Sparging times

[maplemontbrew]

I've gotten some good feedback but am still a little foggy on sparging times. I brew 5 gallon batches and use an autosparge. My target time for sparging had been 30 - 45 minutes. Someone passed along the pint per minute suggestion which would put put me at 55 minutes +/-. Was also cautioned not to over sparge. Any hard and fast rules for a 5 gallon all grain hefeweizen sparge?

 

[broadbill]

I'm sure that there is some sort of fly-sparge guideline, but if you are balancing what is coming out with what is coming in, and you aren't getting channeling, I would say you are there.

 

[Bsquared]

Your sparge rate is going to dictate your extraction efficiency. The slower you can sparge the more extract you will get, the faster you will get less. You can compensate for a faster sparge time by adding more grain. A typical sparge rate is 1 liter/min or like you said 1qt/min, I sparge at 1.5L/min and compensate with a larger grain bill.

Follow the auto-sparge tip to rake the top 1/3 of your grain bed every 15min and you wont have to worry too much about over sparging. This occurs when the wort gets too dilute and the pH of the sparge water/wort starts to get close to the pH of the input water. Tannins start to get extracted very efficiently when the pH gets to be over ~6.5-7. Raking the grain bed will keep the sparge water pH closer to 5-6 range.