Brewing Master » Brewing Beer » Sparge questions
Sparge questions
Question:
Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly??? At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
Response:
Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly??? At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
I find a 2 qt sauce pan works great for sparging 
A ball valve will give you all the control you need. Medford, NY swap net.optonline to reply via e-mail
Response:
This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly???
The only use for one that I can see is if you want a continuous flow going. I just use a 2 litre container and distribute the sparge water manually. If you do use an arm, make sure you have one that operates with the lid on, because with the lid off you lose a lot of heat from your bed. If you go manually like me, once you drain the bed if the surface is still even then you did a good job. If not, you have to do better next time. cheers, -Alan www.bodensatz.com
Response:
I used a sparge arm on the first several AG brews that I made. It worked OK, but I had problems keeping the temp up (I just used a simple bottling bucket setup). I then tried sparging with a colander sitting on top of the mash and ladling in about 2 quarts of sparge water at a time. Works just as well and is a lot easier to control. Bill
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly??? At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
Response:
"Whats good?" Batch sparging. Don’t even start with rinse sparging. It’s not worth the savings in grain. "Whats bad?" Any sparge technique that involves slowly sprinkling hot water over the grain bed while simultaneously monitoring gravities to prevent over sparging. "Whats ugly???" My sister-in-law. YEESH! And she’s a stripper, too. I’ll never be able to go to a strip club again…
Response:
"Whats good?" Batch sparging. Don’t even start with rinse sparging. It’s not worth the savings in grain. "Whats bad?" Any sparge technique that involves slowly sprinkling hot water over the grain bed while simultaneously monitoring gravities to prevent over sparging.
Why sprinkle? All you need to insure is that you do not compact the grainbed. No reason to slowly sprinkle. I use the all in technique without any problems (see my page) Also, for all but the lowest gravity beers, oversparging is rarely a concern. Cheers, Mike www.ipass.net/~mpdixon/homebrew.htm
Response:
Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly???
<snip Good: Requires very little attention, effort Bad: Possible temperature regulation problems, mechanical failures Ugly: Postmodern architecture At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
I use the Kewler Kitz(tm) from zymico.com and am very happy with it. I don’t recall the valve type. Cheers, -Ed Evans
Response:
I used to use a Phil’s Sparge arm, but I lost too much heat. My grainbed would drop to 140. Now I use a 2 quart pot and a piece of aluminum foil. Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly??? At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
– Todd Enlund "Bandits at 3 O’Clock" "Roger. What should I do ’till then?"
Response:
"Bill Vencil" wrote… I used a sparge arm on the first several AG brews that I made. It worked OK, but I had problems keeping the temp up (I just used a simple bottling bucket setup). I then tried sparging with a colander sitting on top of the mash and ladling in about 2 quarts of sparge water at a time. Works just as well and is a lot easier to control.
Toss an upside down saucer in the colander and it works even nicer. It eliminates the tendency to drill the mash directly under the colander. That’s my experience anyway. — Dave Nichols BS#163 RDWHAHB ‘99 FXSTB "City of New Orleans" dmnichol at cox dot net
Response:
i use a single 1/4" copper tube with a series of small holes and fasten across my rubbermaid water cooler i have thought about redesigning something new – but, what the hell it works
– Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – "Whats good?" Batch sparging. Don’t even start with rinse sparging. It’s not worth the savings in grain. "Whats bad?" Any sparge technique that involves slowly sprinkling hot water over the grain bed while simultaneously monitoring gravities to prevent over sparging. "Whats ugly???" My sister-in-law. YEESH! And she’s a stripper, too. I’ll never be able to go to a strip club again…
Response:
I used to use a Phil’s Sparge arm, but I lost too much heat. My grainbed would drop to 140. Now I use a 2 quart pot and a piece of aluminum foil.
I shortened the CPVC manifold in my rectangular cooler to a small rectangle next to the spigot instead of a "ladder" looking contraption that reaches all the way across the bottom of the cooler. Now I can just pour the vorlauf right in at the far end of the cooler and it doesn’t seem to disturb the grain at the near end where the abbreviated manifold lies. My batch sparges run just as fast as with the full manifold, and the vorlauf seems to go a little quicker. — The Origin of Beer: Simple all-grain brewing http://homer.ctrust.com/danny/brewing/brewday.html
Response:
I used a sparge arm on the first several AG brews that I made. It worked OK, but I had problems keeping the temp up (I just used a simple bottling bucket setup).
Use hotter water to allow for the temperature drop. Fashioning a cover helps a lot. — Dan Listermann Check out our E-tail site at www.listermann.com Free shipping for orders greater than $35 and East of the Mighty Miss. I then tried sparging with a colander sitting on top of the – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – mash and ladling in about 2 quarts of sparge water at a time. Works just as well and is a lot easier to control. Bill Hi All again… This hours question deals with sparge arms. Whats good, whats bad, whats ugly??? At the base of my Rubbermaid Mash/Lauter Tun I’ll be putting a real valve. By default it’ll be a 1/2" SS ball valve, but I think I’ll want close control over the flow, so I’m asking what kind of valve is most popular??? Peter
Response:
"Whats bad?" Any sparge technique that involves slowly sprinkling hot water over the grain bed while simultaneously monitoring gravities to prevent over sparging.
If you mean bad as in "easy to do and works great", then yes, fly sparging is "bad". BTW, you only need to worry about oversparging on low gravity beers. Not something a lot of homebrewers make. For most normal strength or higher beers, just stop sparging when you hit your target volume. John. — *** John P. Kolesar *** *** Valley Mead Brewery ***
Response:
"BTW, you only need to worry about oversparging on low gravity beers. Not something a lot of homebrewers make. For most normal strength or higher beers, just stop sparging when you hit your target volume." That’s not necessarily correct. If you configure your recipes on the hairy edge of your system efficiency, you do very frequently hit that 1.010 redline when rinse sparging. OTOH, if you have a system efficiency of 90%, and you brew like you have an efficiency of 85%, the extra ingredients will keep the gravities higher well past your target volume.
Response:
. For most normal strength or higher beers, just stop sparging when you hit your target volume. For five gallon batches, this is generally true, but I have found that for ten gallon batches, the sugar runs out a couple of gallons short of the target volume at least on my system ( round coolers with Phalse Bottom.) If I were to continue sparging to the target volume, about 12 gallons, I would be just passing water through husks. This is not considered good. — Dan Listermann Check out our E-tail site at www.listermann.com Free shipping for orders greater than $35 and East of the Mighty Miss. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – "Whats bad?" Any sparge technique that involves slowly sprinkling hot water over the grain bed while simultaneously monitoring gravities to prevent over sparging. If you mean bad as in "easy to do and works great", then yes, fly sparging is "bad". BTW, you only need to worry about oversparging on low gravity beers. Not something a lot of homebrewers make John. — *** John P. Kolesar *** *** Valley Mead Brewery ***
Response:
.. For most normal strength or higher beers, just stop sparging when you hit your target volume. For five gallon batches, this is generally true, but I have found that for ten gallon batches, the sugar runs out a couple of gallons short of the target volume at least on my system ( round coolers with Phalse Bottom.) If I were to continue sparging to the target volume, about 12 gallons, I would be just passing water through husks. This is not considered good.
The efficiency of a sparge depends on several factors. The system design fixes a lot of these factors like geometry, flow patterns in the grain bed, wall bypass etc. The one major remaining factor affecting efficiencies is the sparge volume to grain ratio. Take a 5 gallon batch with a target volume of 6.25 gallons and assuming a grist with an average extractable of 35 points/lb Based on my experience with 10 lbs of grain my efficiency would be 79%. Expected SG of wort is 1.055 With 12 lbs of grain and the same target volume my efficiency drops to 73%. Expected SG of wort is 1.061 As the sparge volume to grain ratio increases, your efficiency will increase to the point where you will eventually extract the husk components that lead to astringency. Sad to say I have done this.