Fly Sparging and Hitting Boil Gravity (New AG Brewer)

[emart85]

Hello, this is my first post and I'm looking at doing my first AG batch here shortly so bear with me, this may be a stupid question... I've done multiple extract brews over the last 5 years or so, have read Palmer and am now ready to give AG a go... I've purchased the equipment I need to make the switch, but I'm curious if anyone has some input on sparging techniques. I've decided that fly sparging is the route that I'd like to go (chemical engineering background, the increase in efficiency appealed to me), so I will have a HLT and MLT setup - two 10 gal coolers with a sparge arm for a 5 gal batch.

My question is: What is the best way to accurately measure the quantity of sparge water for lautering using this HLT? I don't have a level glass on the tank. My thought is to measure dead space in the HLT, add that volume to the total sparge water required, put that much 168 °F water in the HLT, and drain the HLT until empty. I figure this will ensure I sparge with the correct volume... I know that I need to watch SG and pH of the wort coming out of the MLT as well, but I'd like to be precise with the amount of the sparge water I use.

Am I over-thinking this, or am I missing something? I know a lot of these things will come with experience, but I'm trying to be as prepared for my first AG batch as possible! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[helibrewer]

Your technique will work. I know my HLT valve leaves 1 gallon behind so I calculate my sparge water and add 1 gallon. The fly sparging quantity is pretty close to your batch size, so a 5 gallon batch would use about 5 gallons of sparge water. I go until I hit 1.010 entering the kettle or reach my preboil OG which comes first. You can tweak with extract or water to fine tune the kettle.

 

[ajf]

In my opinion, you are over-thinking things.
I always prepare about 6 gallons sparge water and start sparging. I sparge until the Brix reading of the runnings drops to 2 Brix (1.008) or until I have collected the required pre-boil volume, then I stop. If I'm still short of the volume, I just make up the shortage by transferring straight from the HLT to the kettle. Otherwise I have a small amount of water in the HLT, that I use for cleaning up.
It's much better to have too much sparge water than too little, and after a few brews you should have a very good idea as to how much you need.
With batch sparging, you need to calculate the volume before adding it to the mash. With fly sparging, you just turn off the tap to stop the sparge.

-a.

 

[inhousebrew]

Sparge until you hit your volume. You should be fine. That's just me though and I gave up on fly sparging after trying it twice. Batch sparging is the way to go for me.

 

[tele_powder]

I prepare an extra 1/2 gallon just to be safe and just quit sparging when I hit my pre boil volume. You can always pick up a 10 gallon igloo HLT and slowly dump it into the mash tun also. Another nice trick is to take an old plastic fermenter lid, drill a bunch of holes in it and place on top if the grain bed so the fly sparge water doesn't disturb the grain bed. Rarely do my end runnings drop below 1010 unless I am making a very low gravity beer. Good luck. You will be fine.