When draining the mash tun into the boil kettle I open the ball-valve about half way. I don’t open it all the way because I feel (but don’t know) that, since I set the grain bed with a slow flow rate, a fast flow rate would suck grain particles past the filter material (grain husks and bazooka braid).
For the sparge water I just dump it in and stir. I let it sit for 10-15 minutes to let the grain drop out of suspension. I then vorlauf and drain the same way I did the mash.
Good thing Christmas is three months away. I need that time to research pumps. There are a lot to choose from!
I did fly sparge… along, long time ago, in another galaxy… Rinsing the grains took me close to about a half an hour. I never did test the pH of the wort towards the end, heck, I didn’t do any water corrections at all. Brews where mediocre.
Fast forward to today, I’m BIAB. I correct my water BEFORE adding grains, pH is important … I do have cloudy wort. My finished brews end up quite clear now. Why? Cold crashing. Gelatin. I don’t use Irish moss or any of those things either. I’m not one to brag about much, yet, the brews I make now are fantastic… I have hard time going to these brew pubs to put down 5+ bucks for mediocre brews. Sneezles61
Although cold crashing and post fermentation finings will help you are getting clear beer because you are hitting the correct pH. This has more to do with clarity than process (unless your process is really poor).
Hmmm I never knew that. Even when I batch sparge I don’t go quickly. I just assumed that the quicker I go, the less sugars and flavors I get. This theory makes sense in my head but that doesn’t make it true.
Why do you batch sparge quickly? I know the difference in HOW to batch sparge or fly sparge, but I always have done both at the same speeds, just out of my own paranoia.
If batch sparging can be done faster, I may do that more often. Anything to lighten the time requirements. Don’t get me wrong, I love brewing. But all my friends do extract brewing while I do all grain, so I take 3 times as long as they do.
I’m not saying your doing it incorrectly for YOUR system. In fact, I would vorlauf slowly to set the bed and then slowly start running off speeding it up as I go, if I batch sparge.
I believe you can run off more quickly since you are stirring the mash and completing a vorlauf each time. The stirring action releases the sugars into the sparge water. In fly sparge you aren’t stirring so you need the water contact longer to rinse the sugars. @denny could probably provide a better answer.
Often Homebrewers ask why I still fly sparge. The answer is simple:
this was the way I learned when I started brewing 12 years ago
my system is designed to fly sparge
it doesn’t save me much time by the time you heat water, add/stir, let settle, vorlauf and repeat. I shoot for about a 45 min fly sparge.
I batch sparge based on Denny’s teachings in my blue cooler with a toilet braid because as everyone knows, you get at least an extra five points of efficiency out a blue cooler vs a red one. I vorlauf at about 1/4 - 1/2 open on my valve until it runs clear, then put hose in kettle, and open it all the way. I consistently get 75-80% efficiency. A brewday for me takes right around 4 hours from getting gear out to putting it away.
OK, your explanation of sparging above is a bit off the mark. You’re not looking for further conversion from sparging, you’re trying to remove the sugar that’s already been formed. In fly sparging, it’s a process of rinsing, which is why you need to go slowly. In batch sparging, it’s a process of draining, since you get all the sugar into solution before you drain the tun. You don’t have to batch sparge quickly…it’s an advantage, not a requirement. But after dozens and dozens of trials, I’ve found there’s nothing to be gained by batch sparging slowly. For me to get about 7 gal. of wort in the kettle takes me maybe 12 min. to do my vorlauf and mash runoff, stir in sparge water, and vorlauf and runoff again. Slowing that process down gained me nothing.
Well then. As I said, I never claimed to be the master, because there he is! I never meant that the sparge water was making conversion, my bad. I have been a little sleep deprived lately so I must have mistyped. I meant that the sparge water needs time to “wash out” all the sugars that you need. If you sprayed it hard and emptied it fast, you may get very light colored wort that has no value to your brew. Sorry for my mistakes.
I used to batch sparge, but I was told fly sparging was better and closer to what commercial breweries do so I swapped. I also don’t like the vorlaufing as mentioned a lot, so I don’t want to do it multiple times while batch sparging… so I prefer to keep it fly sparging, that way I don’t need to vorlauf as often
I encourage you to expierimt and just do what you like best. I’ve tried alot of different methods. Fly sparging was the least enjoyable for me anyway. I’ve always had similar results no matter how I’ve done it. Doing a fly sparge because the big boys do it is not a reason really. There is a reason they do it that way. Think volume
Ahhhh, there is a gizmo they use in the monster breweries that is like a huge press. Grain ground to flour, make a mush, then squeeze the living bejeevers out of it… I know its brewing, but somewhat way far away from our way of extracting sugars out…
Apparently, some big brewery didn’t like the traditional way to mash and rinse… Sneezles61
So let me make sure I’m understanding everyone, because I think I’m a little lost
First you vorlauf until (relatively) clear wort comes out.
Then you sparge. If you batch sparge, you first drain out the wort, then add a bunch of sparge water, stir. You’d need to vorlauf again, any time you add more sparge water and stir. If you fly sparge, then you just open the hot liquor tank valve a small amount, and open the lauter tun valve enough to match the rate of hot liquor flow…then you don’t continue to vorlauf, right?
Basically, my only goal is to minimize recirculation if possible. If you are supposed to continue to recirc regardless, then I’ve been doing it wrong this entire time (with still positive results). But if I should be vorlaufing every time, then I would easily go back to batch sparging.
With batch sparging you vorlauf and then drain the wort. Add your sparge water, stir, and repeat. You may need to do this twice to hit your boil volume.
In fly sparge you vorlauf and then match the sparge water amount to how fast you are draining to BK. You want to maintain an inch to 2 inches on top of mash. Stop when you hit your volume or if the wort drops below 1.008.
I disagree Loopie!! I kept mine just under the top of grain bed!! Fluffy peaks… Fun stuff!
Vorlauf is a fancy one word name that means you are recirculating the wort to set up the grain bed to be at optimal filtering quality… So yeah, you got it right Blue49. Sneezles61
No, you’re confusing batch and fly sparging. In batch sparging, there are no sugars to “wash out”. You’re draining them out and that can go as quickly as your system will alow.
I vorlauf at about 1/4 - 1/2 open on my valve until it runs clear, then put hose in kettle, and open it all the way. I consistently get 75-80% efficiency. A brewday for me takes right around 4 hours from getting gear out to putting it away.
I kept mine just under the top of grain bed!! Fluffy peaks… Fun stuff!