grain bed depth

[Thirsty Boy]

hey thirsty, does it matter if the grain is exposed to the air when you're about to boil the shit out of it? i batch sparge and i don't stir up the mash between batches as i am using the grain bed as a filter and that would defeat the purpose surely? what am i missing here dude. what am i doing wrong?

If your efficiency is OK, then you don't need to stir. But my experience is that my efficiency sucks if I don't stir. It only takes me a qt. of vorlauf and maybe 2 minutes to reset the grainbed after stirring.

What Denny said. Like I'd disagree with what Denny says about batch sparging anyway I learned 95% of what I know about it from him in the first place, and the other 5% are guesses, blind luck and probably wrong

What sort of mash seperation system do you have? I'm using (and Denny too I believe) stainless steel hose braid. The vorlauf happens really fast. I re-circ with a little pump and its ready to go in 30 seconds flat, if you're fussy, take alittle longer and the wort runs basically bright in a couple of minutes.

If you have a false bottom, I heard Graham Sanders talking about how he stirs his mash tun without upsetting his grain bed. He just has a mark on his mash paddle that is level with the top of his mash tun when the tip of the paddle is a couple/few inches from the false bottom. He just doesn't put it in any deeper than the mark. That way he can stir up "most" of mash with out disturbing hte bottom couple of inches where the majority of the filtering action is going on anyway.

Graham is talking about during the main mash, not batch sparging, but it seems like it would work as a compromise between eeking out the highest efficiency you could with a batch sparge, and saving your self a bit of time on a second vorlauf.

As for exposing the grain to the air during the sparge.... This is one of the 5% things I was talking about. If the wort drains out slowly during a batch sparge, then because its not being replaced by water, the minute the liquid level drops below the top, the grain is in the air drying out. The longer it takes to fully drain the tun, the longer its exposed before you put in your next batch of sparge water.

Why is this bad??? Well, I'm frankly not really sure. I assume its got something to do with hot side aeration (lots of surface area) or with tannins or something. I just mainly remember reading about it as a possible reason to not batch sparge. Then again I seem to recall a few people saying that it was bollocks as well. I figure; get the drain over and done with ASAP, and your're better safe than sorry. Also saves time.

Hope that helps

Thirsty

PS. I haven't been doing this very long and only just on Sunday brewed my first AG batch where I hit all my numbers. So if anyone disagreeswith what I'm saying... they're probably right

[brewsters millionths]

i thought i was doing ok till i read your post. i batch sparge with a watering can. just have to fill it a few times to recirc. and get the beer brite. i use a thermos 32 litre cooler with a copper pipe manifold slots cut in the bottom of the pipe.

[Thirsty Boy]

i thought i was doing ok till i read your post. i batch sparge with a watering can. just have to fill it a few times to recirc. and get the beer brite. i use a thermos 32 litre cooler with a copper pipe manifold slots cut in the bottom of the pipe.

Sounds OK to me. I've done it that way a few times as well. I only use the pump because I have one and it makes things go a bit faster. You certainly dont need it.

In short my method is -

Vorlauf
Drain first runnings
dump in first lot of sparge water
stir
vorlauf
Drain second runnings
(repeat as required) to hit volume and OG numbers

Dont need a pump for that. I just like things that go "whiiiirrrr" and give me the shits by leaking every second time I use them.

All in all you seem to be doing it pretty much the same. Besides, if your efficiencies are ok and your beer is good, Why Change??

[brewsters millionths]

good point thirsty. i tend to just sparge till i get my volume and get whatever og i get. i've never been too far away from what i'd hoped for though. i really should try to get a bit more scientific though.

[beer_bear]

B Millions, be careful about the "scientific" aspect. If you're already hitting close to your numbers, you might mess with a part of the process that doesn't need it. I did the basic process the way that I learned from here, and get realy close to where I want to be every time. I've been within 3 points of my pre-boil gravity in all of my batches so far. That's by doing fly and batch sparging too.
IMHO, If it isn't broke, RDWHAHB.

[brewsters millionths]

thing is , i don't have a set number i'm aiming for, just an area or ball park figure.

[beer_bear]

Then it sounds like you're already making beer. I would just do whatever is fun for you. For me, it's the K.I.S.S. principle for me. (obviously not spelling) But then I'm no microbiologist either.

[kace069]

Well my efficienciy is sucking. Are you guys adding water to your first runnings in the MLT?
I was surprised by my last brew when the grain drank up 1.5 gallons. My first runnings only got me 1 gallon. I then sparged all at once with about 5 gallons. My grain still comes out sweet and my eff. sucks, that brew was 51%

I just switched to RO water and added some five star 5.2. I think my tap water was sucking. What am I doing wrong? I know the crush kinda sucked on that brew. But even with the best crushed grain I still been hanging around 50%. I will soon have a mill so I can eliminate this variable.
Using standard Denny MLT setup.