Batch Sparging? Have you tried it yet?

[bandit]

I have been reading some info on this and it looks a lot simpler than using that revolving twirly arm that sprays hot water all over the side of my mash tun. Has anyone had any success with just refilling the mash tun and draining it a sceond time. Im no expert but Keep It Simple Stupid works for me every time

[flytact]

I've been doing it that way for a couple years. Sometimes I'll do a third sparge. Stop and taste the runoff on the last one to make sure it's not to astringent. Very easy and I'm in the mid to upper 70's in efficiency. I've never even seen a fly-sparge in progress so I can't compare.

Cheers

[PieOPah]

I batch sparge and it is very simple.

I haven't done too many AG brews yet so am still working on the finer points of my technique. I expect to be brewing this weekend so will see if I finally have it all sorted.

There is a little more to it than mashing, draining, batch sparge.

Dough in with your usual water:grain ratio.
Mash for x amount of time
Add enough top up water to bring the drainable vloume to half your required volume.
Mix in and rest for about 5 minutes
Drain completely (obviously you still need the vourlof till runs clearish)
Add sparge water - half the volume of total amount
Rest for 5-10 minutes
Collect and boil

My problem has been working out how much wort I need for a final volume. My last brew I hit everything perfectly but was short by about 4 litres - I hadn't taken the hops/trub into account.

When I brew on Sunday I am hoping to hit about 70% efficiency....

I have created a small excel calculator which I plug in the weight of grain and this should tell me exactly how much water I need for each and every stage. My next brew will tell me if the tweaking is complete

[bitter_dave]

I 'remash' ala wheeler, which is pretty much batch sparging I guess.
1) Drain the mash tun down to just below the false bottom
2) Add water at 80 C up to the point where it covers the grain, stir
3) leave a few mins and repeat from 1

I keep doing this until I get a gravity run off of about 1010 or below; sometimes this can take a few times; can't say I've noticed astringency.

I'm hoping santa will bring me a spinny sparge arm this christmas though as I've been very good this year

[Seveneer]

I always fly sparge. I'm interested to hear from you batch spargers how much wort you need to pull off ( ) before you get clear runnings into your boiler.

I had a stuck sparge once (a long time ago before the HERMS ) and freed it by blowing up through the mash exit mainfold. Then I stirred a bit and left it to settle for 15 minutes. I had to drain and recirculate, by hand, about a gallon or more of wort before it ran clear.

I'm not going to go down the batch sparge route myself as it doesn't really work well with the HERMS process as it negates all the clarification done by the recirculation but I am interested in it all the same in case I ever end up in the middle of a brew without a working pump .

Thanks,
/Phil.

[PieOPah]

The run off should clear just as quickly as it does with fly sparging. Up until that point it is exactly the same....

[Seveneer]

So, how quicky is that? Is the gallon or so I recirculated by hand, a fair amount, or do you find that the runnings clear quicker?.

I never used to worry about the first runnings being clear or otherwise before I went HERMS so I have no first hand experience of this.

Thanks,
/Phil.

[PieOPah]

I'm not really too sure what I am looking for with clear runnings. In general I tend to run off a few litres 4-5. I've never had any problems with the beer so this seems sufficient.

[Seveneer]

I don't suppose it really matters too much but when I recirulate the running are crystal clear when they go to the boiler. How clear are yours and how do you decide when you've recirculated enough to allow the runnings into the boiler?

/Phil.

[PieOPah]

I take very little care over my runnings to be honest. I try and watch for bits floating in it but get impatient. So far never effected my batch!

[Seveneer]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. I never suffered with a bad batch in all the years I just opened the tap and let the wort run from the mah tun straight to the boiler, clear or not.

/Phil.

[mr.c]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. I never suffered with a bad batch in all the years I just opened the tap and let the wort run from the mah tun straight to the boiler, clear or not.

/Phil.

same as

[mysterio]

I fly sparge personally and it sounds easier to me. Just turn on the flow and let it sparge while I do something else (have a homebrew...)

[Bigster]

agreed - once the sparge arm is on its job done and time to relax

[David Edge]

I have been reading some info on this and it looks a lot simpler than using that revolving twirly arm that sprays hot water all over the side of my mash tun. Has anyone had any success ...

Well almost everyone until less than 200 years ago. Sparging was first recorded in the first half of the nineteenth century and spread outwards later.
It still has its advocates and about 20% of people I know use the technique.

Perhaps I can mention that the traditional British terms are re-mashing (for batch sparging), sparging (dribbling water in from the sparge arm) while fly sparging was reserved for keeping the grain bed floating above the mash filter - the technique that works best for me.

Regards