"Rinsing the Grain Bed"?

[Randar]

My sparge takes 30 minutes tops. There's no way fly sparging is taking you less than 30 minutes. Is it?

I take 60-75 minutes to fly sparge 15 gallon batches and consistently get 82-85% efficiency.

edit: I do go slower if I am doing a big beer or targeting an aggressive efficiency, but even then I aim for ~90 minutes.

 

[JonK331]

I am very new to all-grain, but I don't understand this either. Obviously every system is different, yadda yadda. But I thought in order to realize the great efficiency of fly sparging, you had to go super slow (45-60 minutes)? Doing two batch sparges takes me like half that time, because I can open the valve full-bore. Like Lodovico said, my wort is as clear as it's going to get after 30 seconds vorlaufing. Not sure how that is the major time killer for people.

See above - Palmer recommends 1 qt per minute

 

[JonK331]

Okay so I didn't consider larger batches. It looks like there is no real difference in time for a five gallon batch, fly might even be faster. But for larger batches, since the runoff rate has to stay the same at 1 qt/min, batch sparge might be faster. Makes sense. Do pro breweries really only run off at 1 qt per minute though? Somehow I doubt it.

 

[Randar]

Okay so I didn't consider larger batches. It looks like there is no real difference in time for a five gallon batch, fly might even be faster. But for larger batches, since the runoff rate has to stay the same at 1 qt/min, batch sparge might be faster. Makes sense. Do pro breweries really only run off at 1 qt per minute though? Somehow I doubt it.

Of course not, but the surface area of their false bottom is also much greater. They are able to rinse/drain much more quickly. There may be other factors at play as well, but I've never worked in a REAL brewery, so I don't know what other mechanisms might be in play here.

 

[bionicbrew]

...my runnings aren't clear with long vorlaufs when I batch sparge it. I get a pretty clear vorlauf but when pouring the vorlauf back to the cooler I get some grist no matter how careful I am about it...

I use a styrofoam plate on top of the grain bed and pour my vorlauf onto it fairly slow. it spills over the sides and spreads out the returning liquid so it doesn't penetrate in one spot. my runnings stay clear that way with no extra work and it's cheap. I have even done the modified fly sparge using that method to keep the water level above the grain bed. learned that on this forum.
good thread, I learned a few things to modify my methods.