Use only wort first runnings

Ignoring cost issues, is there anything to be gained by using only the first higher SG wort runnings and adding water to achieve deired SG, rather than sparging down to 1.002 or similar? ie less tannins, less acidity

BOBTHEukBREWER said:

Ignoring cost issues, is there anything to be gained by using only the first higher SG wort runnings and adding water to achieve deired SG, rather than sparging down to 1.002 or similar? ie less tannins, less acidity

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If your PH is in the right range, not really. The first runnings are less likely to have tannins because of the PH issue. As long as your PH stays in the right range, you can keep sparging and nto extract tannins.


People make comments about "higher quality", but I think thats just silly.

I do not measure pH or add buffers...

I know that in How To Brew, Palmer mentions that beer made from the first runnings is richer and smoother but keep in mind that you'll lose efficiency and see your cost per batch go up slightly.

You'd better have a big mash tun if you're planning on 5 gal batches to hold the larger amount of grain and water that you'll be using.

Nothing at all, if you dilute it.

I can mash 20 lb grain in 6 gals of water, out of interest

CaptYesterday said:

I know that in How To Brew, Palmer mentions that beer made from the first runnings is richer and smoother but keep in mind that you'll lose efficiency and see your cost per batch go up slightly.

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Plenty of people say stuff like that, but I've yet to see any double blinds. Perception and expectation can color taste.

I would have expected more body and flavour and smoothness, I will do a regular recipe but use only first runnings and report back.

BOBTHEukBREWER said:

I would have expected more body and flavour and smoothness,

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Why more body? You're adding more fermentables with each sparge.

If you dilute with water isn't that defeating the purpose? When you sparge you are diluting the first runnings but still with wort. You will be diluting the first running with water which will probably make a a lesser beer.

If you use only the first runnings you need to either be happy with a smaller batch size or bump up the grain bill so you can collect more wort from the mash. That's the only way to tell if you get a better beer from using only the first runnings

CFuggles said:

If you use only the first runnings you need to either be happy with a smaller batch size or bump up the grain bill so you can collect more wort from the mash. That's the only way to tell if you get a better beer from using only the first runnings

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Well, if you were trying to judge first runnings vs regular beer, and we assumed something like 75% efficiency for batch sparging and 50% efficiency for first runnings, you'd need to do a whole lot of calculating to end up with a much higher volume from the first runnings than normal. Maybe mash really thin? You still need to come out with 6.5-7g of first runnings for a 5g batch.

15lbs of 2 row gives you 1.054 @ 5g @ 50%. You'd need to get yourself 6.5g to start(26 qts), with 15lbs, you'd lose about 3g (12qts), so you'd need to mash with roughly 40 qts (after inefficiencies), or 2.7 qts/lb. You'd need a mash tun greater than 52 qts to hold that.

With sparging, and using 75% efficiency, you could do the same thing with a 5g cooler, and 10lbs of grain. You're looking at significantly more grain, significantly more propane (you need to heat much more mash water), bigger equipment, etc.

And I really don't think it would make much of a difference in your beer.