When sparging with the jug and tin foil method I assume the mash water is on the same level as the grains, and you run the water in at same speed as it runs out. If using one of the whirlygig sparge arms is the water an inch or two above the level of the grain or again on same level I've watched several video's and they are all different. I understand the importance of keeping the grain covered so as not to cause channels or run throughs etc.
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DirtyCaner
Landlord.
When fly sparging the water level should be maintained just above the level of the grain bed. Be this with a jug or sparge arm.
When you say "When sparging with the jug and tin foil method I assume the mash water is on the same level as the grains" do you mean the sparge water when you say mash water? If so then it doesn't really matter what level the you have your container of water at.
If you are using a HLT or boiler I would reccomend just running the water out of this into the top of your mash tun (with foil) at an appropriate rate, maintaining the water level just above the grains. Yes you should try and match flow rate in with flow rate, I try to have an output of about a pint a min. So it is quite a slow process.
Hope this helps,
DirtyC
When you say "When sparging with the jug and tin foil method I assume the mash water is on the same level as the grains" do you mean the sparge water when you say mash water? If so then it doesn't really matter what level the you have your container of water at.
If you are using a HLT or boiler I would reccomend just running the water out of this into the top of your mash tun (with foil) at an appropriate rate, maintaining the water level just above the grains. Yes you should try and match flow rate in with flow rate, I try to have an output of about a pint a min. So it is quite a slow process.
Hope this helps,
DirtyC
Hollow Legs
Regular.
+1 for Dirty Caner's reply that's how I fly sparge and it seems to be working okay for me (AG#3 last week) 
as above :thumb:
I fly sparge with a spinney sparge arm and like to keep 25-50mm of liquor over the grain bed; for a 23L brew this usually takes me 45-60mins. Keep a check on the temperature of your grain bed when sparging and try to keep between 72 & 76C, if you go over 76C then you risk extracting tannins from the malt, also keep sparging till you get your required volume but don't sparge any more after your SG reaches 1008 (temperature adjusted)
I fly sparge with a spinney sparge arm and like to keep 25-50mm of liquor over the grain bed; for a 23L brew this usually takes me 45-60mins. Keep a check on the temperature of your grain bed when sparging and try to keep between 72 & 76C, if you go over 76C then you risk extracting tannins from the malt, also keep sparging till you get your required volume but don't sparge any more after your SG reaches 1008 (temperature adjusted)
If the level of the water is kept slightly above the level of the grain bed, what is the point of using a rotating sparge arm, as the spray of water is just falling onto the water in the mash tun and is spread across the surface and not directly on the grains. Surely that water will then slowly percolate through the grains and not run straight through causing channels etc. It seems to defeat the idea of having a rotating arm to spread the water around evenly. I can see the benefit of the action being automated somewhat with a rotating arm as opposed to pouring manually from a jug.
BigYin
Regular.
Good Ed said:
for normal wort temperatures, that's an SG of 0990 :thumb:
Green Ninja
Large Member
Nice one Big Yin.
I did a King & Barnes Old Ale (from Dave Line's book) Sunday and imagine my surprise when at the end of my sparge I noticed the gravity was 0990.
Now it makes sense.
Cheers for that.
I did a King & Barnes Old Ale (from Dave Line's book) Sunday and imagine my surprise when at the end of my sparge I noticed the gravity was 0990.
Now it makes sense.
Cheers for that.
piddledribble said:
Keeping an amount of liquor above the grain bed is something I have always done, and it seems to work for me ok. To quote from John Palmer's book "Our goal in the continuous sparging process is to rinse all the grain particles in the tun of all the sugar. To do this we need to focus on two things:
Keep the grain bed completely saturated with water.
Make sure that the fluid flow through the grain bed to the drain is slow and uniform.
By keeping the grain bed covered with at least an inch of water, the grain bed is in a fluid state and not subject to compaction to gravity."
The sparge arm just allows me to add water to the tun without disturbing the grain bed. If you use a sparge arm in a rectanglar mash tun without keeping water above the grain bed, you would only be sparging the grain within the range of the sparge arm. This would obviously be more effective if you were using a circular tun to match the sparge arm.
John Palmer has extensive appendicies in his book dealing with the fluid dynamics of batch and continuous sparging methods, together with mash tun shape and size and manifold design; we worth reading if you are making your own set up.
I understand that but from that if you are using a rectangular mash tun i.e cool box type. then to reach all parts of the grain the jug and tin foil method would appear to be more effective in reaching all parts of the grain bed surface, even the corners. A circular whirligig sparge arm would describe a circular path around and around the bed.
I'm just trying to work out if I need a sparge arm thats all it would be better to use than sat with jug and tin foil etc but I can't see it being more effective.
I'm just trying to work out if I need a sparge arm thats all it would be better to use than sat with jug and tin foil etc but I can't see it being more effective.
Hollow Legs
Regular.
piddledribble, hi, I'm on my 4th AG and I fly sparge with tin foil with lots of holes in and just run my liquor from the tap with a small length of hose and move the hose around occasionally, working for me so far
Green Ninja
Large Member
I mash with about 3 litres water per kilo grain
I then sparge with 2 lots of about 20 litres water. I bung in 10 litres and stir it around a bit. Leave it for 10 minutes and drain.
Do it again and that's me done.
This may sound unorthodox or just damn slapdash but it works and I've not had a failed beer yet.
Ok the efficiency may be all to cock but I reckon it's still around the 75% mark.
I then sparge with 2 lots of about 20 litres water. I bung in 10 litres and stir it around a bit. Leave it for 10 minutes and drain.
Do it again and that's me done.
This may sound unorthodox or just damn slapdash but it works and I've not had a failed beer yet.
Ok the efficiency may be all to cock but I reckon it's still around the 75% mark.
So, flow-rate: I seem to have read somewhere that 1L/min is about right, but someone else mentioned 1pint/min, or about 0.5L/min... what is the general opinion on optimal flow-rate?
Dennis
Dennis
DirtyCaner
Landlord.
re Flow Rate,
There's probably not a huge difference between pint/min or litre/min. The aim is to do a nice slow (ish), gentle wash of the grains, so as long as your not letting it all pour out at max spped you should be fine. Nice n slow, thats the key as far as I'm concerned.
DirtyC
There's probably not a huge difference between pint/min or litre/min. The aim is to do a nice slow (ish), gentle wash of the grains, so as long as your not letting it all pour out at max spped you should be fine. Nice n slow, thats the key as far as I'm concerned.
DirtyC
C
cnelsonplumber
Guest
DirtyCaner said:
Anywhrere between the two is fine but the trick is to draw the wort out of the tun at the same rate as the sparge water goes in. This is where variable speed pumps and whirley spinny things come into their own, plus you can be doing something else for an hour or so while sparging. :drink:
Cheers, gents! Still learning here, so all feedback is valuable!
Dennis
Dennis
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