 5 mins, get my clear runnings, then drop the hose into the brew kettle again.
 
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