I just recently started all grain brewing and have the basic food bucket with holes in it, sitting in a second food bucket with a spout which goes into my brewing kettle.

My question is with the time it takes to sparge. I've noticed on most recipes, especially those that have been printed with Pro-Mash that it says 60 minutes for sparging. Does this mean it should take 60 minutes to cycle through all your sparge water once into the brew kettle? Should you recirculate it though at all?

Thank you for all responses.

You should recirculate the first runnings (~ 4qts) to remove the coase material matter.

With regards to time, it depends on the sparging method that you are using. With batch sparging you can be done in as little as 15-20 min. Fly sparging should take 60-90 min (after you recirculate) since you want the sparge water to rinse the grainbed slow and evenly.

Kai

Hi Brewblender, welcome to all-grain.

Once my mash is done I recirculate until the wort runs clear. Some mashes take more time than others.

Just run off into a saucepan or large measuring cup or whatever and pour it back gently on to the top of the mash. You can place a sheet of aluminum foil with holes punched all over it on top of your grains so the pouring does not disturb them too much.

When it looks like it's running clear I start sparging off into my kettle. If you are fly sparging, i.e. adding water to the top of the mash (again, gently) while you drain it off at the same rate then your variable is not a set amount of time, but the amount of wort you want to collect in the kettle. It seems to take me between 35 and 60 minutes to collect what I want in the boil. (Make sure to have plenty of hot water ready for that sparge so you don't run out -- ProMash makes a pretty good estimate for you on this.)

Cheers,
Push Eject

There is actually no real benefit to having a completely clear run-off from the sparge. I'm not talking from experience, but what I have come across in the literature so far. Keeping pieces of grain and excessive cloudiness out of the wort seems to be sufficient.

Kai

Hi guys,

My understanding about what the recirc' comes down to is setting your grain bed; letting the husks form a natural filter in your mash tun.

When your output goes from cloudy to clear you know the husks are set and the grains are ready for a good rinsing.

That's the point where you whip out your Johnson and shove it in the top of that warm grainy goodness.

Never EVER send me your beer!
BUB

Is that your recipe for Small Beer?

My recirc takes about 10 min, no matter what. Just to set the griain bed and clear things up. My sparge tkaes about 45 - 50 min.

Fffft! No! Just a small hole in the grain bed.

The word is everything with you takes 10 min, no matter what.

Which is double what Justin did for me last night.