Beer Forum

Long time fly sparger and did my 1st batch sparge today. With my system I'm almost always at 75% efficency woth FLy sparge. I hit 70% today but cut almost 2 hours off my brew day. Total of 4 and 1/2 hours (10 gal batch). I will easily trade 5% for that sort of time savings. Plus since I don't have a 3 tier system batch sparging is much easier and safer than Fly sparging. I would use a ladder and lug 5 gallon buckets of sparge water to the top of the ladder for a gravity feed sparge. Batch sparging I just pour, and stir.

Welcome to the dark side!

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

Dahoove wrote:Long time fly sparger and did my 1st batch sparge today. With my system I'm almost always at 75% efficency woth FLy sparge. I hit 70% today but cut almost 2 hours off my brew day. Total of 4 and 1/2 hours (10 gal batch). I will easily trade 5% for that sort of time savings. ...Batch sparging I just pour, and stir.

It rocks indeed! I did my first batch sparge about two weeks ago. My last fly-sparge efficiency was horrible; I used to do that before I knew how to calculate it and was getting around 65%. My first batch sparge was at 80%, with the same equipment. I'm hooked!
-Don

Like Denny has said, whether your systems efficiency goes up or down when going from fly sparging to batch sparging depends alot on the efficiency of your fly sparge lautering system. If that is ideal, your efficiency with batch sparging will be less. If it is poor, then your efficiency with batch sparging will be greater.

One of the main ways to increase the efficiency of a batch sparge system is to crush the grist finer (Denny's "Crush 'til yer scared"). However, your lautering system must be able to handle a finer crush without sticking. Each lautering system (false bottom, manifold, Bazooka, SS hose braid) probably has its own "sweet spot" for maximizing efficiency (if that's even desirable) and not sticking.

Or you can just add more grain

I joined the "grind till yer scared/batch sparge with a ss braid" camp long ago and had great success. I have been using a pump assisted fly sparge method lately with the same setup and it seems to work fine too.

HH

I've got 48 batch sparges under my belt. It's just so easy and fast. My lautering setup is a bazooka screen in a 10 gallon round Igloo cooler. I consistently get 80% efficiency with the factory setting on my Barley Crusher. No problems, fast runoffs and great beer.

I have two systems next to each other and I brew two beers at once. One's Fly and One's Batch. I've been brewing that way all year. I find no difference in efficiency, quality, or time/effort saved between the two methods.

Awe c'mon Bryan.....the batch sparge is a little faster isn't it? Fill the mash tun , mix well, mash for an hour, vorlauf then drain into kettle quickly, then add mash out water, wait ten minutes, vorlauf and then drain to kettle. You may be fly sparging a little fast.......I know when I fly sparged it was an hour and a half longer brew day. Whats your secret?