Best sparge method

[DrJerryrigger]

You're off your gourd! If you've ever driven a pickup, you know F150 surpasses everything on the road.

And THAT pains me to say as I work for Toyota!

Yeah if you want a truck build in Brazil, I guess you could get an F150.

But really; I want an old POS Toyota pickup, with a 22RE and an SR5. An S10 would be my second choice.

 

[DrJerryrigger]

I just did my first batch sparge, I got 94.25% efficiency! But that was with 6 stages and the last one was at 1.005

 

[umopepisdn]

Well, I will tell you what I think since I just spent the money to fly sparge in a couple weeks, but even if it is about the same, I will continue to do for the chicks man.......chicks dig fly sparging

 

[slothorentropy]

Can someone rationally enumerate the reasons for fly sparging beyond just personal preference? If it doesn't result in a materially better beer then isn't it effectively just adding a bunch of time to your brew day for the sake of a few points of efficiency?

 

[socalboomer]

Evidently y'all don't drive REAL pickups. You'd know that if you did, it would have a Cummins under the hood. . .


I fly sparge because it's simple (at least to me) - and because it's what I was taught.

I have my HLT with more than enough water in it heated to about 190; when my mash is done, I start running it into my mash tun, slowly, and start draining my mash tun into the boil tun. I keep doing this until I have the proper volume and I'm done.

No stirring. No muss. No fuss. I get 75%+ efficiency and hit my pre-boil grav readings right on nearly every time (give or take a % or so) and all I really do is to open the valve on my HLT, and on my Mash.

 

[Germelli1]

Can someone rationally enumerate the reasons for fly sparging beyond just personal preference? If it doesn't result in a materially better beer then isn't it effectively just adding a bunch of time to your brew day for the sake of a few points of efficiency?

See post #11 in this thread.

With my mash tun I dont have enough space to batch sparge. So I fly sparge. Plus when done correctly, fly sparging yields better efficiency.

Can you imagine trying to batch sparge this

 

[slothorentropy]

Fair enough! That's the best reason I've heard for why it would be preferable. Do you think you'd continue to do it, though, if you had a larger tun? Even if switching to batch cut ~45min out of your day?

 

[socalboomer]

I know I'm going to continue doing it - 45 min in my brew day is not that bad, and honestly I don't have to babysit it. I have piping from my HLT to my mash so it just dribbles on top nicely. I get it started and once it's running the way I want it, I check it every so often. . .

 

[slothorentropy]

Yeah I guess the only conceivable way I'd be into it would be if I had an HLT. When I first started AG brewing, my buddy and I had learned this by-hand fly sparge technique from this YouTube video. We thought we were being diligent and methodical; actually we were just wasting a bunch of time. That dude's series of videos were good overall and more power to him if he likes his method, but it was a serious pain in the ass and didn't have any appreciable positive effect that I could determine.

 

[Germelli1]

Fair enough! That's the best reason I've heard for why it would be preferable. Do you think you'd continue to do it, though, if you had a larger tun? Even if switching to batch cut ~45min out of your day?

I am the wrong person to ask for that Nothing about brewing seems like a chore to me...I even LOVE bottling. Yes, you read that right...I love to bottle. It is like a meditative activity. So I would never do anything with the sole purpose of cutting down my brew day. I enjoy ever aspect of brewing which why I regularly have 6 hour brew days. They are a chance to sit on the porch, drink a beer and socialize with the old neighbors to one side, and the student apartments on the other!

But I would probably keep fly sparging just because I find it a lot of fun. It also makes more sense in my head to be continuously rinsing the grains to dissolve the sugars. But it also makes a lot of sense to dissolve the sugars via vigorous stirring with a batch sparge. So you can sure as hell bet I would experiment with both methods.

One thing I ALWAYS recommend to new All grainers is to try both methods out for yourself to see what you prefer. That is true for EVERY fiercely debated topic in brewing. So build a tun for fly sparging with a manifold or false bottom rather than a braid. Try both out and if you like batch sparging more, you can use that method even with the fly sparging hardware. If you build a tun for batch sparging, then you are confined to only that method!

 

[Germelli1]

Yeah I guess the only conceivable way I'd be into it would be if I had an HLT. When I first started AG brewing, my buddy and I had learned this by-hand fly sparge technique from this YouTube video. We thought we were being diligent and methodical; actually we were just wasting a bunch of time. That dude's series of videos were good overall and more power to him if he likes his method, but it was a serious pain in the ass and didn't have any appreciable positive effect that I could determine.

I have got to run to class so I can't answer this one as fully as I would like. Search "Hybrid fly sparge" on this site. All you need is a second pot and a pitcher. I started with that and have since moved to Pouring hot water in a 5 gal igloo sports cooler and run a siphon tube from that to my mash tun!

 

[Gustavo]

ok question. lets say you dropped down to 48 or so during your mash hour. Do you need the sparge water to be at 170 or your grain to be at 170. In other words would i have to bring my sparge water to 180ish

 

[Gustavo]

*^148

 

[socalboomer]

I have mine at about 185 so when I start adding it to the mash, the temp rises to about 170.

However I have done it with 160 deg water and made some mighty fine beer. There just wasn't a mash-out per se... I didn't raise the temp of my mash to 170 to stop the enzymatic process.

 

[Germelli1]

Gustavo, you are asking great questions! The temp of the sparge water doesn't not have to do anything with the science of the mash. This is why "mashing" and "Lautering/sparging" are two separate, but related processes.

The point of sparging with hot water is to "mash out". This simply means to raise the temperature of the grain bed, which in turn allows more sugar to be dissolved.

If you think back allllllll the way to your first chemistry class, you were taught there are two ways to quicken and increase the amount of stuff to be dissolved in a liquid:
1. Aggitation-stirring in batch sparging, or the flow of water in a fly sparge
2. Increase heat- compounds dissolve better (quickly and more fully) in hotter liquids.

#2 is the reason we sparge with hotter water!

Edit: as socalboomer pointed out, higher temps also denature (aka stop) the emzymes in the mash. Although I never bought into this reason for a mash out since you are immediately boiling once the sparge process is complete!

 

[Gustavo]

Ok well every calculator I use tells me to sparge at 170. And this is to say my mash keeps the temp of 152. How can I calculate a temperature of the sparge water with out jeopardizing creating tans?

 

[Germelli1]

Ok well every calculator I use tells me to sparge at 170. And this is to say my mash keeps the temp of 152. How can I calculate a temperature of the sparge water with out jeopardizing creating tans?

Tannins will only be formed if the temperature gets too high AND pH of the mash rises above [about] 6.0. pH is a MUCH bigger factor in tannin extraction than temperature!

Think about decoction mashes where part of the mash is BOILED. No tannins are extracted even after boiling the grains because the pH is kept low!