Well, it was way to cold to hawk over a fly sparge to make sure my rates were equal so I decided to have a crack at batch sparging. Funny enough, I started fly sparging when I first switched to all grain and have never done it before.
I have to say…I like it! ;D
I drained the first runnings and added 3 gallons of 200F water which brought the mash to 171. Stirred up and let settle for 5 minutes and drained and then repeated with 3g of 170F water. The whole process took 10-15 minutes. NICE!
Ended up at 78% efficiency too! I may have to do this more often…
Batch sparging lets me brew more often, since having a family often cut into the time it took to fly sparge. I’m having more fun than ever when brewing from the streamlined process. A win-win !
I was sold on batch sparging after listening to Denny’s setup on the Brewing Network. I have never sparged any other way. I do 5 gallon batches and only have a 26 litre cooler for a tun so I have to sparge twice to get the correct preboil volume. My sparging process takes about 1 hour as I drain slowly so I can enjoy a few beers before the boil.
I’ve never not batch sparged. When I started all grain brewing, I batch sparged because it was easy. For the first few batches, I hit my numbers pretty well. I figured why spend money and time if this method is getting me to where I need to go. Don’t fix something that isn’t broke. I get about 70% efficiency, and I’m usually within my target gravity by +- .002, which at this point in my brewing career is good enough for me.
The same way you do the calc of your strike water temp to hit you desired mash temp, you can do a similar calc for your batch sparge water to hit as close to 168. Depending on grain and water quantities and mash temp, sparge water may end up andywhere from 10 or so degrees higher up to boiling.
Is there any harm in sparging with water that’s less than 170 after equilibrium is reached? I’ve been batch sparging using 172F water, which probably equalizes at considerably less than 168F (I haven’t bothered to measure it at this point). I didn’t think it would matter for me because it’s going straight to the boil pot from there anyway, and I’m not doing any fancy mashes that require special procedures.
Check with Denny but I don’t think there are problems with not hitting a mash out. I suspect things will be smoother at about 170F but you will stop the enzymes anyway with the boil. It will take longer to boil if you sparge cool
Nope. It may be important that you not go too high, but there isn’t really a “too low” to worry about. I usually sparge with water in the mid to low 160s.
A mashout really doesn’t matter in batch sparging, and unless you hold a temp of 170 for 20 min. or more you aren’t really doing one. I usually use sparge water around 185-190F so that I can be sure I’ve gotten complete gelatinization and conversion, not for a mashout.
Am I correct in presuming because of the highly modified grains we use that mash out isn’t really a necessity? I’m currently in the early stage of my 90-min 148F mash and looking at all the time information from brewsmith 2, it seems to want a 2 tier mash out/rinse schedule. I’ve fly sparged previously because I was using a round cooler, but moved from the 5 gallon system up to a 52-qt and will be doing batch sparging for the first time today.
Nope, it really doesn’t have anything to do with modification. It’s becasue in batch sparging you get to a boil much more quickly than in fly sparging. Keep in mind that Beersmith is a toll to help you brew the way you want to brew, not instructions about how to brew. You don’t have to use the steps it defaults to. Unless you can’t fir all the sparge water in your cooler at once, I’d advise you do do the mash runoff, then all all your sparge water in one step.
Thank you again for being a great sage adviser! There will be plenty of room for all the sparge water to fit after the run off (probably could put all the grain and the entire amount of water for this brew in the cooler at once). I’m taking your advise on mashing at the lower temperatures and sparging at a higher temp then the software suggests.