When you sparge, do you...

[JohnQ]

When you sparge, do you empty your Mash Tun, then refill and wait for a period of time, then drain again, or do you slowly add sparge water while draining throughout the time?
What are the advantages of either way?

JW

[Richard]

Fwiw; you're asking about the difference between batch and fly sparging.

I batch sparge 'cause my cooler is a rectangular one and I want to avoid channeling.

[Gil Breau]

Batch sparge is so much easier for the difference fly sparging supposedly offers IMO, unless you have a fancy setup.

What's supposed to be different is a few things:

1) Fly sparging isn't going to over shoot your sparge time as much. Normally you batch for 15 mins, then drain, so depending on your setup, it could be 5-10mins longer draining. Fly sparging, you keep the water level just above your grainbed and continually sparge untill done.

2) The grains act as a constant filter, like sand. Since you haven't disturbed the bed from the mash, all you're doing is letting the water sift through, picking up sugars as it goes, and filtering off any sediments.

But in order to do it, you need an even distribution of water on the grain bed, a watchful eye, constant attention, and strike water constantly heated. The colander trick is supposed to be a cheap version of fly sparging, but it seems iffy at best. You really need a constant water flow and a sparge arm.

Batches, you heat up, dump, stir, and drain. All you get in the end is a bit extra cloudiness...

[Kyle]

I batch sparge now, but I'm beginning to build a 10gal electric system that will be fly-sparge-capable.

[Gil Breau]

I want to rig something akin to the blichmann autosparge at some point. I got most the idea planned out...

But I either need a gravity system or a pump before that....

[Kyle]

I'll be buying a March 809 pump in the fall, maybe we can get a discount with a few people in on a group order.

[Richard]

Where from? I've got a wish-list longer than my er.. arm.

[Kyle]

I'll pm you

[Jake]

Regarding sparge, why do I keep on reading that sparge temp should be arond 168 to 170? ... so this means water needs to be closer to 180 when added? do you guys use any calculators to determine what sparge water temp should be? I use one for the mash which works fine, but cant seem to find a sparge water temp calculator. Does it exist?

[Jake]

btw I also batch I believe. Approx 40% of my water goes in for mash and I wait an hour, drain, and then add the remaining 60% of water all at once and wait 15 mins and drain; proceeding on to the boil ... I don't actually just use 40/60, but that's what it has worked out to (approximately) for my first 3 batches

[Richard]

so this means water needs to be closer to 180 when added?

Yeah - Shawn pointed this out to me a while back and it bought me a good 5-10% efficiency on the smaller grain bills, over just using 170F (which I'd been doing for ages).

Regarding calculators: I mostly wing it (good luck figuring out the ambient temperature of your grain) with some cold water and boiling water on hand to dial in the temp of the mash. Not needed to add more than a half gallon yet (it's much easier to bring it down than bring it up, so I tend to overshoot a little then add cold).