How /slow fast to sparge

[spiderwrangler]

Spider wrangler I take it your preference is to batch! Do you add you sparge water salts to the boil when batching?

Do you think I should move to batch sparging?

Yeah, that's my preference. I see/hear so many brewers chasing efficiency around in circles, or having problems with sparging not working right, and the vast majority of times, they are attempting to fly sparge.

The benefits of fly sparging only really come through if it's being done properly, on equipment that is optimized for fly sparging. In other words, while it has a higher potential, in practice by homebrewers, it is much more variable. The reason professional brewers use fly sparging is that at their scale, efficiency means a bit more, and they have systems DESIGNED to do just that.

Batch sparging on the other hand, has a somewhat lower potential, but a narrower window of variance. (Although it could be noted that you CAN get really high efficiency with batch sparging.... you just need to be willing to triple or quadruple sparge, and then boil all that down again... )

As far as water adjustments, I don't bother with the sparge water, as whatever you add to strike water for the mash is still going to have residuals clinging to the grains since it's not being continuously washed off by sparge water.

[SoCal Surfer]

I fly sparged for years until Denny Conn spoke to me in a dream. I batch sparged one time, my efficiency actually went up and I have never fly sparged again.

[BDawg]

As far as water adjustments, I don't bother with the sparge water, as whatever you add to strike water for the mash is still going to have residuals clinging to the grains since it's not being continuously washed off by sparge water.

I disagree with you here, Spider.
If you are sparging with untreated water, and if you need to acidify your water to hit mash pH, then you are by definition raising the pH of the sparge at a time when it is especially vulnerable to rising pH and hence tannin extraction. What little residuals left in the mashtun are by definition being diluted down.

This is a great read on pH throughout the brewing process:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... ts_brewing

The cost to treat your sparge water is very minor compared to the cost of an astringent or flabby batch.
I'd rather use the same water all the way through, personally. It's easy to do, just add all the salts/acid to the HLT before starting the mash, and use the HLT as the only water source.

my .02