Do most people batch or fly sparge?

monk · Post by **monk** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 10:28 am

Of the AG folk here, do most of you batch sparge, or fly sparge? What's your reason for doing one over the other?

Monk

oblivious · Post by **oblivious** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:03 am

At the moment I only do batch sparging, in time I maybe persuaded to fly sparge.

johnmac · Post by **johnmac** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:44 am

I drain the tun, refill, stir, wait 15min, then fly-sprage. That method gives me my best efficiency.

mysterio · Post by **mysterio** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:52 am

Fly sparging with phils spinny sparger and slightly acidified sparge water. It only takes a few drops of phosphoric in 6 gallons of sparge water to get down to a ph of about 5. Although it's not necessary it means I can get away with oversparging, which is a concern with lower gravity beers.

Anyway I go for fly sparging because it's less hassle IMO. I can use the 45 minutes or so while it's sparging to clear up & have some lunch.

steve_flack · Post by **steve_flack** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 11:56 am

johnmac wrote:I drain the tun, refill, stir, wait 15min, then fly-sprage. That method gives me my best efficiency.

Draining then refilling is batch sparging.

eskimobob · Post by **eskimobob** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:08 pm

I fly sparge with Phil's Spiny Sparging thingamy. I used to sparge with a watering can rose...

RabMaxwell · Post by **RabMaxwell** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:43 pm

Fly sparging with phils spinny sparger

johnmac · Post by **johnmac** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 4:55 pm

Draining then refilling is batch sparging.

Yes, but after I refill, I continue as per fly-sparging, so I voted "hybrid".

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 5:09 pm

I used to batch sparge (in a wheeler fashion), but now I have a spinny sparge arm which is much less faff and therefore good

shiny beast · Post by **shiny beast** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:30 pm

Did fly sparging for years, and then decided to give the batch sparge a go.
It's alot quicker and the end product is just as good. I do an overnight mash in a coolbox. My brewing session lasts 4 hours including clearing up.

shiny beast · Post by **shiny beast** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:54 pm

DaaB wrote: don't mention overnight mashing

Would you like to elaborate?

johnmac · Post by **johnmac** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:18 pm

I think overnight mashing's fine, as long as you use an aluminum mash tun

bitter_dave · Post by **bitter_dave** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:20 pm

johnmac wrote:I think overnight mashing's fine, as long as you use an aluminum mash tun

prolix · Post by **prolix** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:11 pm

fly sparge with a phils spiny thingy

monk · Post by **monk** » Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:51 pm

I've only done it three times, but I've always done batch sparging. The first two times I made fairly major mistakes: 1. basically a partigyle or "no sparge" operation, I just added more hot water and took the first runnings. I still think about those poor grains, so full of sugar and life, just dumped in the trash.

2. that time I did a normal batch sparge, but never mixed the sparge water in and didn't use quite enough...~50% efficiency.

Last time it worked fine. Need to work out the stirring and amount of sparge water for better efficiency, but it did work and the beer tastes great.

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Do most people batch or fly sparge?

What type of sparging dost thou dieu?

Do most people batch or fly sparge?