Menu Icon


Looking for homebrewing gift ideas? Check out our previous gift guides here or here!
Also, if you enjoy BrewUnited, please consider doing your Amazon shopping via our affiliate link!



You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Brewing Discussion --> Question about batch/fly sparge

Jump to:    1   
AgedAardvark
SLC, UT
53 Posts


I've been batch sparging, in general.  Dropping in a whole load of the new water at the sparge temperature, stirring, letting sit for 10 minutes, then re-vorlaufing, re-draining.  

Today, I tried an up-turned colander in my mash tun.  I realized when I went to do the first batch sparge that if I went a little carefully, I could pour a half-gallon at a time onto the back of the colander, and it would fill the tun back up without perturbing the grain bed.  So... that's what I did.  Then I re-drained it without stirring or resting.  It's like fly sparging, but in batches?  What do you think?  




Posted 34 days ago.

AgedAardvark
SLC, UT
53 Posts


Apparently I got around 80% efficiency today.  So... that's something.



Posted 34 days ago.

ingoogni
nl
314 Posts


Well, the big difference between the two is completely draining or not. I fly, but in two batches, wait till the wort is about half an inch over the grainbed. Then carefully add about an inch of water in such a way that it kind of floats on top of the wort. Once that is gone I add all the water needed in one go, without disturbing the grin bed.

Other difference is of course the speed of the wort flow, that is a lot slower with fly sparging, especially at the beginning.




Posted 34 days ago.

Catman_bru
SE, WI
7 Posts


I learned a similar method of hybrid sparging when I first started out, colander and all. I prefer to double batch sparge now, because it fits my system, but if you are getting 80% efficiency I can't see a problem with it.



Posted 34 days ago.

Pozzska
Valley City, OH
12 Posts


Whatever it's called 80% efficiency is great...does it taste good?  ;-)




Posted 34 days ago.

skunkfunk
OKC, OK
38 Posts


I got 93% the other day with my patented disaster-sparge method, on a 1.105 beer to boot (was supposed to be 1.08 6 gallons, got 1.105 7 gallons. Too late at night to realize I shoulda split it into 2 fermenters and topped off to hit gravity at 10 gallons.) Take your mash, then crush the hose braid so it won't drain. Get a few buckets, fill it with some of the grain, strain it out until you think it'll drain, but then it still doesn't cause the braid is hopelessly crushed by your mash paddle. Now get a big ol' bowl and the BIAB bag, collect and pour all the wort into your kettle through the grain bag, making sure to strain any remaining grain. Got some of your grain in a bucket? Good. Add the sparge water to that bucket, strain the grain, then add that wort into the mash tun to sparge the rest of the grain. Repeat until all wort collected. 2.5 hours later, mop the floor and then you're ready to start boiling!

tl;dr getting my post count up

I guess my point is, do it your way. If you got 80% and it tastes great, then call it whatever you like.




Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by skunkfunk

AgedAardvark
SLC, UT
53 Posts


>does it taste good?  ;-)

I sampled the wort.  I have a hard time telling what good wort is supposed to taste like.




Posted 34 days ago.

AgedAardvark
SLC, UT
53 Posts


I guess I should say, I really trickled the wort out of the mash tun.  I mean I really took my time.  Naturally, I changed several aspects of my process all at once, so I don't know what really accounts for the huge (12 percentage point) improvement in efficiency.

Also, at what point do we start to worry about too much efficiency?  Stripping tannens and such out of the husks?




Posted 34 days ago.

AgedAardvark
SLC, UT
53 Posts


>patented disaster-sparge method...

I love this.  Another honorary Clark Griswold.




Posted 34 days ago.

Jump to:    1