My friend and I have upgraded to a pumped driven system apposed too the two 15 gallon gravity coolers we used to use for the HLT and Mash; I was wondering if there is a cretin time it should take to sparge.
With the two coolers it would take up to an 1 hour to get 7-8 gallons to gravity through into the kettle. I brewed my first batch on our new system last weekend and I was able to transfer to my kettle in about 15 mins. So is the reduced time bad and I should throttle back my pumps to increase the time I fill my kettle or is faster the better.
A general rule of thumb for fly sparging is at least 1 qt per minute. So a 5-gallon batch should take at least 20 minutes to sparge, and a 10 gallon batch should take at least 40 minutes, especially since for each batch you're collecting additional wort to account for boil-off.
I would definitely reduce flow rate a bit.
One advantage to a pump-driven system (or a 3-tier gravity sculpture), though, is that it allows you to pump straight into your boil kettle already on the burner. So you can have your burner fired up during the sparge, which will cut your time to boil after the sparge is complete to nearly zero. So if time is an issue, that's one area that you can improve. Another is cooling, which (when using pumps) can be done with a CFC or plate chiller, which improves cooling time.
Brad,
Thanks for the info concerning the time and we will be increasing our sparge time for our next brew this Friday. The suggestions about starting the boil as were adding our wort to the kettle is great too as we want to reduce our brew time to allow for doing a double batch. 20 gallons better then 10.
The previous brew gravity when my sparge time was very fast was a bit low so hopefully with the increased time it will be closer to the mark.
Thanks again,
Mike
Herr brew miester wrote:Brad,
The suggestions about starting the boil as were adding our wort to the kettle is great too as we want to reduce our brew time to allow for doing a double batch.
Wait to ignite burner until you have at least 2-3 inches of liquid to avoid potentially caramelizing the wort
Herr brew miester wrote:Brad,
The suggestions about starting the boil as were adding our wort to the kettle is great too as we want to reduce our brew time to allow for doing a double batch.
Wait to ignite burner until you have at least 2-3 inches of liquid to avoid potentially caramelizing the wort
+1, maybe even more.
Or... if you want to brew a great Scottish or Scotch ale, run off a gallon and boil it down to 1/2G before continuing your sparge. You'll get great caramelization you can't get otherwise.
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