Sparging? Wot's that, then?

Sparging is rinsing the mashed grains with water to get the sugar out of the grain husks and into the beer.

Having thus enlightened you, I shall explain how I go about it...

How I do It

My sparger is a brewing bucket fitted with a grain bag, into which I tip the goods after mashing:

I then set up my three-tier sparging system...

...consisting of, from the top:

• The 'hot liquor tun' (aka a brewing bucket 
  full of hot water at about 80ºC)
  
  
  
  
• Phil's 10" Sparger (a device for spraying
  hot water over the grains)
  
  
  
• The sparging bucket mentioned previously
  
  
  
  
• The Thorne boiler (serving its proper 
  purpose this time)

Before sparging begins, I fit a hop strainer to the inside of the boiler tap:

The first runnings of cloudy wort are carefully jugged back on top of the grains before directing the flow into the boiler.

Then the sparge water is turned on; as soon as the boilers element is covered I switch it on. Sparging takes about 30 minutes to complete.