The weaker the beer, the longer the sparge.

[Bashley]

Hi all

I'm on my 2nd Grainfather brew and have just spent 90 mins sparging. This one's a lower grain bill and lower ABV (3.9%) So as a newbie, I was wondering, is it normal that a session beer would take longer to sparge than a higher ABV beer?

 

[Ajhutch]

If you used the same water:grain ratio in the mash then I guess you’d need more of the weaker sparge runnings to dilute so sparging for longer makes sense at least in theory.

 

[Slid]

Hi all

I'm on my 2nd Grainfather brew and have just spent 90 mins sparging. This one's a lower grain bill and lower ABV (3.9%) So as a newbie, I was wondering, is it normal that a session beer would take longer to sparge than a higher ABV beer?

Sounds like a "stuck sparge" to me. Most likely the grains are crushed a bit fine for the GF. Did the wort run through OK during the mash or did it keep rising up above the top plate?

 

[Bashley]

I had to lift up the bin and change the top overflow pipe mid mash so maybe that effected the sparge. I used the same grains I used on my first batch and that went ok - so I'm not sure there's a problem with the grain crush. I did have foam rising up over the plate, unlike the first brew I did.

 

[Spoon]

90min is a long time to drain the mash, it was definitely stuck! Plenty of things cause it, too much mixing when adding the grain, too quick lautering/sparging, the pipe is supposed to be only just above the grain so the flow through the bed itself is barely a trickle, more than that and it compacts.

Caveat: I've not used my all in one brewer yet so there might be something I've not considered.

 

[Bashley]

90min is a long time to drain the mash, it was definitely stuck! Plenty of things cause it, too much mixing when adding the grain, too quick lautering/sparging, the pipe is supposed to be only just above the grain so the flow through the bed itself is barely a trickle, more than that and it compacts.

Caveat: I've not used my all in one brewer yet so there might be something I've not considered.

Yes, I think it probably had something to do with me using the normal lower pipework with smaller overflow. Not sure what you mean by 'too quick lautering/sparging'
That was kind of the problem, I couldn't sparge at all fast.

 

[Spoon]

If the flow through the bed is too quick it pushes the grain down onto the filter and compacts it. Once compacted the flow stops almost entirely. The aim is to have just enough flow to extract the sugars (and not take forever doing it) but not so much that it gets stuck.

In a normal setup I do this by lautering then pouring the sparge water on top of the grain bed, crack the valve open and let it drain slowly through the bed. If the valve is opened completely it sticks almost instantly. I presume in the grainfather the height of the overflow controls the pressure (and hence flow) through the bed rather than the valve, hence it should be as low as possible to keep the flow as slow as possible.

If the flow is already as low as possible the the other option is too much stirring, only ever stir gently and just enough to break up any lumps.

Wheat tends to stick more than barley as there's no husk, so if there's a lot of that in the grainbill you can compensate with rice huls too or just add some anyway, its not broken down in the mash so has no effect on the beer except to stop the mash sticking.

 

[IainM]

No, small grain bills don't take longer to sparge in general. If anything it's the other way round; sparge slower with larger bills as it's easier to draw the grain bed in.