Fly sparge: drain or maintain

[DraconianHand]

My FB is entirely over the top of the drain inlet, so I should not have too much of an issue getting a pickup tube in there. Good thought though...it never crossed my mind.

As to how long it takes to go from rest to mashout, I would have to say it depends on environmental temp. I use the HERMS to rais the mash temp, so it can take a while (I have not tested it)...at least 30 minutes? I think on my next brew I will try direct heating the MLT while recircing.

I expect to see an increase in eff once a pickup tube is installed. A more uniform, centralized draining of the wort should help and I will get all the wort off the bottom of the MLT will help a bit.

I will also be using my new grain mill.

70% efficiency would be nice.

 

[jdoiv]

I think you should try just doing a simple single infusion mash of 154, mash out to 168 either through infusion or direct fire (keep it really low, set up recirc, and stir constantly) and you'll see a jump in efficiency. That and the pickup tube.

Last time I set up the herms, it took forever to move up a step and my efficiency was really low at 71%. When I direct fire, I can move the temp up a step in usually less than 15 minutes and get high 80's low 90's efficiency.

 

[jdoiv]

You know, thinking about it, I wonder if the additional water in all the hoses and coils dilutes the enzymes making conversion take longer? Do you do a starch test? I never do on the single infusion or direct fire mashes, as I usually go for a good 75 minutes. But I should when using the herms. Just a thought.

 

[DraconianHand]

jd,

I don't think that any water in the hoses or coils would affect the enzymes, if it isn't in the mash tun during the mash, it shouldn't have an effect on the mash.

And to answer your previous question about wort in my hoses and coils...there isn't any. When I begin my sparge, the water from the HLT goes to the pump, through the heat exchanger in the HLT and out on top of the mash. Any wort in the system is pushed out an into the MLT.

For future brews, I am going to change one variable at a time, so I can see what effect (if any) it has on my efficiency. I think this will be my plan:

1) add pickup tube
2) change my crush
3) direct fire MLT from rest to mashout
4) stop adding sparge water early and run MLT dry
5) 5.2 additive to mash
6) grant (if my eff isn't good enough)

I'll post the results on this thread. Everyone's ideas are well appreciated, thanks. When my membership is up, I'll be upgrading to a lifetime membership.

 

[Brew-boy]

I have done it both ways and I have not noticed a difference, so now I calculate how much water is needed for sparge and drain the MLT dry to get my volume. This saves me water which I have to buy and build.

 

[DraconianHand]

Maybe I'll try the 5.2 before I go running the MLT dry, then.

If I don't see an increase in efficiency after trying something, then I will just shelve it until later (for when I get real desperate).

 

[AiredAle]

You mentioned you get your grain crushed from the same LHBS that you did while batch sparging. I would suggest that maybe their mill gap changed at some point, or the mill itself was changed unbeknownst to you. This would account for some of the difference. Did you also change the base malt you use? Could this malt be crushed more or less efficiently? Just some questions to get you thinking if you left any variables out of your long list of things to try.

Good Luck!

 

[DraconianHand]

I am hoping to check the setting of the rollers at my LHBS tonight and I'll ask them if the setting has changed at all.

The base malts vary from recipe to recipe, but I have brewed several recipes on both my stovetop system and my B3 system. In both cases the efficiency dropped 10-15% on the B3 system.

 

[DraconianHand]

First brew using my new mill. Went from 65% eff to 75%.

I check the rollers at my LHBS and found them to be .42 and my new mill at .39. I didn't notice any negative effect on sparging from a finer crush, so I may adjust my crush further.

It also looks like a pick up tube won't work with my false bottom. Apparently MoreBeer had problems awhile back with the false bottom supports bending under a heavy grist, so they added more supports. These supports prevent me from getting the false bottom in place with a dip tube. For now I will just tip the MLT to get the heavy wort from under the false bottom.