Huy guys. Planning to do my first brew tomorrow. I decided to just start with all grain because I know that is where I will want to go in the future. I got my setup used from a brewer who was moving. I have done alot of reading and think I am as ready as I can be. For my first batch I am doing a 6g batch of the Zombie Dust clone that seems to be getting rave reviews.
Here's a brief review of my setup:
15g stainless mash tun (false bottom, therm, ball valve)
15g stainless HLT (ball valve)
8g stainless pot
I was thinking to use the 15g HLT for both strike/sparge water, then again as my brew pot. I figured I would heat the strike/sparge water in the 15g HLT, then mash in the stike water with the grains in the mash tun. Once the mash is comeplete, I would vorlauf then draing the first runnings into an ale pail that is incrementally marked. Then I would use the remaining strike water in the HLT to sparge. I would catch the wort coming from the sparge in another ale pail until sparging is complete. Then I would dump both ale
pails back into the 15g HLT for the boil.
That takes me to my sparging questions.
For fly sparging:
1. I do have access to a sparge arm which I could hook up to the out valve from the HLT. If you use this wouldn't you still have to
"spin" the sparge arm to prevent channeling the grain bed?
2. If you don't do the sparge arm, it seems the most common approach is to pour pitchers of water over a collander. Is that right? My brew put is really wide, so I don't have any way to rest a collander across the top. Any other suggestions?
My understanding of batch sparging is that you are essentiall re-mashing with the wet grain and sparge water, stir, rest, vorlauf then drain. Some questions:
1. WHen you batch sparge, does the sparge water rest on the grains for another 60 min (assuming that was your mash time) before vorlauf and drain? If not, what is the expected rest time?
2. Do you typically only batch sparge once with all sparge water, or do you split the sparge water in half and do two batch sparges?
Originally, I was leaning towards fly sparging as it seems more widely practiced, but I am concerned by keeping the flow rates constant, specifically because the valve diameter on my HLT is smaller than the valve diameter on my mash tun. On the flip side, batch sparging seems pretty fool proof because it's basically the same steps you used to mash with. And from what I have read in other threads here, it seems as though the perceived loss of efficiency with batch sparging seems debatable.
Any insight or suggestions? I realize this is my first brew and I will have lots of opportunities to try alternate approaches, but I do want to reduce my risk of error in my pilot batch.
Cheers,
Chad
Here's a brief review of my setup:
15g stainless mash tun (false bottom, therm, ball valve)
15g stainless HLT (ball valve)
8g stainless pot
I was thinking to use the 15g HLT for both strike/sparge water, then again as my brew pot. I figured I would heat the strike/sparge water in the 15g HLT, then mash in the stike water with the grains in the mash tun. Once the mash is comeplete, I would vorlauf then draing the first runnings into an ale pail that is incrementally marked. Then I would use the remaining strike water in the HLT to sparge. I would catch the wort coming from the sparge in another ale pail until sparging is complete. Then I would dump both ale
pails back into the 15g HLT for the boil.
That takes me to my sparging questions.
For fly sparging:
1. I do have access to a sparge arm which I could hook up to the out valve from the HLT. If you use this wouldn't you still have to
"spin" the sparge arm to prevent channeling the grain bed?
2. If you don't do the sparge arm, it seems the most common approach is to pour pitchers of water over a collander. Is that right? My brew put is really wide, so I don't have any way to rest a collander across the top. Any other suggestions?
My understanding of batch sparging is that you are essentiall re-mashing with the wet grain and sparge water, stir, rest, vorlauf then drain. Some questions:
1. WHen you batch sparge, does the sparge water rest on the grains for another 60 min (assuming that was your mash time) before vorlauf and drain? If not, what is the expected rest time?
2. Do you typically only batch sparge once with all sparge water, or do you split the sparge water in half and do two batch sparges?
Originally, I was leaning towards fly sparging as it seems more widely practiced, but I am concerned by keeping the flow rates constant, specifically because the valve diameter on my HLT is smaller than the valve diameter on my mash tun. On the flip side, batch sparging seems pretty fool proof because it's basically the same steps you used to mash with. And from what I have read in other threads here, it seems as though the perceived loss of efficiency with batch sparging seems debatable.
Any insight or suggestions? I realize this is my first brew and I will have lots of opportunities to try alternate approaches, but I do want to reduce my risk of error in my pilot batch.
Cheers,
Chad