Interesting brew. Let us know if it's any good. Why did you decide to do it no-boil, just to save time?
I've asked this in several other threads and never got an answer, so I'll try again. If you sparge with cold water does it make any difference if the water is alkaline? I either do full volume mashes, or a small sparge, but my water is liquid dolomite (limestone with a lot of magnesium too.) Oddly enough, the water tastes good. I've been acidifying the sparge water or using RO water, but I'd rather not if it's unnecessary.
The main reason was, I just wanted to try it out. If this works out well, I just won't boil any more. Would save much time and hassle with my housemates. Way less smell (I love the smell of hops and malt, they don't), less energy consumption, less time blocking the kitchen.
I did a full brew in one hour, sounds fantastic doesn't it?
I am also curious if the taste changes.
And I am heavily into ancient gruit beers, so you see, many reasons to give it a try
I am seriously no water expert. I just follow basic rules of thumbs, mainly if it's pale get the bicarbonate as low as possible and if it's dark ramp them up. I buy bottled water accordingly. But I guess it would not make much of a difference in the cold sparge water, but again, I might be completely wrong.
As far as I understood it, it is not the alkalinity of the water that is important but the buffering capacity, which you could have meant, as a lot of people confuse that.