too much grain not enough time...no sparge

I bought a few sacks of 2row last spring and now I haven't been able to brew much sense (the wife and I had twins). Well anyways I finally got a chance to fit in a couple of brew days. I just finished brewing a batch and it got me thinking about what to do differently my next brewday.

I have two 10 gallon cooler MLT's and two keggles / HLT's. I was thinking the next time I brew I might not spage. If I normally get 70% extract efficiency how would I figure out my efficiency with no sparge?

Have you been batch sparging? I guess I would want to get an idea of what you call "no sparge". If you mashed 12 lbs of grain at the max ratio of say 2.5qt/lb (which I'd only do with grain bills with high DP), you can use just the first runnings since you'd be mashing with 7.5 gallons and run off a little over 6g. A no sparge of this nature should yield about 10% less than what you normally get so about 60%.

If you wanted to experiment with this though, I'd mash with 2qt/lb and add just enough boiling water prior to draining to get you up to your preboil volume. In the example above, 12lbs grain x 2qt/lb = 6 gallons. Add 1-2 gallons of 200+F water, stir, vorlauf and drain.

I have to ask though, how is adding sparge water really taking too much time?

If you are getting 70% with a sparge...batch or otherwise, Id say doing a NO SPRAGE would probably get you down near 50%-60%... which is a far cry from what you could have (85%) with a sparge and a decent crush.

With twins, Id want to save some money too, and 20% extra efficiency would do that.

Are you thinking just increase the grain bill, heat one amount of water, mash, and drain to the brew pot and boil?

That does eliminate some time. I see his thinking. We had a daughter last April (sitting in Poppa's lap right now!). Yes, there is expense, but he has that grain sitting there, and you only get so much time away for the first year!

I guess I am a dink and I always pull the trump card... I am away 20 days and nights a month supporting the family so my wife CAN stay at home. If I want to brew once or twice a month, I get to, I deserve it. When I am home, I am cooking all the meals and cleaning up too... so I put in a lot of work in order to earn a 5 hour brew session.

given. But perhaps it is not a question of what he deserves, but what he desires. Brewing may not be the one thing he has to accomplish. Projects around the house, other hobbies, choices to pursue activities as a family or a couple all take time, and as a result the priority with brewing may be efficient use of time, not grain.

I think you would save 30 minutes max from not sparging. Especially if you are batch sparging. I always heat my sparge water during the mash. Its ready to go right when I'm ready to start sparging. Depending on how patient I am, my batch sparge takes anywhere from15-30 min.

Another thought comes to mind. How much longer does it take you to grind the extra grain just to "save time" not sparging. Probably not as much, but still reduces your overall perceived time gain. I too think you're talking at a min only 15 more mins to sparge, and possibly another 5 for extra grain prep. Is it really saving tons of time, and worth the grain expense?

That was also a point I was getting at, a simple batch sparge doesn't take any more than 10 minutes extra if you do it in one infusion. I know there are advocates of letting sparge water sit for a while but in my experience it's a waste of time. Dump it in, stir, vorlauf 2 quarts and let it drain. That takes 10 minutes. If you can't spare that amount of time, go back to extract brewing where you get the real time savings.

I was thinking the same thing... if time is such a priority, extract would be the way to brew if you are concerned about saving time. There is only so much time you can shave off an AG brew before yuo start to really affect the process.

I batch sparge and my runnings are generally 50%, 33% and 16% of the total sugars.

I had a bunch of problems with my process the other day, thats what got me thinking about no sparge (I usually batch sparge) . Also I realized that my grain is starting to get old and Im not going to be able to use it all with in a year of purchase. Well this is what happened with my last brew I decided to change my recipe at the last minute. when doughing in I noticed my mash was going to be to big for my MLT (I used the greenbay rackers mash calculator) so I decided to split the mash. I ran off half of my strike water to another MLT (and that threw off the strike temp). My plan was to direct fire the mash from 149 to 155 then to mash out next sparging with 170 degree water. 1/2 the mash I followed the plan. The other 1/2 rested at around 146 then I ended up running off the sparge water at 180 until the mash reached 155 and I ran out of sparge water (I should have heated the sparge water more to mashout). Now looking back I think maybe you guys are right I should just re-evaluate my process.