when do you stop sparging?

[matthewdick23]

hi there

came up with an interesting issue yday in our belfast brewday.

when do people stop sparging? What I really mean is what gravity do people stop sparging at?

I had been told to stop sparging at 0.990 which is actually a temperature corrected reading of 1.008. but others weren't so such. this is for fly sparging btw

thoughts anyone?

[brenmurph]

We looked at this at Kildare Brewday yesterday. WE sparge till the liquid is not very sweet. No point in trying to extract last molecule of sugar. Our 20 litre mash used 8 liters of sparge water we allow mash tun to drain via hose, sample wort from hose and stop when not very sweet anymore.

I dont think theres a perfect answer its a bit of personal choice. Some say more tannins will end up in wort if sparge too much othjers say u waste good sugars if u sparge too little

[JoeyD]

Can the brewing software help for this?  I batch sparge but the software gives you a pre-boil volume to hit based on numbers you want.

[brenmurph]

I use about 1 and a bit ltrs per kilo of grain dat does me fine and I hit close to beersmiths predicted gravity numbers

[DEMPSEY]

I English sparge.

Drain mashtun, then refill with water around 88C and let it sit for 15 mins. Repeat if necessary. Usually get around 75% efficiency.

I would have thought that 88C is too high and risks bringing some tannins and other odd flavours from the grain

[johnrm]

I generally work towards producing about 28litres of wort using Brewsmith to do the guesswork on volumes.
Boiling reduces this to 25 or so to suit my 30l fermenters.
You could use twice the Liquor to make a lighter beer...

Alternatively you could Parti-Gyle - Make one beer from your first runnings and another from the second.
Nigel_c is the Jedi Master, I am but a Padawan ;-)

[Tom]

I'll save you several hundred quid and a trip to Brewlab in Sunderland (though it is well worht going):

Light beers, stop sparge at 1008 (that's after temperature adjustment)
Dark beers, stop sparge at 1003.

FACT, because it's in a big ringbinder.