BigBadBrad wrote:I want to try batch sparging since I have fly sparged since going all grain. I need a larger mashtun first though.
Brad, why do you need a larger mash tun? I have a tiny mash tun and have no problems batch sparging. You just do more than one "batch". For example; on my (admittedly really small) system I do this
- Mash around 3-4kg grain with 7-9 litres of strike water
- Vorlauf and drain 1st runnings to kettle. Usually around 4-5 litres
- Add 6litres of sparge water, stir, vorlauf, drain 2nd runnings (basically 6litres) till the mash tun runs dry
- Add 6litres of sparge water, stir, vorlauf, drain 2nd runnings
- This fills my kettle (also tiny at around 16litres)
So I am batch sparging for a kettle volume 1.6 times the total volume of my 10 litre mash tun.
So if the scale thing holds up, you should easily be able to do kettle volume for a 5gallon batch in as small as a 20quart mash tun
I actually thought about trying fly sparging, but thought that I would need a bigger mash tun, but then I did it (in an unplanned fashion) the brew before last and it worked OK.
Dunno really, I'm only on my 5th AG brew. But thats how I'm doing it and it seems to be going OK