datamike

Recipes 

Yes, and it's the method as explained in the November BYO.

You're correct though, past thinking was that thin mashes would negatively affect the beer. Current thought and experiments (not too mention the thousands of BIAB batches) have largely dismissed this notion, or at least greatly reduced the significance. The mash seems to be much more affected by temperature and ph.

You might be interested in this link: Effects of mash parameters on fermentability and efficiency in single infusion mashing - German brewing and more

Michael

Keith_Mahoney

Recipes 

You can do it either way and it is still no sparge since you are not draining a first runoff before adding more water.

The way I do it in my Brutus 20 system is more like your idea of no sparge. I mash in with 1.5 QPP of water in one vessel while the rest of the water is heated to 170 in the boil kettle. After an hour I turn on the pump, open the valves and recirculate until the entire system has reached 170*. Then I shut the output valve on the boil kettle and drain everything into the BK.

Squirrels

Recipes 

Why not just mash longer? I would think a slightly longer mash would do the trick. I do BIAB and usually hit 65% plus. That's okay for me !

__________________
I'm a bit Nuts.

Mad Cow Brewery

Beerthoven

Recipes 

My usual method is "no sparge" and I'm really happy with it. I mash-in at 2 quarts of water per pound of grain. I don't go any thinner than that because I have read that too thin of a mash is detrimental to the mash chemistry, resulting in low efficiency and poor beer.

After an hour, I basically do a big mash-out infusion with all the remaining water. This brings the whole mash up to about 168 degrees and fills my 10-gallon MLT cooler to the top. After letting that settle for 10 minutes or so, I drain all the wort I need in one long pull.

I like this approach because it is simple and easy to execute, with no need to measure, heat, and drain multiple infusions of water, and I reliably get 80% efficiency batch after batch.

__________________

Primary/Secondary:

Kegged: #77 Newcastle Brown, #79 California Common, #80 Old Bushy Tail Special Bitter

Planned: American IPA, Dusseldorf Alt, American Amber

I use secondaries!