norwegiangeek
Well-Known Member
Just had a question about the science of sparging. I know I could just take the gravity readings and compare, but I'm very curious about why there would be a difference. I've honestly spent the last hour or so (instead of working) trying to find an explanation and all I seem to be able to find is that the difference is there, not why it's there (which is why I'm posting this in the Science thread)
My typical brew day (for a 5gal batch) was to heat 10qts of water, add to grains, wait an hour and then slowly add an additional 20qts of water as I slowly drained into my brew kettle. (I think this is called a psedu-fly sparge as I was just adding more water as it drained to the top of the bed)
My Mashtun recently sorta separated and the insulation space filled with wort, which was pretty gross after a week, before I noticed. I ended up getting a giant Igloo Cooler from work for free (think the giant orange guys you use to give a coach a shower) and it's way bigger than I need.
So my new process (well, i've only done it once so far) was to do the same 10qts at mash temp, wait an hour and then I just added all 20qts, let it rest a bit, then slowly drain that into my brew kettle. I assume that if I just opened up the valve and let it rip I'd leave behind a ton of good stuff.
The actual time it takes is the same as I'm draining just as fast as before, and its the same amount of water passing through the grain with what I can only imagine has the same amount of contact time as before as the grainbed just sits on the bottom and then there's a bunch of pretty clear hot water on top of it.
I don't think that would actually be considered no-sparge as I am definitely adding sparge water there at the end...but I'm not really fly or batch sparging either am I?
As far as I can reason in my head, the only difference is that instead of all my sparge water sitting in a kettle, slowly draining onto the grainbed; I've got all my sparge water sitting on my grainbed, but still slowly draining through it.
My typical brew day (for a 5gal batch) was to heat 10qts of water, add to grains, wait an hour and then slowly add an additional 20qts of water as I slowly drained into my brew kettle. (I think this is called a psedu-fly sparge as I was just adding more water as it drained to the top of the bed)
My Mashtun recently sorta separated and the insulation space filled with wort, which was pretty gross after a week, before I noticed. I ended up getting a giant Igloo Cooler from work for free (think the giant orange guys you use to give a coach a shower) and it's way bigger than I need.
So my new process (well, i've only done it once so far) was to do the same 10qts at mash temp, wait an hour and then I just added all 20qts, let it rest a bit, then slowly drain that into my brew kettle. I assume that if I just opened up the valve and let it rip I'd leave behind a ton of good stuff.
The actual time it takes is the same as I'm draining just as fast as before, and its the same amount of water passing through the grain with what I can only imagine has the same amount of contact time as before as the grainbed just sits on the bottom and then there's a bunch of pretty clear hot water on top of it.
I don't think that would actually be considered no-sparge as I am definitely adding sparge water there at the end...but I'm not really fly or batch sparging either am I?
As far as I can reason in my head, the only difference is that instead of all my sparge water sitting in a kettle, slowly draining onto the grainbed; I've got all my sparge water sitting on my grainbed, but still slowly draining through it.