What do you use to sprinkle sparge water?

[r-evans]

Wanting a cheap piece of kit for sparging.

Read that rotating sparge arms only work well if you use a pump.

Been trying to find one of these but can't locate one in UK. Simple to just attach to a hose.

 

[jceg316]

The way I sparge is I have foil on top on the grain bed, and rest the return hose on there and slowly fill. When it's a couple of inches above the grain bed I slowly sparge. So in answer to your questing I don't use anything other than the hose itself. My efficiency didn't drop when I went to this from a rotating sparge arm.

 

[Hoppyland]

Well, all I use is a jug.
This is my "lauter tun" - a 12l plastic bucket. In the bottom is a bazooka filter behind the tap, covered with perforated cooking foil. I ladle the mash into it from my mashing tun (a picnic box, no tap), and then add water gradually (at about 80-85C). All the time, I try to keep the outflow quite slow, so that the water level in the lauter tun is pretty well at the top. Every few minutes I pour in more hot water from the jug, working backwards and forwards across the grain. I guess sparging takes me about half an hour. Since I've been using my own malt mill, I regularly get over 80% efficiency even though the method is pretty crude!

 

[Fil]

May i suggest giving batch sparging a go/try? it is so much simpler needing less attention input and materials (if your tun has sufficient capacity)

fwiw when fly sparging (infrequent) i will lay punctured foil on the grain bed, and the feed enters through silicone tube coiled ontop of the foil.

 

[Antony]

Foil with holes, sprinkle on with a jug!

 

[Rogermort]

Another one for a sheet of foil (in my case actually a giant flan case I inherited) with holes and the silicone hose is coiled on that.

 

[peebee]

http://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/en/sparging-equipment/155-flexible-sparging-hose.html. Very versatile if you have a mashtun to fix it in and a pump or high (...er than mashtun) shelf/surface to put tens of litres of hot water (!).


(EDIT: The last comment is not a criticism of this device; ANY gravity fed "cascading" sparging system requires lifting vessels of very hot water onto high surfaces).

 

[r-evans]

The way I sparge is I have foil on top on the grain bed, and rest the return hose on there and slowly fill. When it's a couple of inches above the grain bed I slowly sparge. So in answer to your questing I don't use anything other than the hose itself. My efficiency didn't drop when I went to this from a rotating sparge arm.

Well, all I use is a jug.
This is my "lauter tun" - a 12l plastic bucket. In the bottom is a bazooka filter behind the tap, covered with perforated cooking foil. I ladle the mash into it from my mashing tun (a picnic box, no tap), and then add water gradually (at about 80-85C). All the time, I try to keep the outflow quite slow, so that the water level in the lauter tun is pretty well at the top. Every few minutes I pour in more hot water from the jug, working backwards and forwards across the grain. I guess sparging takes me about half an hour. Since I've been using my own malt mill, I regularly get over 80% efficiency even though the method is pretty crude!

Foil with holes, sprinkle on with a jug!

Another one for a sheet of foil (in my case actually a giant flan case I inherited) with holes and the silicone hose is coiled on that.

I've seen people using foil and just bucketing the wort/HL on top but I think this is actually more work for me as I have a perfect 3 tier system with the worktop/chair/floor.

I just think it's a lot easier to be able to just open a couple of taps and let gravity do all the work.

Foil with hose seems like a better idea.

May i suggest giving batch sparging a go/try? it is so much simpler needing less attention input and materials (if your tun has sufficient capacity)

fwiw when fly sparging (infrequent) i will lay punctured foil on the grain bed, and the feed enters through silicone tube coiled ontop of the foil.

Any reason you prefer batch sparging over fly other than less work?

http://www.angelhomebrew.co.uk/en/sparging-equipment/155-flexible-sparging-hose.html. Very versatile if you have a mashtun to fix it in and a pump or high (...er than mashtun) shelf/surface to put tens of litres of hot water (!).

This looks good but for whatever reason that website never works for me, not sure if it's because I have a MacBook. It doesn't show prices or an 'add to basket' button.

Just tried on my phone too and the website is just messed up.

 

[yeastinfection]

I've seen people using foil and just bucketing the wort/HL on top but I think this is actually more work for me as I have a perfect 3 tier system with the worktop/chair/floor.

I just think it's a lot easier to be able to just open a couple of taps and let gravity do all the work.

Foil with hose seems like a better idea.



Any reason you prefer batch sparging over fly other than less work?



This looks good but for whatever reason that website never works for me, not sure if it's because I have a MacBook. It doesn't show prices or an 'add to basket' button.

Just tried on my phone too and the website is just messed up.

doesnt link properly on my laptop either.:-?

 

[yeastinfection]

is there any benefit/disadvantage between batch and fly sparging? i dont mean ease or equip ,i mean from a efficiency point of things?
if so,why?

 

[peebee]

... This looks good but for whatever reason that website never works for me, not sure if it's because I have a MacBook. It doesn't show prices or an 'add to basket' button. ...

You're right! And it's not your MacBook. I'll give them a prod, but I guess they already know their Website has gone a bit wonky.

(EDIT: Got an answer; a tragic event meant the Website has been closed - put on "catalogue" mode - for a few days).
(EDIT: Fixed now!).

 

[Fil]

Batch sparging simply slotted into my brewday better than fly sparging did, After draining the tun of the first batch, you know exactly the volume of the 2nd batch required to hit the target preboil volume with a good degree of accuracy.

one possible drawback is the need to vourlaff (spelling??) or jug back the initial runnings of 2 batches to draw clean wort.

 

[peebee]

is there any benefit/disadvantage between batch and fly sparging? i dont mean ease or equip ,i mean from a efficiency point of things?
if so,why?

Fly sparging was the only technique a few years ago and it was just "sparging". Something like batch sparging would be a method described for dealing with a stuck mash. Fly sparging is more efficient because the grain is constantly "washed" in clear water (bit like saying showers get you cleaner than sitting in mucky bath water). But fly sparging requires extra bits and bobs and may be detrimental if over done (really?).

 

[yeastinfection]

Ah yes.the old running water thing. Never thought about it like that

 

[Bigcol49]

Fly sparging was the only technique a few years ago and it was just "sparging". Something like batch sparging would be a method described for dealing with a stuck mash. Fly sparging is more efficient because the grain is constantly "washed" in clear water (bit like saying showers get you cleaner than sitting in mucky bath water). But fly sparging requires extra bits and bobs and may be detrimental if over done (really?).

Hi!
Batch sparging is also known as English sparging as it was common practice in English breweries.
For the same reason fly (continuous) sparging is also known as German sparging.

 

[MyQul]

I remeber a forumite (cant remember who) said he took the sprinkler head from a watering can and attached it to a funnel then poured his sparge water into the funnel and just let the sprinklet head do the fly sparging for him

 

[peebee]

Hi!
Batch sparging is also known as English sparging as it was common practice in English breweries.
For the same reason fly (continuous) sparging is also known as German sparging.

Okay, history lesson and correction accepted. But long before home-brewing books WW1 had seen the purging of most references to "German" in our language.

 

[strange-steve]

Fly sparging should be more efficient, but I swapped to batch sparging recently and didn't notice any drop in efficiency. What I did notice is that my efficiency is much less variable now which makes it easier to accurately formulate a recipe. It's also faster and less faff which is a plus if time is at a premium. I don't think I'd go back to fly sparging.

 

[peteplus1]

Just a cheap old shower head on the end of some tubing :)

 

[jceg316]

Just a cheap old shower head on the end of some tubing :)

The issue here is that the inside of shower heads aren't food safe, so could cause problems.

Or so I've heard.