Here we go again - Sparge

[crookedeyeboy]

Well after 35 odd AG brews I am back at the drawing board with regards to sparging.

I have a great setup that I love using, I even have a twin sparge arm setup that looks like a chinook helicopter! Thing is....

My efficiency has dropped massivley for at least the last 15 brews. I can only assume it is down to the speed of sparging. I have tried everything:
Slow sparge, fast sparge, using a pump to recirculate etc etc and I just cannot get back to my old efficiency of around 80-90%

This all changed when I swapped my cheap Argos £15 MT for a Coleman 47lt coolbox. I do believe that there is some truth in the fact that the deeper the mash bed the better filtration you get, this would certainly explain some loss of efficiency as the Coleman provides quite a shallow mash bed when Im doing something weak like a 4% beer

I know this question is asked all the time and its not like Im new to this!! Help!

One thing I did want to ask is how people fly sparge. I do the hour mash then completely drain the MT so ive collected all the thick wort first. i then Turn on the twin helicopter sparge arms and let the bed fill to around 1 inch deep on top, then Ill open the tap very slowly, recirc with jugs and foil etc and continue filling the boiler.
Surely this is all normal??????

[Aleman]

I don't drain the tun to start with, I just start the run of and then as the grain bed appears to settle, I start the sparge with the spinney . . . I aim to sparge all my sparge liquor in around 45 minutes so quite a slow sparge (well it is for a 20L brew length not so much for the 150L brew length). I seem to hit around 80-85% doing this although I do formulate my recipes for 75% so I stop collecting when I have enough sugar in the kettle for the beer I'm brewing . . . . The excess goes into a seperate boiler for starters

[Stoat on a rope]

Are you sure its the sparging? I've had a similar problem and I've put it down to changing from a pipe manifold in my old MT to false bottom on my new MT, got a massive drop in efficiency. I've constructed a new pipe manifold for my new MT but not tried it yet. What do you use in the bottom?

[micromaniac]

j used to get higher effy with a cheap and nastie cool box and mine droped when i got my coleman cooler ,but saying that i stii get about 73-75 %,i sparge with water in at same rate as out but dont use a sparge arm i use a food grade bucket with holes in takes about 30-40 mins to do 46ltr

[guypettigrew]

I start my rotating sparge arm before beginning the run off. Once there's about 1-2cm of liquor on top of the grain I start running off. Usually I recirculate about 2 litres, just enough to make sure there aren't any bits coming through.

My sparge takes about 20 minutes for a 5kg grain bill. The mash liquor volume is about 12.5 litres, with about another 20 litres sparge liquor.

Guy

[Aleman]

I should add that I have different sized Mash Tuns depending on Brew length . . .up to about 40L I use the 25L Thermobox up to about 80-90L I use the 50L Thermobox and for really big brew lengths (130-150L) I use the 80L Thermobox . . . This sort of allows me to keep the grain bed depth at a 'sensible level'

[vacant]

I do believe that there is some truth in the fact that the deeper the mash bed the better filtration you get

Channeling? If the area of the base is greater than your old MT. Also have you tried a mash out?

[fisherman]

I fly sparge using a hop and grape arm and keep my grain just floating above the grain in an Igloo 45 litre square mashtun, I also have a 34 litre oblong Coleman but the Igloo seems better ( the shape seems better having a thicker bed and sparging is central and more even ). I hit at least 80 every time. Due to lack of do it yourself skills I syphon out of the mashtun very slowly using plastic beerline. I have a false bottom and a copper manifold ( belt and braces ). Just lately I have had to use top up water to dilute the gravity.
Best wishes

[crookedeyeboy]

Thanks guys. Aleman I'll try starting the sparge straight away next time and even slower.
I have a copper manifold in the bottom of the Coleman I thought a false bottom would be better but it seems not from Stoats post.
Vacant, what's a mash out?
Thanks for the suggestions.

[Capped]

Strange! When I got a huge Coleman box my efficiency improved over the previous smaller one, in direct contrast to your experience. Not much after I got that, I started batch sparging and saw an even better efficiency! Go figure, 'cos I'm buggered if I can work out what's going on!

[crookedeyeboy]

Haha I'm even more confused now!!!

[masterosouffle]

Just to throw something else in to the mix, could it be anything to do with the grind of your grain? Are you getting it from the same place? Is the grind consistent? Etc

[Stoat on a rope]

I will add that my false bottom was only 12 inch diameter but my new thermopot was about 16 inches, it could be that my problem was having too small a false bottom. I imagine that a full size false bottom would be good.

On my old blue cool box mash tun with pipe manifold from hop and grape used to give me 75/80% efficiency, but now I seem to have dropped to about 60 or less hence why I've made a nice new pipe manifold in the hope it will make a difference!

[vacant]

Vacant, what's a mash out?

John Palmer's book explains it here

[weiht]

I believe it's a channeling issue. It makes a bigger difference than rotating sparge arm n other gimmicks. U can try inserting a copper pipe nearer to the middle of the mash tun so it drains from the middle of the mt for a more even run off.

The problem isn't that u r getting low efficiency under the current setup, but that the 80-90% previously was very high. Just stick with what u have now, I dont see why ur beers wld suffer if ur efficiency is well within 70-75%.