Batch Sparging with High Gravity Beers?

[cs2to4]

I've seen bits and pieces, here and there on batch sparging and reduced efficiencies. Can someone explain this in greater detail to me? At what gravity should you take into account the drop in efficiency? How would you go about correcting for this? Thank you.

 

[killian]

I would say the easiest way to go is to brew a beer and once you get your preboil gravity you can figure out what your efficiency is and adjust your gravity with DME. Use your efficiency to adjust your grain bill for your next beer.

 

[Chester]

You can still make a high gravity beer and batch sparge. It's important to know what your efficiency runs, then develop your grain bill. Make sure your mash tun has enough volume to hold it all. Excellent chart here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/how-big-your-mash-tun-needs-123585/

 

[weirdboy]

I keep several pounds of DME on hand just in case I really miss my target gravity on a mash. I've only had to use DME once to fix a batch when my thermometer broke and I completely missed my mash temps. That being said, many of my brews are in the 1.075-1.100 range and I haven't really had any trouble with efficiency.

 

[lamarguy]

At what gravity should you take into account the drop in efficiency?

Batch sparge efficiency tends to significantly fall off around 1.080+.

How would you go about correcting for this?

Increase the amount of sparge water and subsequently lengthen the boil, increase the grain bill to account for efficiency losses, add DME (as others have pointed out), or consider continuous sparging for high gravity beers.

The Batch Sparging Analysis wiki page should answer all of your questions and then some...Happy reading!

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, this is the graph that answers your question:

Of course, it doesn't specifically account for what your normal extract efficiency is, but it makes the generalization that once you have a baseline, every additional pound of grain will drop your efficiency by about 1%.