# my typical brew day



## mb-squared (2/3/14)

The last time I posted about my brew rig, some people had some questions about how I could be getting efficiencies in the low 90s. I think it has much more to do with the way I do things, not the cheap, crappy gear I have. So I thought I'd post a description of my typical brew day. On this particular brew day, I brewed up 50L of Janet's Brown Ale, which is always a big hit with SWMBO. 

I begin the day by filling both the boil kettle and the hot liquor tank with filtered water and then I heat both kettles to mash-in temp. Then I transfer the hot water from the BK into the mash tun and then start running the MT water through the HEX (which sits in the HLT) to make sure that the HLT and the MT are sitting at the same temp. Once they are, I turn off the wort pump and dough in. I then turn on the wort pump and just crack the valve to start the recirculation very slowly. Here's a pic of me just starting the mash -- the valve on the wort pump is still only part way open. 





The heated wort returning from the HLT is fed through a silicone hose that wraps around the inside of the MT; it rests on top of the grain bed. It's important to start the recirculation of the wort very slowly so that the grain bed can settle slowly and not compact. Here's a pic of the mash tun at the very beginning of the mash. You can see that it is cloudy. 




Over the first 10 minutes of the mash, I incrementally open the valve wider and wider until it is fully open. Within 30 minutes, you can see that it has cleared up substantially. By recirculating through the grain bed continuously, the wort is filtered very nicely. The constant, wide-open recirculation during the whole of the mash really helps to extract all that sugary goodness too.




Early on in the mash, I check to make sure that the PH of both the wort in the mash tun and the water in the HLT (i.e. sparge water) is in the mid 5s. 




Actually, I rarely ever open the kettles; I'm able to check clarity, PH etc. by taking a sample through the second valve on the output side of each pump.


After the mash and mash-out have wrapped up and it's time to sparge, I close all the valves and then simply move the HEX-in hose to the BK (just hang it over the side) and the HLT-in hose to the HEX-in spot. I then slowly open the valves on both the water and wort pumps so that I have a flow rate of about 1L/min. Here you can see the clear water from the HLT is just beginning its journey through the HEX, pushing the hot wort in front of it through the HEX and into the mash tun.





Once the boil is done (90 minutes is the norm for me), I put my sieve in and siphon out of that with a copper tube. Gotta love the hop bill in Janet's Brown Ale!




Before I start draining the BK, I load up the HLT with ice. It is no longer a 'hot liquor tank'; it is now a cold-as tank (CAT). The boiling hot wort first travels through the CFC, then the wort pump, then the HEX in the CAT and finally into the fermenter on the other side.




The journey begins at boiling temps and hits the fermenter a couple seconds later at 54F (12C). [When I started using my BCS-460 there was a bug with Celsius mode and so I used it in Fahrenheit mode. They have since fixed the bug, but I haven't changed back over yet.]




And there you have it. All pretty basic stuff for most of you, but it might be helpful to a few of you just getting into all grain. 

Cheers,


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## BDD (3/3/14)

Thats a sweet setup you have there man!!!!! Looks like you have your methods pretty nailed too. I think my methods would be considered pretty basic in comparison. Jealous!!!!


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Cheers mate


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## Dan Pratt (3/3/14)

Hi MB,

Top marks for getting a brew day documented, the setup looks great. :beerbang:

Looking at the information, you do what everyone does with a 3V setup to make wort but getting 90% is what most struggle to achieve for Brewhouse Efficiency's ( especially me...lol 70% ) Possibly the sparging you use whcih I think is fly sparging maybe where your getting the extra %'s.


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## mckenry (3/3/14)

Pratty1 said:


> Hi MB,
> 
> Top marks for getting a brew day documented, the setup looks great. :beerbang:
> 
> ...


This is pretty much what I was going to ask. Nice setup by the way! I have a 3V herms, so I have continual flow through the grainbed and the ability to either batch or fly sparge, neither of which get me much over 75% eff. I was hoping there'd be a bit of genius in there that I could put into practice myself. Are you sure you have your software setup correctly? Got your losses exactly right? Evap exactly right etc?
I, for a few brews, thought I was getting better efficiency (85%) as my extraction was up and I put it down to a new mash schedule. Turned out my refrac was out. It was over-registering by 5 or 6 points SG.

Edit - And I'm not trying to tell you how to suck eggs, but things like 'volume to the fermenter' and 'bottling volume' all go towrads overall efficiency and a lot of newbies have these two figures the same.

But, If youre 100% sure of all these things, then I bow to your 90%


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Pratty1 said:


> Can you post your numbers for the day? OG & kgs of malt plus anything else you have.


Hi Pratty1, I think you'll find that I've posted these for you before: 
http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/78566-perfect-temp-control-with-gas/#entry1143629

Cheers,

matto


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## TheWiggman (3/3/14)

Awesome post. Can you post a pic of your mash tun empty and show how the liquid enters it? My only difference is I keep the flow down for the most part (excluding steps) to ensure I don't get channelling. I tend to get around 75-80% eff. but my MT doesn't look as clear as it does in your pic 3. It's clear as buggery though coming out of the hose.

Also, what's with your status? Kit master indeed...


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Hey Wiggman, I'll try and get that pic to you, but basically just a silicone hose that wraps around the tun and that sits on top of the grain bed. I suspect that recirculating wide-open during the whole mash and mash-out is a part of it. Perhaps another part is that I fly-sparge really slow (minimum 60 mins -- usually closer to 90) and I keep sparging until the BK is full even if that means my final runnings are closer to water than they are to wort. This is why the one thing I'm pretty obsessive about is the PH (gotta keep both the mash tun and the sparge water in the mid 5s). Also, and something I didn't detail in the post, is that I turn the heat off as soon as I start the sparge. So I start sparging at 168F (75C) and finish at around 120F (48C). The cool down is intentional as it helps to keep from extracting tannins during the extended sparge.


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## wessmith (3/3/14)

Dont quite know how you calculated your efficiency mb-squared, but down my way 10kg of malt yielding 52L into the fermenter at 1046 is smack on 80% brewhouse efficiency which is still pretty good. Part of your efficiency is coming from the slow sparge - 60 mins would be the minimum we run with on our systems but we maintain the temp around 78C IN THE MASH BED. I cant see any real benefit in letting the sparge water cool off. Tannins are mostly extracted by higher temps and pH greater than 6.

Wes


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Hi Wes, I'm not sure where you got your numbers from. Here is what I said to Pratty1:
_My last brew was a Cascade Amber Ale. 10kg of grain. pre-boil volume of 61L @ 1.046SG for a mash efficiency of 93.3%. After the boil, I had 52L into the fermenter @ 1.053SG. Beersmith tells me that equates to a brewhouse efficiency of 91.6%_

You calculated efficiency using my post-boil volume and my pre-boil SG. That doesn't seem the right way to go about things. But I could be wrong. I'm just going off of what Beersmith tells me. This site here confirms what Beersmith says. 

I must say that I'm a bit surprised by all the skepticism about my claims of 90% efficiency. I use a similar setup (albeit with gas) and the same brew-day protocol as this guy and he frequently claims efficiencies of 95% and higher.


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## wessmith (3/3/14)

My apologies mb-squared, I read your sg into the FV as 1046, not 1053. For the record that makes your overall brewhouse eficiency 92% on my calcs from a malt with 78% yield and based on a brew length of 52L. Very good figures. Again for the record, it really makes no difference which brewing software or manual calcs you might utilise (I use Promash), the key is getting everything calibrated. The pre-boil sg is totally irrelevant in my book as the result is going to vary depending on your sparge volume and then the addition of any adjuncts into the kettle. The trick is to manage the evaporation and kettle/HEX/piping/thermal shrinkage losses to arrive at your planned volume and sg into the FV. These ultimately are the only figures that count.

Wes


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

It took me ~10 or so brew days to get my system dialled in (it's my first system!), but I have more than 50 brews on it now. I build my recipes on the assumption of 90% efficiency and I consistently hit my numbers (volume and gravity) into the FV.

My only reason for making detailed posts with lots of pics is because I know there are a lot of people out there with serious 'electric brewery envy' but who can't afford to go that route. I am one of them! I'm hoping that my posts will convince some of the new guys getting into all grain that it is possible to hit those high numbers and produce some really amazing beer -- on the relative cheap! I believe my brewery does that quite nicely. At least I am happy with it.


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## TheWiggman (3/3/14)

Re: the tannins, all that I've read suggests that the temp goes no higher than 80°C in the mash bed and you keep your sparging SG above 1.005 as a minimum (many here have suggested 1.010). Obviously you will gain slightly more efficiency by fly sparging as long as you can, but you're at risk of extracting undesirable flavours. Screwtop did a good post on this not long ago, and until his beer was judged he wasn't aware of the problem. 

Are you wary of this mb?


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Yep, very wary of this. This is why I let the temp drop during the sparge and ensure that the PH is kept stable in the mid 5s. The gravity of my final runnings are usually in the range of 1.005. I know the received wisdom is not to let the final runnings go below 1.010, but from everything I've read you can go lower, much lower, if you're careful with the PH and the temp (though Wes suggests that it's OK to keep the temp right up there at mash-out temps -- that strikes me as risky, but I've never been bothered to run an experiment). 

I have found these two sources helpful (as I'm sure others here have too):
http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_pH_affects_brewing
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f128/brewing-water-chemistry-primer-198460/ (careful, this one will take a full day to wade through) 

Haven't bothered to have any of my beer judged, unless you count the steady stream of friends asking for me to supply the beer for their upcoming parties. Which I'm more than happy to do


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

TheWiggman said:


> Awesome post. Can you post a pic of your mash tun empty and show how the liquid enters it?


Here you go Wiggman. Hard with all the reflections to get a clear idea of what all is in there and where. But you should see clearly enough the false bottom, the thermowell and the silicone hose that is attached to a bent/angled copper inlet tube. Hope that helps!


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## thedragon (3/3/14)

mb-squared said:


> The last time I posted ... I think it has much more to do with the way I do things, not the cheap, crappy gear I have...


MB, your setup is far from cheap and crappy. It looks great... It will leave many brewers - me included - quite jealous.


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## TheWiggman (3/3/14)

Righto, so it's just open ended? Mine's the same but I point it at the back of the MT higher than the water level. It falls, avoiding any whirlpooling. Yours however (as can be seen from the pic) whirlpools when in action. I avoid doing this now at the advice of others.

I think the biggest difference with your method vs most everyone else's is the adjustment of the sparge water pH to mid 5s.


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## Dan Pratt (3/3/14)

Mb, what are you using to reduce your sparge water pH?


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

Pratty1 said:


> Mb, what are you using to reduce your sparge water pH?


just lactic acid. the water in my area is so soft that a few drops is enough.


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## mb-squared (3/3/14)

TheWiggman said:


> Righto, so it's just open ended? Mine's the same but I point it at the back of the MT higher than the water level. It falls, avoiding any whirlpooling. Yours however (as can be seen from the pic) whirlpools when in action. I avoid doing this now at the advice of others.
> 
> I think the biggest difference with your method vs most everyone else's is the adjustment of the sparge water pH to mid 5s.


yep, I get quite a whirlpool going in there. fluid dynamics is a bit outside my area of expertise, but I suspect that letting the wort cascade down the walls of the MT in one spot is going to lead to more channelling problems than letting the whole thing whirl. but I have nothing other than a hunch on that. I do know that the whirlpool with the pump running wide-open works well for me.

cheers mate,

matto


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## Dan Pratt (4/3/14)

MB - please allow me to apologize, you have a top rig, your making top beer no doubt, I was envious that you could achieve 95% BHE and im not trying to derail this, again, but big ups for documenting the brew day, pics and details are great. 

I have been researching how I can improve on my % for my own peace of mind, 70% is low and my system can do better. I read through the electric brewery website (by the way _ FKN AMAZING!!) but a thread on the forum about efficiency variations, a member asked Kal what his 95% is BHE or Mash? ........ and the answer was MAsh.

http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26127 page 1, post # 9 and then on page 3 second last post.

Now Im confused, your numbers do add up to 92% - getting x Litres of x gravity wort into the FV equates to that %.....how though...how???


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## mb-squared (4/3/14)

Hi Prattty1, not sure what else to tell you. I see that this is very important to you and perhaps I should care about it more myself. But I've always been more interested in the quality of the final product myself -- though I admit that I do like having what seems to be a pretty efficient setup.

I can give you some more numbers, but it probably won't satiate your curiosity. I brewed a Bohemian Pilsner last weekend.  10.1kg of grain. Pre-boil vol of 59.5 litres @1.051 for a mash efficiency of 97.3 (so says Beersmith). After a 60min boil, and some lost wort along the way, I ended up with 51L in my fermentor at 1.056. Beersmith tells me that equates to an overall efficiency of 91%, which is pretty standard for me. But if memory serves, I was probably a bit generous when measuring out the grain before milling it. So I might have had 2-300 more grams of grain than the recipe had called for. If that is the case, perhaps my BHE was closer to 87~88%. 

Again, don't think that is going to help you out much. FWIW, reading through the forum you linked to, I was reminded of one more thing that I always do which may contribute a bit. That is, in addition to running a very slow sparge until my BK is full, I always make sure that I've got my flow rates adjusted so that there is ~10cm of clear water sitting on top of the grain bed. I believe that really helps to push out all the heavy, sugary goodness below. In my case, the sugary goodness is definitely in the bottom of the pot because I never stir the MT after doughing in. 

Cheers,

matto


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## TheWiggman (4/3/14)

Pratty1 (me again), the big differences I can see is -

Rigorous whirlpool during mash
pH adjusted sparge water

My setup is functionally identical to this and I get standard - albeit reasonable - efficiency. To isolate the differences I think mb would have to do a run with a batch sparge, standard water, and minimal grain bed disturbance. Theoretically there should be a drop to around 75% and would confirm the differences as attributing to efficiency. 

Also worth checking measuring devices, not sure how things are measured. 

Alternatively, I could copy mb's method but I don't have a pH meter or lactic acid.


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## Dan Pratt (5/3/14)

mb-squared said:


> Hi Prattty1, not sure what else to tell you. I see that this is very important to you and perhaps I should care about it more myself. But I've always been more interested in the quality of the final product myself -- though I admit that I do like having what seems to be a pretty efficient setup.
> 
> I can give you some more numbers, but it probably won't satiate your curiosity. I brewed a Bohemian Pilsner last weekend. 10.1kg of grain. Pre-boil vol of 59.5 litres @1.051 for a mash efficiency of 97.3 (so says Beersmith). After a 60min boil, and some lost wort along the way, I ended up with 51L in my fermentor at 1.056. Beersmith tells me that equates to an overall efficiency of 91%, which is pretty standard for me. But if memory serves, I was probably a bit generous when measuring out the grain before milling it. So I might have had 2-300 more grams of grain than the recipe had called for. If that is the case, perhaps my BHE was closer to 87~88%.
> 
> ...


Hi Matto,

Seemingly I'm caught up in the numbers, its what I do for a living, technical data which is why i have to know its right. I'm all for quality, for years I have focused on quality over quantity ( LHBS guy taught me that one ) but when I read 92% I had to question it, no offense intended. With a simple math based on the above pilsner 59.5lt preboil to 51lt into the FV is 86%, you lost 14% of your beer through boil of and trub, totally unavoidable but those figures make sense. I know i can get 10% more from my system and will make some small changes to see if that can happen.

Meanwhile - WIggman mentioned above that you whirlpool the mash, i haven't heard of this before,firstly is that correct and ow does that work?


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## mb-squared (5/3/14)

Yes, the inlet to my mash tun is a silicone hose that wraps around the inside of the kettle. Because I run my wort pump wide open during the whole mash, a fairly speedy whirlpool develops in the mash tun. Here's a video from Kal's site, which depicts things pretty well:

http://youtu.be/frsuCg35V8Q?t=4m


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## JDW81 (5/3/14)

Pratty1 said:


> 70% is low and my system can do better. I read through the electric brewery website (by the way _ FKN AMAZING!!) but a thread on the forum about efficiency variations, a member asked Kal what his 95% is BHE or Mash?


Chasing efficiency is one of my bug bears, as everyone seems to place way more importance on it than is really necessary. A brewhouse that runs at 85% efficiency does _not_ make better beer than one which runs at 70%. 

I agree if your efficiency is below 65% then you need to address it, but consistency is far more important. I'd rather run at 65% and hit all my numbers all the time than at 85% and end up short of gravity every second brew. Inconsistency will have more of an affect on the end product than "low" efficiency.

FWIW my brewery is dialled in at about 72% and I always hit my brew boil gravity and post boil gravity. I have no intention of trying to boost those numbers as I don't believe chasing efficiency is going to make my beer better. Yeast, fermentation temps, appropriate ingredients and well formulated and balanced recipes are what I think are important to nail home brew, not getting 10% more out of your rig.

Please bear in mind that this is just my view on this, based on my experience and I'm quite happy to cop a flaming from those who believe efficiency is worth chasing and will make you better beer.

Keep brewing up a storm lads.

JD


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## mb-squared (5/3/14)

I agree whole-heartedly JD. consistency is much more important.


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## Dan Pratt (6/3/14)

Cheers JD. I think your right in saying that. I'm getting consistency on each brew, preboil gravity, preboil volume, post boil gravity but my post boil volumes have been out a little lately due to bigger hopping schedule so I'm adjusting that this week, with more sparge. 

Happy brewing.


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## Dunkelbrau (7/3/14)

Consistency is important and efficiency is ever evolving. As home brewers we are always adjusting our gear and process so our efficiency changes with that as well.

Knowing what changes it, helps you learn the effect of what you change on it.

I think efficiency is important, knowing it, understanding it, and always looking to make improvements, it's the nature of this hobby, building things, learning things and putting those things in to practice! Just don't let it overtake the brewing of a good tasty beer by changing everything every brew.

I think the golden rule is - You have to truly know your system before you can start to tweak it.


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## stux (14/1/15)

Surely, the important thing is that MB^2 is getting virtually the same efficiency into the fermenter as into the boil. The big loss between the kettle and fermenter is kettle trub and cooling.

I noticed that mb-squared is using a rather nifty stainless steel mesh, and a siphon to the very bottom of the kettle. 

Providing all the liquid in the cooler chiller can get into the fermenter, then this is the reason why such good brewhouse efficiency is possible.

Of course, brew house efficiency makes no difference to anything. Take a L from your kettle, and splash it on the ground... you just changed your brewhouse efficiency, without affecting the beer.

Mash/Lauter ie Into Kettle efficiency is what matters, and getting 95% there is impressive, and would require some serious sparging. And that's where the efficiency chasing can result in worse beer.

Aiming for 66% brewhouse efficiency, does not guarantee a better beer... but being happy with 85-90% mash/lauter efficiency might.

Try to prevent post boil losses (ie kettle trub, chiller losses) and you will get your Brewhouse Efficiency to be closer to Mash/Lauter efficiency, which is purely an economic saving. (less grain, hops, water and power required to make the same amount of beer).


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## squirt in the turns (16/1/15)

mb-squared said:


> Again, don't think that is going to help you out much. FWIW, reading through the forum you linked to, I was reminded of one more thing that I always do which may contribute a bit. That is, in addition to running a very slow sparge until my BK is full, I always make sure that I've got my flow rates adjusted so that there is ~10cm of clear water sitting on top of the grain bed. I believe that really helps to push out all the heavy, sugary goodness below. In my case, the sugary goodness is definitely in the bottom of the pot because I never stir the MT after doughing in.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> matto


Hey matto, definitely agree with the slow sparge. My system's quite similar to yours and I've managed mash efficiencies above 90% before, although I must admit to being a bit of a tinkerer and changing things way too often (though not necessarily in pursuit of higher efficiency).

Anyway, I have a few questions about your sparge process:
Do you maintain that 10 cm of water over the grain bed right up until you stop sparging? I.e. your MT is still full of hot, weak wort when you reach your pre-boil vol in the kettle? Unless you have a use for that liquid (strike liquor for the next batch?) it seems like a bit of a waste. When you were dialling in your system, did you try sparging with only as much water as was required to reach your pre-boil volume and completely draining the MT? If so, did it cost you much in efficiency?

Also, do you adjust the flow rates from the HLT and to the BK to match manually? With the flow running so slowly, it takes a long time for any dependency to show, and I've previously wandered off to do something else thinking I've got them nicely in sync only to come back to the MT gently overflowing everywhere! Standing there monitoring the process throughout the sparge is excruciating and I'm thinking about maybe a Blichmann autosparge or some more electronics in my brewery to automate this step.


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## mb-squared (16/1/15)

squirt in the turns said:


> ...
> 
> Anyway, I have a few questions about your sparge process:
> Do you maintain that 10 cm of water over the grain bed right up until you stop sparging? I.e. your MT is still full of hot, weak wort when you reach your pre-boil vol in the kettle? Unless you have a use for that liquid (strike liquor for the next batch?) it seems like a bit of a waste. When you were dialling in your system, did you try sparging with only as much water as was required to reach your pre-boil volume and completely draining the MT? If so, did it cost you much in efficiency?


hey squirt, I'm pretty lazy about calculating my sparge water. I maintain ~10cm of water on the top until I see that my BK is within ~10L of being full and then I turn off my water pump. Doing it that way I always end up with extra water in the MT that I have to drain off. But it doesn't go to waste. I like my barley tea straight out of the MT and so do my kiddos  I tell them its Milo without the powdered milk and vegetable oil 



squirt in the turns said:


> Also, do you adjust the flow rates from the HLT and to the BK to match manually? With the flow running so slowly, it takes a long time for any dependency to show, and I've previously wandered off to do something else thinking I've got them nicely in sync only to come back to the MT gently overflowing everywhere! Standing there monitoring the process throughout the sparge is excruciating and I'm thinking about maybe a Blichmann autosparge or some more electronics in my brewery to automate this step.


I use a 500ml cup and make sure that the flowrate out of both my water and wort pumps is right at 30secs to fill it. Since starting this thread, I've added a sight glass to the MT and that makes things even easier. Now I get the flow rate of my wort pump where I want it and then just make sure that the total volume in the MT isn't varying too much. But I'm with you in thinking that a fancy valve of some kind that I could program to run at the flow I wanted would be a perfect addition to the brewery. But I've got too many other toys to buy and figure out first 

Cheers,

matto


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## squirt in the turns (20/1/15)

mb-squared said:


> I use a 500ml cup and make sure that the flowrate out of both my water and wort pumps is right at 30secs to fill it. Since starting this thread, I've added a sight glass to the MT and that makes things even easier. Now I get the flow rate of my wort pump where I want it and then just make sure that the total volume in the MT isn't varying too much. But I'm with you in thinking that a fancy valve of some kind that I could program to run at the flow I wanted would be a perfect addition to the brewery. But I've got too many other toys to buy and figure out first
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> matto


I always measure my sparge water to give me exactly my pre-boil volume when the MT is drained. This relies on water absorption rates of the grain being predictable but I've found that Beermsith is usually spot-on in that regard.

Your measuring method to match flow rates is a nice simple way to do it. My current system makes that a bit difficult as I have this slightly ridiculous double-spiral copper coil with slots cut in it, which I suspend from a hook on the MT lid so that it hangs just below the liquid level, the idea being to gently distribute wort/water over the grain bed without causing any aeration during recirculation and sparging. I think I'll get rid of that, though, and go with the hose resting on the grain bed method.

I love electronic automation and I've toyed with the idea of putting float switches in the HLT, MT and kettle to make fly sparging an unattended process. The water pump would switch on/off to maintain the desired depth of water over the grain bed, and switch off when the HLT empties to stop it running dry. The switch in the kettle would control the wort pump and switch it off when pre-boil volume is reached to stop the wort pump running dry. But I have too many wires and switches in the brewery already. I think a simpler mechanical solution like the Autosparge is a good compromise. That way I can just set the flow rate into the kettle and measure it but don't stress too much about getting exactly 1L/min. Then I'll just have to return once during the process to switch off the water pump when the HLT empties, and again at the end to switch off the wort pump. The exact time at which these occur should be known as the flow rate into the kettle is known.


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## Gelding (20/1/15)

I am curious to know whether adjusting the pH of your water in the HLT has any effect.

As you say , your water is soft, and the mash has a huge buffer potential to keep it mid 5's naturally ?


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## mb-squared (20/1/15)

Hi Gelding, good question. I've never tried running an extended sparge without first adding a drop or two of lactic acid to the sparge water, so I don't know the answer. I do know that once I'm ~30 minutes into the sparge that I have ~10cm of clear water sitting on top of the grain bed so that is un-buffered water there. But again, I don't really know the answer.

It's certainly one of those things that you could experiment with, but I know that keeping the PH of the sparge water down isn't going to cause any problems with an extended sparge, so I've never thought to ask/investigate the question you've asked


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## Gelding (20/1/15)

I think with soft water your mash pH is hardly going to be affected by a drop or two of acid... I'm presuming we have all diligently studied the water chemistry chapter in our "how to brew" bible or summarised for those who prefer to listen.


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