How fast should I lauter?

[jalynch4]

Hi all,

I've been searching for ways to increase my effieciency. I ready in Brew Your Own this month that it helps to collect your first runnings at a slow trickle-anywhere between 60-90 minutes. I've usually just opened my valve and drained slowly enough to avoid splashing the wort, but it's usually all collected in 5-10 minutes and then I start the sparge. Does anyone have any thoughts if this is helpful?

I'm still tinkering with other, possibly more important ways to boost my effeciency, such as making sure I have a good crush and holding the correct mash temp.

Thanks everyone!

 

[sm007thie]

Wow, 5-10 minutes is way too fast. As far as I know, the slower the better (more efficient) with diminishing returns after an hour or so. I usually shoot for an hour. I'll use a pint glass to time the flow rate coming out and make adjustments. I'm sure there are fancy reasons to go faster or slower, but I just keep is simple and sparge for an hour.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

ok am I missing something? you seriously take an hour to drain the wort out of the mash tun? I thought you run it real slow to vorlauf( sp) and when it starts running clear you crank it open. and then repeat that for the sparge?

 

[Yooper]

ok am I missing something? you seriously take an hour to drain the wort out of the mash tun? I thought you run it real slow to vorlauf( sp) and when it starts running clear you crank it open. and then repeat that for the sparge?

Yes, for fly sparging. Batch sparging is fast, and fly sparging is slow. So, we may be talking apples and oranges here.

To the OP, you just open your valve and drain? No tubing? You need tubing to get the "siphon" effect (and avoid hot side aeration which is debated) to pull the wort out of the tube.

So, if you're batch sparging, you drain your first runnings. Add sparge water, stir, vorlauf, drain. Like in 5 minutes total.

If you're fly sparging (continuous sparging), you add your mash out water and begin draining while you're adding the sparge water. You drain at the same rate you add water. You want to "rinse" the sugars off of the grain. This should take about 45 minutes to an hour for a 5 gallon batch.

 

[ClassicXJ]

Glad I am not the only one that read that article and wondered if I was doing something wrong.

Thanks for the help again Yooper. And by the way, because of you I am addictated to Pacman yeast

 

[Yooper]

Glad I am not the only one that read that article and wondered if I was doing something wrong.

Thanks for the help again Yooper. And by the way, because of you I am addictated to Pacman yeast

Haha- funny you mention that. When I was at dinner last night, when the subject of pacman yeast came up, I got a funny look when I mentioned that I use it often. I really like it for a "clean" well attenuating ale yeast.

 

[jalynch4]

Thanks everyone. I should have been clearer-I am draining through tubing, but I've been opening the valve just enough not to splash the hot wort as it drains into my kettle. I'm also batch sparging, not fly/continuous sparging, so that makes sense that it would be faster/shorter for me-thanks YooperBrew. I think I misread the article in BYO, and I assumed that it was suggesting completely draining the first runnings at 60-90 minutes, then sparging for an additional 60 mins. Since it was talking about continuous sparging, and assumes I'd start the sparge before the first runnings were completely done, it would account for the 60-90 min description.

....nice to have my head screwed on straight now
Thanks everyone.

 

[sm007thie]

I guess I thought that since you were trying to increase your efficiency, you were already fly sparging. Well then, I suggest you shift your operation to fly sparging to up your efficiency percentage.

 

[jalynch4]

Thanks, sm007thie. What's your setup like?

 

[sm007thie]

rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler converted to mash tun w/ a copper manifold, hot liquor tank is just a random cooler I threw a ball valve on, 32 qt ss kettle with ball valve, homemade counterflow wort chiller and pre-chiller, couple ported better bottles. nothing special, but it sure gets the job done. i still need to make some sort of sparge arm. as of now, i just have the hot liquor trickling from a piece of tubing. i have to keep moving it to prevent channeling.

 

[Palefire]

What's your efficiency now? If you get over 70%, why worry about increasing it? After all, reliable and consistent efficiency is the most important thing.

Obviously there are different opinions on this issue (which is great), but adding another 30+ minutes to my brewday just to get a 5% increase in efficiency (or sh*t, even a 10% increase) doesn't seem worth it to me. Not trying to incite flaming here, just saying what works for me.

 

[jalynch4]

rubbermaid 10 gallon cooler converted to mash tun w/ a copper manifold, hot liquor tank is just a random cooler I threw a ball valve on, 32 qt ss kettle with ball valve, homemade counterflow wort chiller and pre-chiller, couple ported better bottles. nothing special, but it sure gets the job done. i still need to make some sort of sparge arm. as of now, i just have the hot liquor trickling from a piece of tubing. i have to keep moving it to prevent channeling.

I've been thinking of switching over to an orange rubbermade cooler with a false bottom, and switching over to fly sparging with a sparge arm as long as I'm going to make the change. Right now I'm doing the batch sparge in a homemade mashtun made from a square picnic cooler with a homemade manifold, but it a shakey setup at best. Do you like continuous sparging better?

 

[sm007thie]

Do you like continuous sparging better?

When I decided to go AG, I bought a cooler to convert into a mash tun. I had a junky old igloo in the garage so I just threw a valve on it and called it a hot liquor tank. I've never done a batch sparge. From the sounds of it, neither produces a better brew than the other. It's all about time and squeezing a little more sugar and flavor from your grains. I enjoy brewing enough that I'm not in any hurry what so ever--I routinely take 6-8 hours from start to all cleaned up. I make a day out of it and love every minute (except of course cleaning up my mess). If I didn't enjoy the process so much or something came up that spoiled my plans and I needed to save myself an hour, I'd probably just do a batch sparge. Until that day comes, I'll stick to slow fly sparging.

 

[HorribleCatfish]

Glad I am not the only one that read that article and wondered if I was doing something wrong.

Thanks for the help again Yooper. And by the way, because of you I am addictated to Pacman yeast

In a side bar to the article, on the opposite page, it is mentioned that it is for fly sparging. Why it wasn't mentioned in the actual article is beyond me.