Beer Forum

Wondering if anyone has attempted this. Im going to be doing a partial grain batch on friday. I don't have much for fancy equipment. What I was thinking of doing when it came time to sparge was to use my auto syphon and use that to get a slow pour of 170 degree water over the grains. Anyone tried this? Is it too hot for the plastic?

Not sure about the feasibility of your idea, but I think you mean fly, not batch sparging.

Please elaborate...I'm going ahead with this tomorrow, and I don't have much of a setup. Any ideas would be great.

The autosiphon won't do well at those temps. It may melt.

I'd suggest you get a nylon paint strainer bag and use that or a collander.
You can use a small saucepan to slowly rinse hot water over the grains.
No need to get too fancy with a partial mash.
Have extra Dry Malt Extract onhand so you can add a bit at the end if you miss your gravity.

Good Luck and let us know how it goes!

Autosiphon will definitely melt at those temperatures. Ask me how I know.

How do you know?

For my simple batch sparge I heat up the water in another 5 gal pot and use a plastic pitcher to add water to my mash. I read in Zymurgy once about a guy who used a large pizza pan (with all the little holes in it) to distribute his water evenly throughout the pot. I have now adopted this method and it makes me happy.

Tristan is saying that if you are trying to dribble sparge water over your grain, you would be fly sparging (running off at teh same time), rather than batch sparging. If you are doing a batch sparge, you'd be using two larger volumes or water and either transferring your grains (with a large strainer bag, etc) or running off, refilling, mixing and running off again. Since you said you were limited in equipment, the strainer bag would possibly be easiest. You were doing it yesterday though? How'd it go?