Why is batch sparging better/faster ?

[Denny's Evil Concoctions]

Very nice. Uh..supplying your friends? lol

A neighbor has been wanting to help me build such a system. He's a retiree that had an AC, plumbing, metalsmithing and some other company. I just don't have the room.

Really, goverments should just let us start neighborhood breweries.

 

[Tony]

Nice!!!!!!!!!

 

[brewman !]

Does this table sum up the various methods as far as time is concerned ?

http://picasaweb.google.com/beermeister1/SteamMashing/photo#5038279487798328562

 

[brewman !]

I batch sparged my blue moon clone last night. I did 3 drains in total.

I circulated a few quarts in a 3 gallon batch and then opened the valve to drain into the boil kettle and promptly got a stuck bed ! Remember the Blue Moon clone recipe is 50-50% wheat/2row.

I stirred the bed, recirculated less and drained a bit slower and it didn't stick.

I was surprised at how slowly the bed drained even at wide open. It isn't whoosh the bed is drained. Its pretty slow.

I let the mash sit for 5 minutes after I refilled it. I didn't no stir between mashes.

Efficiency sucked. I got 1.050 from 6 pounds of grain for 3 gallons of water. That's only 25 points per pound. I tasted the mash when I was done and it was a tad sweeter than it usually is.

One this I did different than my regular brews is I didn't treat the sparge water with gypsum. So maybe the pH of the mash was off a bit and that cut down the conversion ?

I didn't see any real advantage to batch sparge over fly sparge. I'll try it again and see if it works better on a beer with an easier flowing bed.