Homebrew Tip Sparging And Methods To It: Sparging is a German word that means to rinse. Sparging in brewing is the process which rinses the remaining sugars in mashed grains from the mashtun and runoff into the boil kettle. There are three basic types of sparging process a brewer can do. The first one we will discuss is the fly sparge. This is probably the most popular method amongst homebrewers and pro brewers. Fly sparging is done after the mash, and usually requires some type of sparge arm or sprinkler system in the mashtun. When we fly sparge we runoff wort from the mashtun into the boil kettle at the same rate that we add hot water from the hot liquor tank to the top of the grain bed. We want to sparge as closely to 168* as possible. If we go much higher than that we run the risk of rinsing harsh tannins from the grains to the wort. If we sparge too cold the water will not be hot enough to rinse the excess sugars. We also want to do a fly sparge on the slow side. Normally we run off 1 quart per minute while adding one 1 quart per minute to the top of the grain bed. Most brewers will suggest keeping about one inch of sparge water on top of the grain bed. Sparging too quickly or disturbing the grain bed can lead to channeling of the grain bed. This means you create small canals in the grain bed which continue to get rinsed without rinsing the whole grain bed. This means you are no longer rinsing sugar from the mashtun. If you notice clear water running into the kettle then you are probably channelling the grain bed. As with all methods there are pros and cons to fly sparging. The pros include: higher system efficiency due to a more thorough rinse of the grains. Cons include: a longer brew day. A fly sparge should take about 60 minutes to complete. Also extra equipment is usually needed such as a sparge arm. The second most popular sparge method is the batch sparge. This is the quickest of the two, but you will loose about 15% efficiency. A batch sparge is done by running all the wort in the mashtun into the boil kettle then reintroducing the wort back into the mashtun, giving the mash a good stir, and running the wort off once again. This is usually done 3 times. The pros to this method are no added equipment needed, a quicker brew day, and easy for new brewers to do with limited brewing gear. The cons are the loss of efficiency. The last method some brewers choose to use is the no sparge. This is most commonly done when doing a brew in a bag brew. No sparge is exactly that. If the brewer is doing a brew in a bag usually the grains are simply removed from the kettle and the boil is started. If doing a full size batch, no sparge is simply running all the wort from the mashtun into the boil kettle and then completing the boil. We dont recommend doing this if you have the equipment to do either a fly or batch sparge. By doing a no sparge your system efficiency suffers greatly. As you can guess, this method makes for a very fast brew day, and requires the least amount of equipment to complete. I cant stress the importance of rinsing your grains properly to get the most out of your ingredients. We hope this has been informative, and helps you in your all grain endeavors. Happy brewing!
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 23:29:12 +0000
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