Quantities of Sparge water

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Jomay
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Quantities of Sparge water

Post by Jomay » Sun Aug 12, 2018 9:39 am

Hello

A month or so ago I posted some Qs on the GF board about sparging (I was a BIABer who bought a GF so knew little about it, except what it was). I got the answers to my Qs but since then been doing a bit of reading and watching a few YouTube vids. My new Qs, or rather looking for comments are more of a general nature so am posting here, hope its in the right place.
I notice that some brewers rather than sparge a specific amount of water just sparge to get to their pre boil volume. Others sparge to specific gravity readings of the wort (I expect they must have a refactometer to do this) to get a precise ABV going into the boil. My question is, do any of you do either of these? In some ways it seems better than the practise of fixed quantities for mash and sparge water, hopefully ending in a more precise beer.

Best Wishes - J

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gr_baker
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by gr_baker » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:00 am

I use the calculated quantities. It's hard to see the volume graduations during the sparge because the grain tube is on top. Likewise taking a sample of the sparged wort exiting the grain tube would be hard without help to lift it out whilst you take a sample.

chefgage
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by chefgage » Sun Aug 12, 2018 10:33 am

I just use the amount the grainfather recipe app tells me to use. I find i am within one or two points of my pre boil gravity doing this.

Jomay
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by Jomay » Sun Aug 12, 2018 2:12 pm

Thanks for the replies
Dont want to turn this into a GF only comments. I have been using the pre boil vol method with the GF for the last two brews, its easy, just mark off on a paddle the level I wanted before starting, and then use it to measure the height of wort. With the SG method I would need a clean bucket to put the grain basket into, before stirring the wort and then taking the measurement. More clat but nothing significant.
Mostly I was interested in peoples thoughts on the various methods and if they used either of the two diff methods I mentioned, rather than the practicalities which will vary depending on your equipment.
Once again I appreciate your replies - J

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gr_baker
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by gr_baker » Sun Aug 12, 2018 8:50 pm

Apologies, I thought you were asking about Grainfather sparging. When I had a two vessel system I used to batch sparge and I used to collect until I had got my desired pre boil volume. Sometimes I'd add a bit of the extra collected (if any) back to the boiling wort later.

Touchstone
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by Touchstone » Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:18 am

I just use the GF water calc for mash & sparge , works every time , no probs.

Kingfisher4
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Re: Quantities of Sparge water

Post by Kingfisher4 » Mon Aug 13, 2018 10:19 am

With regards to the grainfather aspect of the question:
I Initially found that the suggested mash and sparge volumes from the Grainfather app made a very thick consistency grain bed that was difficult to stir and tip the malt additions out single-handedly.
I had read elsewhere a suggestion to increase the mash volume slightly and reduce the Sparge volume by the same amount. I tend to add an extra 2 L to the mash liquor from the app and subtract the same from the Sparge.
When the Sparge drainage is slowing down I move the grain tube onto a 10 L For Menting been, for the last runnings to drain. I sometimes add some or all of this in small aliquots during the boil if necessary after testing both gravities after mixing. I use a hydrometer with temperature correction calculator, as my understanding is a refractometer does not work well with the grainfather access from the grain tube runnings.
I am achieving high percentage extraction efficiency and hitting the target volume for the fermenting vessel, sometimes slightly exceeding the ABV and target fermenting vessel volume, but I’m fairly relaxed about that slight variation.

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