First Batch Sparge!

[SoCal Surfer]

OK! I listened to the one hour boil with Palmer and got inspired to stop fly-sparging and do a batch-sparge. I added extra 2 row and extra of whatever specialty grains I had. God Damn it if my efficiency didn't actually increase. I did the calcs and figured my og would be around 1.060 with my usual efficiency but I ended up with a 1.065. My efficiency was much better than before.

Now I don't want anybody telling me how shitty my fly-sparge technique is. I know already. But if you have been sitting around trying to decide to fly or batch, I'm happy as hell with my first batch sparge and if I get results like this consistently, I'm not going back. I don't care what you say. =)

[Push Eject]

Awesome SoCal. What was your method when you were fly sparging?

Push Eject

[NumbSkull]

I'm not an expert but it seems to me that your increase in original gravity is due to your adding extra grains and your efficiency is probably the same as when you were doing the fly sparging. Still a good thing there.

Mort

[bub]

probably somewhat like mine... fucked up!
BUB

[barleypopmaker]

I'm not an expert but it seems to me that your increase in original gravity is due to your adding extra grains and your efficiency is probably the same as when you were doing the fly sparging. Still a good thing there.

Mort

It depends. If he used brewing software, it should calculate your efficiency according to the amount of grains you used and how much sugar you extracted from the grains. So for example, if he normally used 10lbs while fly sparging and got a 72% then went to 11lbs for his batch sparge and got 72% his OG would be higher. But if he switched to batch spargeing and expected to drop to say 62%, those extra grains would have kept him in roughly the same OG as his 72% fly sparge system. But since he got the same or better efficiency his OG was probably higher than he was expecting. Someone please correct me if I am wrong. I don't really worry so much about my efficiency as long as I am in the ball park for my target OG.

Efficiency is not how much sugar you get from the grains, but how much of the potential sugar you got from that set amount of grains.

[Denny]

Keep in mind that it's kinda a fallacy that you need to add extra grain for batch sprging. When Ken Schwartz was developing his spreadsheets years ago, I fed him my data to help out. I used his scle up numbers and overshot my OG every time. Finally I realized that whether you batch sparge or fly sparge, each person needs to adjust any recipe to the efficiency of their own system, It's just that easy.....

[Brancid]

Right on SoCal,

I've used the batch sparge everytime except for my last batch. Using the batch sparge I've always had a very consistant 75% eff +-1%. Tried a fly sparge on the last batch and my eff dropped to 71%. I was just pouring sparge water over spoon though. I'll try it again when I have better equipment, but untill then it's a batch sparge for me.

[SoCal Surfer]

Score! I actually fed the numbers to my buddy who has promash and with my usual efficiency which was around 70% (give or take) we calculated away. The extra grain was taken into account and I am pleased. Damn it if I can't find my recipe. But whateve! I expected that 1.060 but I overshot that. I'm pretty damn excited about it. I just want to batch sparge everything. I tried to batch sparge my coffee but that didn't work too well. Oh well! Tomorrow I'll batch sparge my oatmeal and then my tea. I'm going to jump in the tub and try to batch sparge myself!