Ins and Outs of Vorlaufing

[TycoRossBrewing]

So when I read up on vorlaufing it basically says to recirculate your runoff on top on the grain, my question is when exactly is this done? Typically I will empty out my mash and then squeeze the bag...then I start sparging, gathering the first liter or so of the sparge and pouring it on top of the grain. If I were to vorlauf, would i just skip the squeezing of the bag altogether and then pour the mashrun off over itself a few times until it starts to get a little more filtered? At that point would i just collect the now filtered wort and then sparge up to my preboil level without disturbing the grain layer that is now acting as a filter?

 

[sandyeggoxj]

So you are using the BIAB method? A vorlauf is used in a tradition brewing setup with a mash tun. Prior to lautering the brewer recirculates the wort so they can "set" the grain bed and minimize crud making its way into the boil kettle. Once the grainbed is set the brewer then uses a continuous sparge method, aka fly sparge, where the grain bed is not disturbed and the only thing that moves is the sparge water through the grain bed. If a brewer chooses to batch sparge then they will generally repeat the vorlauf for each batch.

Vorlaufing is just a method to help use the grain husks as a natural filter. You can make fine beer without a vorlauf. It seems that many brewers are working at making perfect beer and part of that is clarity. I don't actually know if the vorlauf increase the clarity in the packaged product but that is how people act. I don't know if that helps. I hope it does.

 

[RM-MN]

Vorlauf really doesn't apply to BIAB since you have your grains confined in a fine mesh bag so that you don't get grain husks coming through and getting into the boil pot. It won't hurt anything to do a vorlauf but it won't really help either.

Some people work really hard to get clear wort because clear wort means clear beer (to them anyway) but with BIAB you usually get cloudy wort and guess what? It still makes clear beer.

 

[TycoRossBrewing]

Vorlauf really doesn't apply to BIAB since you have your grains confined in a fine mesh bag so that you don't get grain husks coming through and getting into the boil pot. It won't hurt anything to do a vorlauf but it won't really help either.

Some people work really hard to get clear wort because clear wort means clear beer (to them anyway) but with BIAB you usually get cloudy wort and guess what? It still makes clear beer.

Thanks man....this makes a lot of sense. I have a big custom made nylon bag that works great with my tun but was just wondering if vorlaufing would be worth it....apparently it wont make much of a difference.