Sparging with the Anvil Foundry advice.

[xaaronpettifer]

Hello, All

I have the Foundry All in One System and have done a few grain BIAB brews with no issues. I have the recirculation pump for the mash step which pulls hot (not boiling liquid) from the bottom and slowly sprays it over the top of the grain for better sugar gathering.

My question is can I do a kind of Sparg method once the mash rest is done about 60 min. My idea is to raise the Foundry grain basket out of the water/wort so all the wort runs down into the brew kettle as it says todo for each brew in the instructions book. BUT I was thinking of keeping the pump so very low. So that it took the hot wort from the kettle and re-ran it over the grain one last time to help wash out any last min sugars.

Would that make a difference at all or would it hurt becuase I would be taking sugary wort and running it over the grains again putting less sugary wort back in the brew kettle like a kind of grain filtration system. In a normal sparg you use hot fresh water, but I was wondering if my idea is more harmful then good.

Thank You
Aaron

 

[Nate R]

@xaaronpettifer you should go here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/thread...in-brewing-system.666090/page-58#post-9298509
LOTS of info! But if you read just the last 20 posts or so (currently on 2302 i think) it is addressed.

Basically... you can do it 1 of many ways, and acheive good results.

How muck work you want to do determines how much extra few points of S.G. you can get.

 

[GirthySquirt]

My question is can I do a kind of Sparg method once the mash rest is done about 60 min. My idea is to raise the Foundry grain basket out of the water/wort so all the wort runs down into the brew kettle as it says todo for each brew in the instructions book. BUT I was thinking of keeping the pump so very low. So that it took the hot wort from the kettle and re-ran it over the grain one last time to help wash out any last min sugars.

Would that make a difference at all or would it hurt becuase I would be taking sugary wort and running it over the grains again putting less sugary wort back in the brew kettle like a kind of grain filtration system. In a normal sparg you use hot fresh water, but I was wondering if my idea is more harmful then good.

I would expect that this idea would not do anything or have minimal impact, depending on if you are recirculating during the mash or not, whereby recirculating during the mash would probably mean a "sparge" in the way you suggested would not do anything and if you are not recirculating it might do something but I would expect not a whole lot. Sparging with wort really can't do all that much to aid in further sugar extraction in my understanding.

Since at the end of the mash most of the sugar is extracted out of the grain and dissolved in solution really the question becomes is the sugar solution concentration in the bottom of the foundry significantly different than the sugar solution concertation within the main bulk of the mash/grains - the difference in concentration would determine how much more sugar you could pull out. I would expect that there could be some gradient, especially early on in the mash, where the highest sugar concentration is inside the grains, in which case rinsing with the less concentrated wort below could help. I believe this is why many anvil foundry users (myself included) like to recirculate during their mash. Later on (after 60 minutes of mashing) the gradient is probably very small and the sugar is very evenly distributed within the body of the foundry. Why not just do a standard recirculation during the mash?

With my Anvil what I do to "sparge" is before I put my grains in for the mash (but after my water hardening salt additions) I drain a gallon of water to be used as the sparge solution from my Foundry into a pot and set it aside. I then mash as usual. When my mash is over I ramp up to 168F in the Foundry and also heat up my pot of sparge water to approximately 168F and then slowly pour the sparge gallon overtop of the mashed grains after lifting the grains out of the wort and letting them start to drain. I pour the water over the grains as soon as I see the height of the volume of draining water in my mash basket fall below the height of the grains. I will quickly insert the perforated disk after I see the water go down below the grains and then pour the sparge water slowly over the perforated disk, its pretty easy and I found it increased my brewhouse efficiency by about 5%. May be worth a shot!

 

[hopjuice_71]

Hello, All

I have the Foundry All in One System and have done a few grain BIAB brews with no issues. I have the recirculation pump for the mash step which pulls hot (not boiling liquid) from the bottom and slowly sprays it over the top of the grain for better sugar gathering.

My question is can I do a kind of Sparg method once the mash rest is done about 60 min. My idea is to raise the Foundry grain basket out of the water/wort so all the wort runs down into the brew kettle as it says todo for each brew in the instructions book. BUT I was thinking of keeping the pump so very low. So that it took the hot wort from the kettle and re-ran it over the grain one last time to help wash out any last min sugars.

Would that make a difference at all or would it hurt becuase I would be taking sugary wort and running it over the grains again putting less sugary wort back in the brew kettle like a kind of grain filtration system. In a normal sparg you use hot fresh water, but I was wondering if my idea is more harmful then good.

Thank You
Aaron

Having used a couple of different AIO systems over the last 7 years I can tell you this won't buy you any improvement. If I read your message correctly you are proposing to pass sugary liquid (wort) through an environment saturated with an equally sugary liquid (grain bed). It ends up being a wash (figuratively speaking). This of it as trying to rinse out a sponge filled with dirty liquid using a bucket of equally dirty liquid. Doesn't work. If you want to improve your efficiency then you might consider not doing a full volume mash and incorporating a simple pour-over sparge. I think you understand what this is, but just for completeness, this is where you pull the mash pipe up at the end of the mash then you gently pour more water over the grain bed. Some times this is a calculated amount of water but it is often easier to just sparge until you hit your desired pre-boil volume. Importantly, cold water works just as well for the sparge, so incorporating a sparge doesn't have to increase your equipment requirements, but using cold water will increase the time these (often underpowered) AIOs take to get to a boil. I suspect Anvil has its own volumes calculator for doing a mash with sparge. On a Grainfather the pour-over sparge would get me a ~5-10% improvement in efficiency.

 

[xaaronpettifer]

Thank You all

I had a feeling my idea might not add up to a higher SG. On my next brew, I think I will try and do a lower mash volume with the pump going. I will have to keep an eye on it as the water-to-grain ratio will be closer and I don't want a clog. Then I will pull the basket out and pour fresh water over until I hit my boil level which for my 240 Foundery is about 6 G pre-boil. for an hour.

It does make sense that water does have a point at which no more sugar can be dissolved. I will also read that other post on the Foundry.

Thank again

 

[kevin58]

I wouldn't recirculate wort over the grain bed to sparge. Personally, I do a full volume mash and don't sparge at all.