Batch sparging and Aleman's calculator

[Scotty]

I'm going to have a go at batch sparging tomorrow to save time and effort and I just want to know whether I have understood Aleman's batch sparge calculator correctly.

I will be using approx 17l in the mash and it says to top up with 21.3l. Do I run any wort of first or just top up to a total of 38.3l, leave 15 minutes then run off the desired amount then repeat with the correct amount for the 2nd batch?

[boingy]

When the mash is complete you don't drain immediately. You top up with the first lot of sparge water, stir, wait a while (10-20 mins), then drain it all. Repeat with second lot of sparge water.

Having said that, I misunderstood batch sparging for the first couple of times and I drained the mash wort before adding any sparge water with no apparent ill-effects. Still got a decent efficiency and the beer was good...

[Scotty]

Thanks boingy, just as I thought. I assume sparging temps should be the same, say 75-77c. Should I be adding the liquor at around 80c to achieve the 75c-ish grain bed temperature?

[boingy]

I might be the wrong person to ask about sparge temperatures. I tend to be a bit cavalier in that regard. My HLT temp controller is permanently set to 80C, because it is fiddly to change. For mashing I add the water and wait for it to cool to strike temp (thus pre-heating the tun) and for sparging I use 80C because, um, that's what it is set to. I've never bothered calculating what the grain bed temp is but it seems to work fine. I guess the second batch will be hotter than the first but as it cannot go higher than 80C it should be fine.

[Scotty]

That'll do me boingy!

[Horden Hillbilly]

Scott, there is a batch sparging secion on my website, starting here.

[Rick_UK]

I've just done my second AG brew using a batch sparge and I drained the MT first then added half the remaining liquor stirred and left for 25 mins, drained and repeated with the last batch of liquor. I read somewhere that doing it in 2 batches is possibly more beneficial than 1.

Also you need to use hotter water than for the mash. Graham Wheeler recommends using water at about 85'C which should give a sparge temp of around 80'C, apparently this helps holds the enzymes at the right level following the mash and the higher temp aids run off and the rinsig of sugars from the grains.

Rick

[Scotty]

Scott, there is a batch sparging secion on my website, starting here.

Cheers HH, to the rescue yet again! cheers!

[dickon]

I must admit, for the last few brews I've been batch sparging, and have drained the tun before the first batch. I've done the usual 2.5*grain bill for the mash, drained it, then added roughly two-thirds of the remaining volume, stirred, left it twenty minutes or so, drained, and repeated with the final third. Haven't noticed a drop in efficiency -- quite the opposite, in fact -- and it seems to be working well for me; as you have the volume of wort collected before you do your first batch, you know absolutely how much has been absorbed by your grain, rather than relying on rules of thumb and experience (which I don't have enough of yet).

Is this wrong? What're the advantages of topping up rather than draining?

[Scotty]

The only thing I can think of as to why you would top up first is to halt the mash and begin the sparging process.

My view on batch sparging...

I found the whole process easy and uncomplicated compared to fly sparging. No running around like an idiot trying to match flow rates and no chance of oversparging or to quickly. In the time between mashing and remashing, I could get other jobs done instead of constantly monitoring the sparge. The final runnings came in at around 1.012 so way above the recommended level.

I'm going to stay with the batch sparge method for simplicity and ease. The only problem however, my current mash tun is not big enough for higher OG beers whilst maintaining a 40l brewlength. The solution? By a bigger mash tun!

[sladeywadey]

Quite often you top up to make sure you are sparging equal amounts. The purists say you get better efficiency if you can sparge in two equal amounts. Also the initial top up is to raise the grain bed temperature to help with washing the sugars out of the grain and to stop further conversion. However be careful that you don't raise the grain bed temperature too high in the second sparge as you will have already heated up the grain bed temperature in the first stage of sparging.

[Jim]

There's also a draft batch sparge article in the Knowledge Base by Jerry Cornelius - it wouldn't hurt to have a scan through that.

[Scotty]

Quite often you top up to make sure you are sparging equal amounts. The purists say you get better efficiency if you can sparge in two equal amounts. Also the initial top up is to raise the grain bed temperature to help with washing the sugars out of the grain and to stop further conversion. However be careful that you don't raise the grain bed temperature too high in the second sparge as you will have already heated up the grain bed temperature in the first stage of sparging.

This was in the back of my mind when adding the second batch. I used liqour at just over 80c and this held the grainbed at 76c which is ideal.

[sladeywadey]

I think if you remember to keep a watchful eye over the gravity readings and temperature, batch sparging is a lot simpler in my book and I'm sticking to it.