I currently do a continuous sparge - pouring pitchers of sparge water over the grain bed and slowly draining into the boil kettle. I’ve seen articles that say not to disturb the grain bed by stirring, which I’ve ignored. My thought process is to maximize contact and extraction of all of the sugars with the sparge water. I’ve had no issues with clarity or a stuck sparge, so I’m wondering why people say to leave the grain bed alone. Any thoughts?
Depends on your brewing equipment. If it works, it works.
Sounds like fly sparging with a mash raking. There is nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but you can run into pH and tannin extraction issues, if taken too far (many monitor gravity of the run off, ending the sparge at the point of reaching a set gravity of the run off, of say 1.010).
If it is working well for you - go for it. Personally, I think batch sparging is a bit simpler. Check into Dennybrew’s approach - that’s where I picked it up. Others here do continuous recirculation mash, employing various heating methods for maintaining mash temp or step mashing.
Cheers!
Edit: Beaten to it by the master, himself!
I’ve read brewing literature that describes cutting several inches into the grainbed with knives to allow the sparge to flow thru it vs around.
I believe stirring would rouse the grain and the smallest particles would land on bottom threatening a stuck sparge. But if it hasn’t happened then good on ya.
Another issue I imagine, could be transferring undesirable components into the BK that the settled grainbed would otherwise filter out.
I’ve been thinking of trying batch sparging, might be easier with my equipment. I was worried that the efficiency might decrease but I will check out Denny’s approach. Thanks!
Many, many people see an effiddiency increase when going to batch sparging. That’s because it pretty much eliminates lauter design as a variable.
I found that when I switched to batch sparging it made negligible if any difference in my efficiency, saved me time, simplified my process, and thus made me a happier brewer. I agree that if what you’re doing seems to be working you don’t have to fix what isn’t broken, but also would encourage you to investigate batch sparging and Dennybrew is a good place to get the low-down.
Because mixing the entire bed, if that is what you do, reduces the theoretical efficiency of fly sparging making it more like batch sparging.
Please explain how that happens.
I knife my grain bed two to three times during the fly sparge and have had no problems whatsoever. Of course how deep you knife depends on the depth of the grain bed. My mash tun is a keggle and the grain bed is maybe 10" deep for a five gallon batch and twice that for a ten gallon batch (never really measured it). I only knife maybe two inches deep for a five gallon batch and 3"-4" deep for a 10 gallon batch. We always did it during my pro brewing gig and it seemed to help the efficiency. The brewmaster said that he learned it from an old German brewer who claimed higher efficiency. I normally hit at least 85% mash efficiency for my lighter beers and 70 to 75 for my bigger darker beers.
Can you getaway without knifing, sure.
when I started brewing I fly sparged and quickly switched to batch sparging, now I do no sparge and absolutely love it. OP, I think the answer to your question really depends on your equipment variables. Any reason you cant batch sparge or no sparge as opposed to your pitcher method?
Habit mostly. That’s the method I first tried several years ago and just stuck with it. I have a larger set up now so batch sparging seems like a good option to try out.
Fly sparging is a kind of countercurrent extraction so it is theoretically the most efficient (highest extract for a given volume of sparge water) extraction like countercurrent cooling is most efficient (least amount of cooling water to achieve desired removal of heat) cooling.
Interesting… never heard it put that way, but it makes sense. That said, I no-sparge and it works fine for me. Many ways to skin a cat.
I batch sparge for speed, simplicity and also because theoretical efficiencies can be calculated for different grain bill sizes. The higher theoretical efficiency of fly sparging is not worth the bother at my small scale.
No Sparge: The choice of champions for beers with low to medium gravity.
I’m going to give the No Sparge method a try tomorrow but I do have a question: With the grains that I have in storage, I am planning on having 9 gallons to the fermenter at the end so I will start my boil with 11. I’ve heard it’s best to stop sparging once you hit your pre-boil target gravity, but what if I’m not at my 11 gallon goal? I feel that adding water at that point would dilute the wort and decrease the gravity, maybe impact the flavor. Am I missing something?
You won’t be sparging so when to stop sparging is N/A. (Regardless, I’ve never read it’s best to stop sparging once you hit your pre-boil target gravity. Citation please)
I recommend you get your volume by calculating MLT dead space and any plumbing losses plus grain absorption then add those losses to your desired pre-boil volume. That’s the volume you need to mash-in with. …and if you come up shy of your SG goal in the kettle after lauter add some malt extract or other sugars.
With no sparge you can expect to have to use more grain in your mash to hit a desired SG. So, you’re going to need a very large MLT to hold all that grain and the full brewing liquor volume plus dead spaces and absorption. (You might as well a BIAB)
Until you have a few batches under your belt to be able to accurately predict your no sparge efficiency, you might want to have a plan to compensate if that matters to you. If not, let it ride. Hopefully, you’ll get close enough without the insurance.
I wouldn’t necessarily say that you need more grain for no sparge. I get about 80% brewhouse efficiency with my setup. I would just make sure you have a fine crush. That said, YMMV based on your system. Expect to need few batches to dial in your numbers, like any new brewhouse would.
No sparge didn’t quite work out. I thought I had more room in my mash tun but was not able to get all of my strike water in there with the grains. I ended up collecting less wort than planned and didn’t hit my original gravity target. Was hoping to have a 2 vessel set up that can make 10 gallon batches of medium strength beer but doesn’t appear to be in the cards. I will give batch sparging a try next time! My version of “fly sparging” just isn’t consistent enough.