Batch Sparge/Efficiency Analysis - Kai Troester's work

[Fraser's BRB]

It also depends where you've got room - if you can increase your preboil volume in the kettle and perhaps drain 60-70% of your HLT then refill, then you can open up more efficiency and use two sparges. But you'd need a heap more room in your kettle (45-50L) and also your mash tun, so I'd suggest trying a strike of 21-22L and a single sparge of 16-18L and see how that ends up.

Cheers Adr. Yes, Beersmith tells me my mash efficiency is around 70%

I have plenty of headspace in my boil kettle so could add at least another 10L pre-boil if required.

As to the rest, I can't really add any more strike water in my preferred MT (it's bang on 30L and with the 20L water and 6.5kg grain bill it's not far off the top.) I can, however, drain most of the sparge water from my HLT in one hit. So from looking at your sheet, I'd potentially gain sparge efficiency by doing it this way?

 

[Adr_0]

Consider a bigger mash tun so you don't have to worry about that capacity limit. I think I'm lucky to have started with an oversized 75lt Esky. Reason being water to grain ratios.
....

This is the vehicle's top speed:



It gives me another 8-9L of working volume on what I had, which is excellent. While 5.5kg was my practical limit I can now comfortably do 7.5kg or even up to 8kg at a squeeze - which I am absolutely stoked with.

 

[Adr_0]

Cheers Adr. Yes, Beersmith tells me my mash efficiency is around 70%

I have plenty of headspace in my boil kettle so could add at least another 10L pre-boil if required.

As to the rest, I can't really add any more strike water in my preferred MT (it's bang on 30L and with the 20L water and 6.5kg grain bill it's not far off the top.) I can, however, drain most of the sparge water from my HLT in one hit. So from looking at your sheet, I'd potentially gain sparge efficiency by doing it this way?

Assuming 42L hot preboil, try:
18L strike
2 x sparges of 13.5-14L (hot volume) which should get you up around the 85-90% mark.

The catch is that you have quite a bit of preboil volume which you need to boil off, so consider this vs the single sparge.

EDIT: and this is the thing... Time and effort to get potentially 85-90% vs less time and less effort for 80-85%. You have to make your own decision in what's really important.

 

[Fraser's BRB]

EDIT: and this is the thing... Time and effort to get potentially 85-90% vs less time and less effort for 80-85%. You have to make your own decision in what's really important.

Yes and there's the rub. I've been doing it the way I have mainly so I'm not adding more time and effort to my brew day.

I have been chasing more efficiency to reduce grain bill and have recently modified my MT so that I can recirculate in the chase for efficiency points. This also meant reducing my grain crack so as not to clag up. Only done one brew with recirc so far and at first glance it looks to have moved my brewhouse efficiency up to approx 70% but it still took some manipulation periodically so as not to clag up (more effort, less time to do other things during mash). I'll have a go with your suggestions on modifying my sparge and see if I can get any points that way.

Thanks for your feedback.

 

[GalBrew]

It's always nice to flex some brain muscle now and then, but when it comes to vessel sizing it just comes down to getting the biggest one you can afford. If I were ever to go back to a 3v style setup (not that I ever would, too much cleaning for my taste) I would use 100l pots for all 3 vessels for double batching. Not 100% necessary, but extra headspace is always nice.

 

[Adr_0]

Yeah you're right GalBrew - back in Brisbane I have an 80L CCV as a mash tun with 3/4" plumbing, but only a 70L kettle. It's great actually but I'm sure it's limited in some way.

The setup here was aimed at 20-25L batches and contained in a shelf unit on castors so I can move it around. The 80L mash tun is HEAVY (1/4 SS plate) while this rig is easy to move around and because of the bottom drains I can effectively CIP. i was just struggling a little and this will do the job.

I'm pretty sure everyone has size regrets at some point, and as you said - best solved with 100L gear.