How long does your sparge take?

[jkarp]

Stupid phone! That was supposed to be "a little about your no-sparge."

Sure. Build thread here. Short version published in the Nov '09 BYO.

 

[imperialipa]

I fly sparge. It usually takes me about 30 min for 5 gallons. I get 80-85% efficency.

 

[TANSTAAFB]

I guess I could benefit from keeping it in my pants too.

I hear you gain 10% efficiency if you leave it out though.

 

[wuertele]

Please help me understand why fly sparging takes longer than batch sparging. You end up with the same amount of liquid in the boil either way, which means that you have to pass the same amount of liquid out of the mash either way.

Batch sparging requires two time-consuming steps relative to fly sparging: 1) mash tun must be fully drained before second batch of water is added, and the draining loses pressure the whole time as the head is reduced. 2) mash must be stirred and vorlaufed.

On the fly side, I can only think of one reason why it might take longer to drain the same amount of liquid: since there is no stirring of the mash bed, perhaps the mash bed gets compacted relative to the second batch of a batch sparge? Seems farfetched to me.

So what is it about fly sparging that consumes the extra time?

 

[AnOldUR]

So what is it about fly sparging that consumes the extra time?

In fly sparging rinsing of the grains is accomplished by slowly filtering water through the grain bed so that no channeling occurs. With batch sparging rinsing is accomplished by stirring the crap out of the grain bed and draining as fast as your system allows.

 

[weirdboy]

In fly sparging rinsing of the grains is accomplished by slowly filtering water through the grain bed so that no channeling occurs. With batch sparging rinsing is accomplished by stirring the crap out of the grain bed and draining as fast as your system allows.

Well I batch sparge but I still drain pretty slowly. I have found that I sometimes get a stuck sparge, and always get murkier wort if I just crank my valve open, even if I vorlauf.

 

[Northcalais40]

I hear you gain 10% efficiency if you leave it out though.

That would mean a 10% loss for me, I always brew au natural.

 

[passedpawn]

For me, 1st runnings then 1 sparge. Every time.

Batch Sparge:

1. Add water & stir = 1 minute.
2. Vorlauf = 5 minutes.
3. Drain with pump: 2 minutes.

I get great efficiency and my beers taste fine. I wouldn't do it any other way.

 

[Northcalais40]

For me, 1st runnings then 1 sparge. Every time.

Batch Sparge:

1. Add water & stir = 1 minute.
2. Vorlauf = 5 minutes.
3. Drain with pump: 2 minutes.

I get great efficiency and my beers taste fine. I wouldn't do it any other way.

What do you use for a MLT manifold? My False Bottom with a braid on the pick up tube runs slow. With no braid, it clogs. I'll likely be doing a 10 gallon batch sparge affair soon. I might put in a braid by itself for that batch.

 

[passedpawn]

What do you use for a MLT manifold? My False Bottom with a braid on the pick up tube runs slow. With no braid, it clogs. I'll likely be doing a 10 gallon batch sparge affair soon. I might put in a braid by itself for that batch.

I almost always do 11g batches. I have a bazooka screen (in a keggle), which is just a much more robust braid. I've been meaning to go to a false bottom, but there's no hurry as everything works great now.

I don't even use rice hulls with wheat beers. Maybe I'm lucky, but with about 50 batches behind me I'd say I'm beyond luck.

 

[RM-MN]

i've been doing BiaB and if I even bother to sparge, sparging take me about a minute and my efficiency seems to run about 78%. From starting to heat water to finishing clean up usually runs 2 1/2 to 3 hours.

 

[Northcalais40]

I almost always do 11g batches. I have a bazooka screen (in a keggle), which is just a much more robust braid. I've been meaning to go to a false bottom, but there's no hurry as everything works great now.

I don't even use rice hulls with wheat beers. Maybe I'm lucky, but with about 50 batches behind me I'd say I'm beyond luck.

Sorry to grill you, but does the bazooka screen kill the siphon at the valve? And if so, how do you avoid dead space? Do you have a pick up tube to put the bazooka down nearer the bottom?

 

[passedpawn]

I use a pump, so siphoning isn't really a factor. Still, I can't pick up anything below the level of the screen.

I have about 1 - 2 inches of dead space in the bottom. No, I don't have any type of elbow to get it closer to the bottom. It doesn't bother me at all. It would have a couple of years ago, but I've learned it isn't important. I thought about fashioning an elbow to get it to the bottom, but I now see no need.

It is not important. It affects your brewhouse efficiency some, but that isn't important either (I learned that too).

[edit] I do use one of those hanging hop baskets. I am sure that I would have more problems with my bazooka screen and my plate chiller if I did not keep the hop pellets separated from my wort by this hanging screen.

 

[infection]

Same here...what is the appeal/ rationale for fly sparging? Do you get something we batch spargers don't? Besides an hour or two longer brew day I mean

I dont really get the fly sparge = longer brew day concept..... I begin my fly sparge, start collecting wort and once I get a few inches in my BK I fire up the burner....by the time its to my target volume its just about ready to boil

your time is limited anyway for the time it takes to get your wort to a full boil, so sparging in 5 minutes or an hour really makes no difference to me IMO

also, I can set it and forget it....periodically check that there is a couple of inches of sparge water over the grain bed....this frees me up to drink some brews; weigh out hops...do some sanitizing etc...

my typical starting boil volume is around 14 gallons so I'm not sure if that is a factor or not

not saying either method is better than the other....just throwing out my 2 cents

 

[nfarrell1]

0 minutes. Love no-sparge. 70% efficiency, minimum.

Hi, all-grain newbi here. Just did second batch after refining my manifold and sparging for about an hour instead of 30 min. 13 lbs gave us 1.030 and our first batch gave us 1.048. My question is, if I'm shooting for a 6-6.5 gallon boil to start and I'm mashing with 1.25 quarts per lb of grain and I DON'T sparge, how do I get the rest of the wort? Just add water or do a second mash?

 

[AnOldUR]

. . . how do I get the rest of the wort?

Add a large mash-out infusion to get the full boil volume in a single lauter. Requires a large MLT.

No Sparge Brewing

As described by John Palmer in his BYO article “Skip the Sparge” (May-June 2003), a no sparge brew has the entire volume of “sparge” water added to the mash and stirred in before any runoff has taken place. Even though additional water has been added, since it’s been added to the mash before runoff has begun, we can more properly think of it as a mash infusion, rather than a sparge addition...hence the name “no-sparge”. This method is the easiest way to mash, but at the expense of poor extraction, typically 50%. The advantage, though, is that because all the sugar from the mash is in solution from the agitation of adding the water, lauter design has minimal effect.