Taking the plunge - Questions

[Hoodlum]

Hello folks

I've spent the last week making up a Mash Tun from two buckets slipped into each other with holes in the inner one, padded it up with water tank jackets and sat 70 Deg C water in it for an hour to see how much heat it lost - it was roughly 4 deg over an hour, and I'm guessing with some more careful application of insulation and when it's full of grain it should do the trick.

1. The gap between bucket one and the inner bucket is about 3 litres. I plan to take this water off and put it back over the goods as part of the sparge. I think I need to up my mash water by 3 litres to account for this dead space between my buckets - am I right on both counts?

2. In trying to work out how much time I will need to do this, I can't find an indication for the time taken to sparge. Best reference I can find is "slowly" If I plan on a 90 minute sparge is that on the high side?

3. My sparging system will be as basic as you can get - manual sprinkling of water over the mash. The drainage capability of my holed bucket is pretty slow by design - is that a good thing? or should I have bigger holes in order to get it done a little quicker?

Thoroughly looking forward to making the move from extract to AG. (not to mention that it's cheaper than Extract....) Happy days!

[OldSpeckledBadger]

4 degrees sounds OK. You'll find it's a lot less than that when the grain is added in. 3 litres of dead space is a lot and you'll need to up your sparge water volume by that amount. I've never tried fly sparging; I'm happy with the results I get from batch sparging which is a much simpler process.

[Scooby]

Hello folks



1. The gap between bucket one and the inner bucket is about 3 litres. I plan to take this water off and put it back over the goods as part of the sparge. I think I need to up my mash water by 3 litres to account for this dead space between my buckets - am I right on both counts?

You can reduce the dead space by filling it with marbles. There is no real need to add the dead volume to the mash if it's a small amount, but you can if you want. Stop sparging when the gravity falls below 1.008, when you can't taste any sweetness but before it tastes bitter, or you have the required volume, take your pick

2. In trying to work out how much time I will need to do this, I can't find an indication for the time taken to sparge. Best reference I can find is "slowly" If I plan on a 90 minute sparge is that on the high side?

Time taken varies, aim for a fine light spray, hard to do manually without disturbing the grain bed. Try a sheet of perforated foil over the surface. 90mins is more than slow aim for 15-30mins.

3. My sparging system will be as basic as you can get - manual sprinkling of water over the mash. The drainage capability of my holed bucket is pretty slow by design - is that a good thing? or should I have bigger holes in order to get it done a little quicker?

Not sure about the size of holes required but someone will come back on that, but I wouldn't make them to big, 2-3mm max and use the tap to balance the flow. Once you have a brew or 2 under your belt you'll have much more idea of the process. You can do so much reading up but in the end getting stuck in is the best way to learn. Good luck.

[Mitchamitri]

If you fill a space in your tun with marbles etc dont forget to allow for this in your temp calc, or fill the tun first with overhot water and let it drop to mashing temp before adding grain.

let top of the mash to "float" a little, helps to reduce stuck mashes.

Run off slowly so it doesnt stick - a slow run off is a good run off, it should start to naturally flow quicker towards the end as there is less sugars in the water.

When you are almost full stop sparging and run off the balance - so far as my simplistic brewing is concerned I know when to stop mashing when I have a boiler full. (others are far more expert than I)

(sometimes I will then close the tap on the mash tun and fill it with sparge water, then drain this off to top up the boiler during boil, allowing for temp lost due to the addition of less-than-boiling fluid)

In my personal experience a have tried a watering can head (finer spray) but have got perfectly good results (ie cant tell the difference) using a drilled plastic container lid floated on the mash.

[Hoodlum]

many thanks guys for the excellent responses!

One further question - Batch sparging is different to fly in what ways?

[Scooby]

Continuous sparging (sometimes call fly but I don't know why) replaced re-mashing or batch sparging in commercial brewing when it was possible to make a sparge arm capable of a very fine spray. for home brewing the mash commences as normal and on completion hot liquor is added to dilute the mash. After a rest of about 10-15mins the wort is slowly run off and the tun recharged with hot liquor so as the 2nd run off volume equals the first and the total pre boil volume is attained.

Do a search for batch sparging to find out the pros and cons. DaaB's batch sparge calculator can be found in guestbook.

[Hoodlum]

thanks for the heads up Scoob

Where's the nickname from? not the car is it?

[floydmeddler]

My current set up means that I have around 4L of deadspace beneath the false bottom. I need to use around 18L when mashing in to account for it. My efficiency averages at around 83% I fly sparged REALLY slowly during a recent brew and hit 86%

I recirculate for 20 mins using a pump so I suppose I did pour that 4L back in like you suggest.

Please take some photos of your brew day. Would love to see your mash tun.

Good luck

[Scooby]

thanks for the heads up Scoob

Where's the nickname from? not the car is it?

Yep I do have one and iirc I had just purchased some bits from 'Scoobyparts' just before I joined Jim's and the name was in my mind

My current set up means that I have around 4L of deadspace beneath the false bottom. I need to use around 18L when mashing in to account for it. My efficiency averages at around 83% I fly sparged REALLY slowly during a recent brew and hit 86%

Just goes to show that within reason dead space has little effect on mash efficiency, paying attention to the sparge on the other hand........

[Hoodlum]

the sparge calculator threw me a bit - Some of the stats I just couldn't work out...

I have a GB270, no. 28 - 38 year old me with a midlife crisis

[Scooby]

It's quite straight forward but don't confuse yourself, carry on with your plan and in a few brews you'll know what the losses are in your setup, evaporation, hops and trub etc and you can look at having a go at batch sparging.

That is a Scobby! Being over 20 yrs past my mid life crisis I have something a little more appropriate, a Forester XT. Just to make it a bit more fun I had a Prodrive performance pack fitted, so now I can go on the local shoot with my dog and stay with the Land Rovers and Jeeps etc over the fields and tracks (just) and if the mood takes me keep many sports cars in my rear view mirror, but most of the time I just burble along

[Mitchamitri]

and don't forget - if your mash tun is big enough and you can afford to lose some efficiency, you dont actually HAVE to sparge!