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sparge?
So of the vids I've been watching have shown two diffrent types of sparge, I think.
In one vid the guy used it to rinse his grain, in the other he added to gallons to his fermenter.
Is this the same, or am I seeing it wrong?
And which do you prefer?
Wouldn't you want to add the extra water before the boil?in stead of in the carboy?
Afraid I really don't know.
Marv.
I have a lot of questions, about home brew.
I'm going to try and keep them in one thread, so Here is another.
What is the diff between
Cascade hop and Chinook hop, I know one is a bittering hop, would you add them a diffrent times to your boil or before?
There are different types of sparging but probably the two most common for homebrewing would be fly or batch sparging. They both offer some advantages and disadvantages.
In fly sparging, you basically drain your wort from your lauter tun while at the same time adding fresh warm water to the lauter tun. The goal is to add the same amount of water as you take out so that the water lever stays the same in the lauter tun. You do this until you get enough liquor or your runnings gravity drops to 1.010 (I believe). This process should take a minum of 60 minutes, but a lot of people like to go 90 or more. There is some debate, but typically, people believe that you get the best effeciency this way, so theoretically, you use less grain per batch. The disadvantages are that you spend more time doing this, you must monitor the process, your lauter tun design becomes more important as does your grain bed depth, and it is typically a bit more expensive set up as you have to have controlled way of getting the liquor out and adding new water in.
In batch sparging, you run all of your liquor out of your lauter tun as quickly as you can. You then add all of your sparge water (unless you are doing multiple sparges, in which case you split this up between 2, 3, or more batches) and let the grain soak in the fresh water for about 15 more minutes. You then drain it as fast as it can go again. This method basically does better in all the areas I listed as disadvantages for fly sparging. The disadvantage is that most people feel that you suffer in your efficiency, so you must use more graing for a batch of beer.
I personally use the batch sparge method, and have had good success with it. To me the additional grain I use is offset by saving a bit of time, but that is a personal choice. I know people who have tried both methods and still prefer one over the other, so really it comes down to you how you want to do it and what you feel is more important.
To answer your question regarding hops, both of these are just different varieties, and there is not really any reason why you couldn't use either one for bittering, flavor, or aroma. The Chinook hops are very high in alpha acids and have a high level of cohumulone levels, so most people would use this as a bittering hop and not so much for the other areas, but if you really liked this hop, you could use it for whatever you wanted. I have made several beers with just cascade hops (for bittering, aroma, and flavor), and they have turned out well.
Thanks norcal, so both ways are correct, just a preference.Things are startng to come together.
Marv.
I'm no expert, (total newb, only done one all-grain) but, I was surprised at the efficiency I got out of my first batch sparge. Fly sparging certainly intimidates me and my guess is that the more complicated process would lead to me screwing up more and losing any gain in efficiency.
fly sparging isn't that difficult, and I never go more than 45 minutes for a 10 gallon batch. I have a two tier setup with a pump, so fly sparging is super easy. get a flow going from your lauter tun to our kettle (via the pump), and simply adjust your HLT input to keep an inch of water over your grain bed. plus, you only have to vorlauf once, so it's really not that difficult...
norcalnewb, rule of thumb is to sparge until you get to 1.002, although if your mash pH is correctly adjusted, you can sparge as much as you want. it's not low gravity that causes tannin extraction, it's poor pH management...
and Marv, just stay away from the Chinook. you'll thank me later...
I am certainly no expert in fly sparging, as I have never done it before, so I am glad you corrected me.
I would tend to agree with the Chinook hops, but some people actually like them...
I take your word for it guys and stay away from chinook.
Thanks for the help.
Marv.
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