Fly-Sparge discussion. Exposing the grain bed.

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mgeorg04

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I have been looking through the threads for some time now as I try to improve my all-grain process. Something mentioned almost every time with fly-sparging is to avoid exposing the grain bed. There is never any discussion on why this is bad though. I assume it is because you miss out on sugars at the top of the grain bed? What are the other disadvantages or reasons to avoid doing this?

There have been plenty of times in my numerous brews where I got side-tracked by something and let the sparge dissipate below the grains and I had to quickly increase the flow to bring it back up. So this leads to another question, is there any risk with increasing the sparge flow to the point where there is always plenty of sparge water on top of the grains? I am sure channeling could be an issue, but I think I have that under control with my equipment. I'm thinking 3-5 inches of water on top of the grains.

On a final note with sparging, I only have one cooler at the moment (used for a mash tun) and I use my kettle as the lauter tun. So the wort is going into a bucket which ends up in the kettle once the sparge is complete. Are there disadvantages to doing it this way that I don't know about?

Thanks everyone!

Mark
 
Easy question first, as long as you are gently pouring or racking the wort from the bucket to the BK, I wouldn't worry about it. Whether Hot Side Aeration is real or imaginary is of great debate for homebrewers, but I would be more comfortable being gentle with my wort. Love your wort and it'll love you back!

On the other question, my best guess would be that exposing the grain to air compacts the grain bed, harming lautering and risking a stuck sparge. Batch spargers have exposed grain without ill effect, so I don't imagine it has anything to do with air affecting the grist. I tend to over-throttle the HLT a bit, then dial it back, rather than the other way around. Never stuck a sparge (yet).

Best of luck :mug:
 
Easy question first, as long as you are gently pouring or racking the wort from the bucket to the BK, I wouldn't worry about it. Whether Hot Side Aeration is real or imaginary is of great debate for homebrewers, but I would be more comfortable being gentle with my wort. Love your wort and it'll love you back!

On the other question, my best guess would be that exposing the grain to air compacts the grain bed, harming lautering and risking a stuck sparge. Batch spargers have exposed grain without ill effect, so I don't imagine it has anything to do with air affecting the grist. I tend to over-throttle the HLT a bit, then dial it back, rather than the other way around. Never stuck a sparge (yet).

Best of luck :mug:

Great synopsis!

Compacting the grain bed is one concern and probably the biggest and most valid one. (Unless you believe in HSA "ghosts"/UFOs).

Another concern is maximizing extraction. If you look at many traditional and even modern UK breweries you'll see that they sparge over dry grain beds but they have complicated spinning sparge arms that are designed to evenly distribute the liquid over the bed; even distribution is important in maximizing extraction rates.

If you keep the liquid level above the grain bed level clearly you're evenly distributing the liquid across the bed AND you can use a simple hose return and don't have to worry about the cost and complication (or annoying squeaky sound or clogging the sparge arm) of a rotating sparge arm.


Adam
 
Excellent! Thank you for the replies. I will watch that lautering rate a little closer...but also probably increase the speed so I'm on the safer side to avoid exposing the grains.

I remember reading a little about Hot Side Aeration and it sounded a little strange to me, but who knows. Either way, I'll certainly be gentle with that wort.

Thanks again.
 
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