measuring water for batch sparging

[cha ngo]

OK, I am a little embarassed to ask, but I am thinking of converting to batch sparging and want to know how you gurus measure the water for your sparge. Right now, I just eyeball the mash for the desired consistency and fly sparge to the boil volume. I do not think this method will work with the batch sparge.
Is this as simple as adding a sight glass to my HLT?
Is there a better way?
How exact do I need to be?

 

[Orfy]

I don't think it makes to much difference to a few quarts or so.
But how do you know how much you're going to get out if you don't know how much you're putting in?
My HLT is marked so I know how much I'm draining off.

I use metric but for mashing I use 2.6l/kg
For sparging I work out what I need in the kettle and use that amount up to a point where Im getting <1010 wort. If I'm short I top the kettle up with the rest of the sparge water.

 

[EdWort]

Here's some good info with links to a couple Excel spreadsheet calculators.

Batch Sparging

 

[Blender]

There is some good information here as well. Link >http://www.tastybrew.com/articles/dennyconn001

 

[cha ngo]

I guess I wasn't really clear.
I have found and read all of the sites that you gents have provided links for (thank you very much all the same). I can figure I need X amount of water for a particular batch. What I want to know is how do you actually measure the water that goes into the mash/lauter tun? Is it as simple as marking the HLT with a sharpie at every quart? Are you pouring the hot water into say a gallon container and then into the mash tun? How precise are you guys getting?

 

[Blender]

Oh I see what you mean. You can take a stick or a piece of metal and mark it along th edge at varying volume levels so you know how much water is in the HLT. I do not get as precise as a quart myself. My kettle is marked in gallons and I estimate the level between the marks for quarts. I don't pick up the 4 gallons that I use per sparge until it is halfway gone so I use a pitcher until I take out a couple of gallons. Sort of like Denny Conn shows on his page.

 

[anojones]

I've marked my brewing spoon every quart so I can tell how much I've used. However, I just built a sightgauge and I have a spigot on my HLT to make transfer easy. Here's a site on how to build a gauge.

http://www.texanbrew.com/article.php?story=20030625140627793

 

[teu1003]

My first brew kettle from extract days was a 20 quart pot ... it has a mark every 2 quarts up the side. my hlt is my 7 1/2 gallon brew kettle with a spigot. I heat mash water first. While the mash is going on, I heat mash-out water. During mash-out (which is actually the first sparge) I heat sparge (2nd sparge) water.

I dispense the sparge water to the 20 qt kettle and I now have an empty brew kettle.

I do first recirculate and half fill the brew kettle. Then the 2nd sparge, etc.

The old kettle is very convenient.

 

[cha ngo]

I've marked my brewing spoon every quart so I can tell how much I've used. However, I just built a sightgauge and I have a spigot on my HLT to make transfer easy. Here's a site on how to build a gauge.

http://www.texanbrew.com/article.php?story=20030625140627793

Excellent.
Thanks all.

 

[Desert_Sky]

I don't measure sparge water, only the temp its at. I know where it needs to be in my keggle to start the boil. I keep sparging until I reach that level.


Some like to take gravity readings to know when they have sparged enough though.....