I love no sparge brewing...

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Saccharomyces

Be good to your yeast...
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My usual brew days are 6 hours. My usual brewhouse efficiency is 75% (83% to kettle).

Today I tried out a new setup with my new pump. RIMS, no sparge, no chill.

Dumped all 8.25 gal of water into the kettle, added my salts per the water adjustment spreadsheet assuming 8.25 gal of mash volume, and loaded up 11# of grain into my mash tun. Goal is to have 7 gal pre-boil, assuming .125 gal per # of absorption. BeerSmith says with that much water to heat to 162*F so I heated to 161*F while setting up, measuring, and crushing grain. Once I hit my strike temp I pumped all the water into the cooler and then started recirculating.

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After stirring the mash in in the MLT and letting temp settle it ended up 1*F over my desired strike temp of 150*F at 151*F. Not bad for a RIMS n00b. It took a few adjustments to equalize the flow between the pump and the MLT but I found it tends to equalize on its own if you are patient and don't mess with it (a few inch rise or drop in the kettle will tend to offset the potential flow from the pump valve and the level will stay constant, as long as the valve setting between pump and MLT aren't off too far from each other).

Recirculated for 40 minutes for a total of 45 minutes to mash, then I started slowly heating until I hit 165*F for mashout. I had to run the burner for about 1 min every 10 min to keep the mash temp constant. After hitting mashout I turned off the pump and let the MLT drain into the kettle while heating for the boil, now at full throttle.

Here are a few more pics of the recirculating system between the BK and the MLT.

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I have created a spreadsheet I use to determine my expected gravity, efficiency to boiler and brewhouse efficiency (.xls format). View attachment NoSparge.zip
 
After the boil I recirculated for 5 minutes to sanitize the pump, lines, and valve, then pumped the boiling hot wort into my sanitized HDPE ale pail.

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While that was going I grabbed a sanitized cup and scooped 1 quart of hot wort into a sanitized flask to chill in the sink for my Real Wort Starter, The Pol style. :ban:

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After all the wort was transferred over I stuffed a paper towel soaked in Star San into the airlock hole of my lid and snapped it on. The wort will chill overnight in the garage and I'll pitch tomorrow whenever it gets down to 65*F.

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All told my brew day was 3 hours 45 minutes including cleanup. This new system will be a great way to get a quick brew into the fermenter! Today, I brewed and roasted a half pound batch of coffee before lunch! That's a new personal record.

Efficiency to kettle was 76% and brewhouse efficiency was 67% without sparging on a 1.053 brew. That translates to about 1.5# extra grain, and since I buy in bulk... let's see... that's about $1 worth of grain to shave 1.5 hours off of my brew day vs. a double batch sparge. I'll take it!

I can't take all the credit though. This is essentially the Aussie BIAB and no-chill setup, they invented it, I just worked it into my system. :eek:
 
sounds like a win to me. thanks for the pics and stats.

If and when I get a pump... I lay money I do this some days.

Is there a pick up tube in the kettle on that spigot? and a pic of the manifold in the lid of the cooler, if you would.

I am intrigued.
 
The sparge manifold in the cooler is a 3' piece of silicone tubing with holes drilled every 1/2" and a plug in the end. It's connected to a nipple sandwich which comes through the lid just like the pot lid. I forgot to snap a photo of it I'll post one next time I have the rig out.

In the kettle I have a 10" braid connected to the spigot for the pickup. A 90* elbow screwed into the F-F of the weldless fitting kit would work just as well if you have the patience to whirlpool and let it settle before pumping out.

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Hmmmm, I really like this idea, thanks for posting. I think I may have to try this hot wort in a bucket and let it cool over night, I mean this will take off at least 30-45 min waitng to cool down.

:)
 
nice setup! Something like this might work out great for my limited space apartment brewing setup.

Are you draining the MLT by gravity into the BK/heat exchanger, then pumping out and back up into the MLT?
 
I'm sure he added the hops after he reached his boil temp.

Looks good. I really like the simplicity of your setup. Did your temp get below 65 with the temps over night in Austin?
 
Looks good. I really like the simplicity of your setup. Did your temp get below 65 with the temps over night in Austin?

Left the bucket in the garage overnight and it was ready to pitch this morning from the real wort starter.

I use The Pol's adjustment for my hop additions. 60 -> 45, 30 -> 15, flameout -> dry hop. If I had 15 minute those would have become FWH and bittering amount adjusted to offset the IBUs.
 
Are you draining the MLT by gravity into the BK/heat exchanger, then pumping out and back up into the MLT?

Exactly. Loop flows clockwise in the pic.

One challenge to note, the way the pump is mounted it doesn't want to prime from the BK on its own but if you open the valve, push water through the pump with an autosiphon, and then close the valve on the pump outlet before hooking it up it works like a champ.
 
Thanks for the pix and eplaining your setup and Aussie BIAB. Me thinks I'll give it a try. Who says an old dog can't learn new tricks? .... :)

Beerman said:
The only bad thing I have to say about this method is it is anti engineering I really like building my own equipment and experimenting with new equipment. Gives me a great excuse to spend the day in the garage to drink the fruit of my labor.
 
I spent plenty of time, money, and trips to Home Depot to put this together so I wouldn't say it goes against expanding the brewery, but I do love how it simplifies the whole process to its simplest possible level. I'm also contemplating how I could do this with a Blichmann 20 without drilling into the kettle to add the nipple since that will probably be my next upgrade (the Blichmann has a better sight glass and better heat retention that will make it ideal for RIMS).

This upcoming weekend I will be running the system in no sparge mode but I will be chilling. We will see how much time that adds... I am guessing about 30 minutes.
 
totally new to this and just trying to visualize the process. Do you continually circulate? In essence a continual sparge?
 
totally new to this and just trying to visualize the process. Do you continually circulate? In essence a continual sparge?

Yes just like in a HERMS the mash liquid is recirculated throughout the mash. It starts out cloudy and becomes clear as the starches get converted into sugars... kinda neat to watch actually. By the time you start the boil the wort is already crystal clear, you could read a book through the gravity sample.
 
Any reason this wouldn't work with a 10 gallon batch if you have a big enough brew kettle? Would that cooler be able to handle a 10 gallon batch?
 
these temperatures in austin are perfect right now. i watched the weather forecast and knew the temps were going to be in the 60's starting friday.
i brewed thursday. single sparge. total time was 3.5 hours. cooled the wort to about 85* and stuck in ice bath that is in garage thrusday night.
friday morning the fermenter temp was 62* so i pitched pack of US05. the fermenter has stayed at 63* for the last three days with very minimal work.
 
The sparge manifold in the cooler is a 3' piece of reinforced PVC tubing from Home Depot with holes drilled every 1/2" and a plug in the end. It's connected to a nipple sandwich which comes through the lid just like the pot lid. I forgot to snap a photo of it I'll post one next time I have the rig out.

In the kettle I have a 10" braid connected to the spigot for the pickup. A 90* elbow screwed into the F-F of the weldless fitting kit would work just as well if you have the patience to whirlpool and let it settle before pumping out.

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I don't see the need for the braid in the kettle. don't you want any grain particles that make it out of the cooler and in to the kettle to get circulated back in to the cooler?
 
Kinda surprised the braid works for ya. I built one for my kettle but it clogs up tight with break material in seconds and the flow drops to a trickle. I've been kinda wondering if one of those mash / boil screens would work better.
 
Dunno. Obsession with efficiency seems silly to me when this setup proves you can sacrifice $1 worth of grain to simplify the process and shorten the brew day by over an hour. I mean, I will still sparge for big beers, but just to get some beer in the fermenter this setup is rockin...
 
Dunno. Obsession with efficiency seems silly to me when this setup proves you can sacrifice $1 worth of grain to simplify the process and shorten the brew day by over an hour. I mean, I will still sparge for big beers, but just to get some beer in the fermenter this setup is rockin...
Yeah, so what the helles am I doing with this thing, anyway???:D
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More power to ya!
 
What type of ale pale were you using for the hot wort? Is it the really kind that we all got with our first kits, or is it made of something special to handle the heat? If it is special, where did you buy yours.

And excellent job on simplifying your process! I myself do all my mashes in an unmodified 5-gal cooler with a $1.5 'paint strainer' bag. No screens, no 'vourlaufing' and no stuck sparge, ever. Even with 60 oz of canned pumpkin. Simple for the win!
 
But if you don't risk a stuck sparge you aren't brewing! Silly ghpeel... :)

I have done a no chill in my ale pail. HDPE #2 plastic. It never blinked at 200+ degree wort. I threw a star sa soaked rag on top of the hole and let it go. 2 days later I had time to rack the other batch and pitched it on a cake.
 
That's it .... I'm doing this. So basically you have your pre boil volume plus what the grain's going to absorb in your mash tun?

So my preboil volume is 7 gallons and we'll say 11 lbs of grain. The grain should absorb 1.375 gallons so I just mash with 8.375 gallons (roughly) ? Is that right?
 
Would it be possible to do no-chill with a 5 gal glass carboy? I would use a foam stopper, NOT an airlock or anything else that might get clogged up, which would create a potentially dangerous vacuum in the glass.
 
Would it be possible to do no-chill with a 5 gal glass carboy? I would use a foam stopper, NOT an airlock or anything else that might get clogged up, which would create a potentially dangerous vacuum in the glass.

NOOOOOOOO

Is your carboy Pyrex? Want to see a glass carboy explode from temp. shock? DO NOT DO IT
 
That's it .... I'm doing this. So basically you have your pre boil volume plus what the grain's going to absorb in your mash tun?

So my preboil volume is 7 gallons and we'll say 11 lbs of grain. The grain should absorb 1.375 gallons so I just mash with 8.375 gallons (roughly) ? Is that right?

Yep it's that simple, and my volume worked out spot on (I was a quart short pre-boil because I spilled a quart of water trying to prime the pump :eek:). I made a chart in the back of my brewlog notebook so I don't have to figure it out each time.

The ale pail is a #2 HDPE food grade ale pail, same one you get from LHBS. HDPE can handle the heat. Anything else cannot including glass... Better Bottles melt at just over 140*F... for more info on no chill see this thread, no sense re-hashing it all here.
 
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