The batch sparge method is a lot like a clothes washer. It makes one hot water infusion for the soak and then 2 more infusions for the rinse.
Clothes washers also agitate briskly and completely.
My efficiency has gone way up lately as I take more time to agitate before the two sparge runoffs.
For each of the two sparge infusions I stir briskly along the sides of my braid filter for about 4-5 minutes and then like a washing machine I drain as fast as my system will allow. Just like brother Denny said back in tthe old days.
Draining fast is an advantage, not a requirement. I have found at most a 1-2% increase in effieincy by doing more than one sparge. Not worth it for me. Sounds like it is for you. I'll have to look for it, but Kai has dome some experiments that show quickly diminishing returns for more than one sparge addition. I stir thoroughly, but I wouldn't call it briskly.
ETA: Schwanz posted the graph.
I don't stir before my first run off. I commonly end up in the 80% range even with my smallish sparges.
I'm with you...no stirring before mash run off. I stir in the sparge water, then vorlauf and run that off. Average 83% effieincy.
I shake my cooler mash tun occasionally during the mash to keep things mixed up well.
Does it really make a difference?
We're talking about sparge right, not mash? Sparge is just rinsing the sugars from the mash. In a batch sparge there are possibly places for sugars to be trapped. Stirring up the mash after you add the sparge water helps to release all those sugars. There's a point where you won't get anymore efficiency from doing that though.
A batch sparge drains sugars...it doesn't rinse them.
Edited by denny, 15 October 2014 - 09:34 AM.