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  • Unique sparge situation

    Hey all,
    Buddy of mine has a 10bbl brewery with a unique situation. There is no HLT but there is a larger-than-normal-but-still-not-big-enough commercial hot water tank (70 gallons) that gets set to 190*.

    Mash water is heated in the kettle. Pump into mash tun, mash in.
    Sparge begins at 190* and gradually decreases in temp until it is just cold water. By the time volume is reached, the grain is cold.
    It is a tall, slender mash tun. He gets about 70% efficiency regardless of grain bill. 70% isn't great but considering the shape of the mash tun it doesn't seem out of this world. Lautering takes about 60-75 minutes.
    I have looked into this and so far all that I can find online is on a home brew scale, but from what I've gleamed, here are the conclusions:
    -does not have an appreciable effect on efficiency
    -does not affect final gravity
    -wort is cloudier and resulting beer may be hazy (hello NE IPA!)
    -the major downfall for brew day is the increased time it takes for the boil to take place in the kettle due to lowered runoff temperatures

    Wondering if anyone may have some insight on this. Any thoughts on improving the process given the equipment he's working with, etc.

    Here is a 2 page thread on HomeBrewTalk. Interesting regardless of scale! The difference here is that my buddy's sparge starts hot then finishes cold, as opposed to this fella who just starts cold.
    Who says you need to sparge with hot water to get good efficiency. I just did a batch sparge with cold water (single sparge, two run-offs) and hit 86% efficiency into the kettle. This is about what I got with the same recipe last time when I sparged with hot water. Recently I have been doing...


    Interested to hear perspectives and feel free to go full chem nerd on this. Interested in learning more.

  • #2
    There are a few benefits to sparging hot. You mentioned some of them. Boiling is most often the highest demand on energy consumption in the brewery and therefore costs the most. To use hotter water provides you a head start on the boil and reduces the total energy needed by the kettle. With the increase in temperature you will also see a decrease in viscosity. That can help lead to shorter and possibly more efficient lautering. Hot sparge water also helps to stratify in the Lauter, which I find I gets better overall extract figures. I presume this is because of a higher “second wort” gravity where my Plato doesn’t drop below my desired threshold until the kettle is right at the desired pre-boil volume. Colder sparging could lead to more mixing of the sparge water and “second wort” causing lower efficiency and a need to collect more pre-boil wort and evaporate off excess water. Again energy costs on boiling. There is also the consideration of “late saccharification” which takes place during Lauter. Beta glucanase will continue to break down protein until late in the sparge provided the temperature is not too hot. Above 80*C (176*F) you will denature this enzyme leading to the cloudy beer, as you mention. This may lead to shorter shelf life.

    I would disregard the majority of the linked post since it primarily refers to batch sparging and not “fly” sparging.

    Now these details may not impact you much in a typical pub brewery, however as you (or your buddy) escalate, it becomes increasingly more important. If you brew styles with higher beta glucan contents (rye, wheat) you may begin to notice Lauter times increase and/or efficiency drop. If you have beer sitting around longer, stability will be more important. 70% is relatively poor efficiency, and significant savings could be made with some improvements (although it may take more than hot water).

    My suggestion would be for your buddy to get a hot water on demand system for mash in and sparge. Use the existing hot water set up to supplement as well as CIP purposes. Or get a properly sized HLT. Just my $0.02.

    Comment


    • #3
      I'll second the on demand water system. We used one in our previous 3bbl system except we filled our insulated, non heated HLT with it just so we could acidify the sparge water and collect hot heat exchanger water. This could however be run straight to the sparge or mash strike (add a cold water blending valve for more control). They're really efficient and don't cost much. In addition, you'll be able to spray hot water which is great for cleaning. Don't make brewing harder than it needs to be.
      Chris Enegren
      www.enegrenbrewing.com

      Comment


      • #4
        at our nano in mexico we have a single vessel system at 2.5bbl. for various reasons we couldnt start with an HLT. so its a 30gallon residential hot water heater. similar situation, but it only gets to about 130F.
        70ish gal kettle fill comes out around 65-80F depending on weather. 20-25gal sparge starts hot and ends nearly room temp.

        what i can say is that i dont feel like there is an efficiency loss at all. but the biggest problem (to me) is noted above- time. energy isnt really the issue. one way or another you have to heat the water. whether that's the kettle or HLT or water heater is still takes energy. (although your kettle may be more/less efficient than the water heater) but time is the real killer, which im sure you already know.

        and when it comes to rye/oats/wheat heavy beers that colder grist can start to gum up and really slow things down. in our system i can fight that by keeping the mash basket in contact with the wort in the kettle at 168 mash out temp, as opposed to lifting it all the way out. doesnt work on standard system though.

        i may have solution for you that doesnt require a new HLT or water heater--

        if they can do mash outs, great. if not, then as you get ready to add the sparge water, also add in a recirc loop from the kettle back to the top of the mash. a separate pump from kettle to top of mash will work. low-ish flow, and run off from mash tun to kettle a bit faster to compensate.

        but basically you're adding hotter wort back into the mix to counteract the cold sparge water.

        not sure this makes a difference for typical barley beers, but anything with lots of sticky stuff will definitely see a big difference in runoff speed. as for efficiency i dont know that i saw any difference, your results may vary.

        it saves time.

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