How much longer does fly sparging take YOU?

[Ozwald]

There's only one true BD in my

[Bobbie Dooley]

[Bad Goat Brewing]

There's only one true BD in my

Is that why Bobbies D avatar is fire works?

[ScottyB-Brewing]

I batch sparge and I drain the mash tun at a trickle, it might not be necessary but I'm not in a hurry so I figure go as slow as possible for the whole thing and junk

[Bad Goat Brewing]

I gave fly sparaging a shot yesterday. Man is that a pain-in-the-ass without automation. I had to consonantly watch and adjust my pumps. I won't be trying that again until i get a float or some other form of automation. On the plus side it didn't add much time, just a lot more effort.

On the down side, my efficiency went way up, to far up I think. I brewed a recipe I always nail spot on (79% efficiency). I got a lot of flavors in the wort i normally don't get. Immediately after my first fly sparage, I brewed the recipe again with batch sparging to compare, and yeah there are some flavors in my fly sparage wort i'm not too excited about. I guess i'll know for sure when it's done fermenting.

[brewinhard]

Fly sparging can definitely be tricky to nail down the process for consistency. Over sparging or sparging too hot with the incorrect pH can most definitely lead to a whole host of off flavors in the wort.

[Bad Goat Brewing]

Fly sparging can definitely be tricky to nail down the process for consistency. Over sparging or sparging too hot with the incorrect pH can most definitely lead to a whole host of off flavors in the wort.

My sparage water was 170, no clue about my PH. I really have not gotten into water chemistry to much.

[Ozwald]

It takes some practice. Matching the flow rates gets really easy after a while, even without automation. One of the tricks is get your outflow to a nice, consistent & slow rate & don't touch it. Tweak the incoming sparge water rate to match whatever the outflow is. If you just watch the liquid level in the mashtun & try not to let it go up or down it's not too bad. Just don't make major adjustments - tap it a little closer & watch it for a minute, another little tap, another tap... You don't want to be too low, too high, too low, too high - jumping back & forth across that fence - start on one side of the fence & slowly creep up to it. With practice you can make one adjustment & be right there without even thinking about it.

What was your final mash temp before sparging?

Pick up a jar of test strips as well - they're pretty cheap & very useful throughout the whole mashing process. A meter is more accurate of course, but for starters just knowing that you're pretty close is good enough.