I brewed today and had a realization that there's an aspect of fly sparging I've never considered. I'm curious to hear about how you fly sparge and let me explain.
I have a spike 3vessel custom system. I used to sparge (until today) as follows: When it comes time to sparge I mostly follow spike's directions and pump my hot 168F sparge water from the HLT through the HERMS coil into the mash tun where it flows down onto the grain bed through a piece of silicon tube and distributed by one of those flexible aquarium aerator manifolds.
Per spikes directions I start a slow runoff to the boil kettle and begin adding hot sparge water and try to balance the flows. I keep 1 inch of water over the grain and try to make my sparge take about 30-45 minutes. I sparge until I hit preboil volume in my kettle. I've spoken to several fellow brewers and they all agree that they sparge until they hit preboil volume.
Today I brewed a barleywine and followed almost all the same steps except for the end. I kept 1 inch of water over the grain but it also bed monitored my HLT to see how much sparge water I was adding. I stopped the flow of sparge water when I hit the BeerSmith recommended 2.5 gallons of sparge water. Then I just left the wort flow alone and let it slowly drain.
I was doubtful that I would hit my preboil volume like this without adding more water but sure enough, it was right.
I also hit 69% brewhouse efficiency and 77% mash efficiency in a beer with an OG of 1.105!! That's crazy high for me, and I was predicting only 64% brewhouse efficiency.
I believe that for years I have been excessively diluting my wort by keeping 1" of water over my grain bed and sparging until I hit preboil volume instead of paying attention to BeerSmith and stopping my sparge water flow.
What do you do?
I have a spike 3vessel custom system. I used to sparge (until today) as follows: When it comes time to sparge I mostly follow spike's directions and pump my hot 168F sparge water from the HLT through the HERMS coil into the mash tun where it flows down onto the grain bed through a piece of silicon tube and distributed by one of those flexible aquarium aerator manifolds.
Per spikes directions I start a slow runoff to the boil kettle and begin adding hot sparge water and try to balance the flows. I keep 1 inch of water over the grain and try to make my sparge take about 30-45 minutes. I sparge until I hit preboil volume in my kettle. I've spoken to several fellow brewers and they all agree that they sparge until they hit preboil volume.
Today I brewed a barleywine and followed almost all the same steps except for the end. I kept 1 inch of water over the grain but it also bed monitored my HLT to see how much sparge water I was adding. I stopped the flow of sparge water when I hit the BeerSmith recommended 2.5 gallons of sparge water. Then I just left the wort flow alone and let it slowly drain.
I was doubtful that I would hit my preboil volume like this without adding more water but sure enough, it was right.
I also hit 69% brewhouse efficiency and 77% mash efficiency in a beer with an OG of 1.105!! That's crazy high for me, and I was predicting only 64% brewhouse efficiency.
I believe that for years I have been excessively diluting my wort by keeping 1" of water over my grain bed and sparging until I hit preboil volume instead of paying attention to BeerSmith and stopping my sparge water flow.
What do you do?
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