Anyone Just "No Sparge"

Anyone Just give up sparging, and Mash No Sparge exclusively? I've done it a few times, and although efficiency can send this Virgo into fits, sure is less time consuming, and Some of the best beers Ive EVER brewed have been No Sparge. What are your thoughs on this.

 

i've made a few no sparge and loved the beer, no idea why no sparge has a richer flavor but it does.

 

As soon as I make a new manifold to fit a cooler big enough to hold it all I am going to do it.

Everything I have read though indicates efficiency does not take a big hit. What are your experiences

 

I believe BIAB would be considered no sparge, would it not?

 

Even if I made a batch from unsparged grain, I would probably still sparge and make another batch of mild from the next runnings.

There's still a lot of good sugar on them grains that I can't bear to let go to waste!

 

i add an extra pound or two of grain for no sparge.

 

Guess I need to get off my butt and do it. I am thinking it would be much faster. Maybe next batch

 

BIAB, no sparge.

 

What have you found about efficiency. I have a cooler big enough I just have not built it yet.

 

I do BIAB with no sparge and squeezing the bag and I got 80% mash efficiency with my last batch. I think that's a pretty good efficiency without too much extra work. I do mill my own grain so that probably helps.

 

With a really fine crush I've been seeing about 80% efficiency with no sparge. With a crappy sparge it goes up to 85%. It's been high enough that I don't even measure it anymore.:cross:

 

That is kind of what I expected. I suppose my efficiency will be a little worse because I will not be able to squeeze the bag and I will have a little wast in the tun but I think the time saved will be well worth it. And like Eastoak says if it is to bad just make it up with a little more grain

 

After skipping the sparge on the last ten batches or so and then sitting down to figure out how much money it was costing me each batch, I doubt I'll ever sparge again. On big beers I sometimes do a quasi-sparge just so I can get enough water in the pot to hit my needed preboil volume.

 

For the 10 minutes it takes me to sparge, I think its worth it! I dont make a big deal of it, just add some water and stir the sh*t out of for 10 minutes then run it into the pot

 

With no sparge in a cooler tun, you can't really squeeze the grain, short of stepping on it My last no sparge I only got 59%, but it was GREAT tasting stuff, and because I added IIRC about 20% more grain to the bill I hit my target OG. I guess I never really though about it but you could use the second runnings from a no sparge batch to make "small beer".

 

I take about a 12-13% hit on my efficiency when I don't sparge. Saturday I brewed two batches. One was no sparge, 63%, the other I sparged and hit 75%. I do fly sparge very quickly so I'm sure I lose some efficiency there too.

 

I am going to give this a shot soon and use the second runnings for a mild or even krausening.

 

Can someone explain to me exactly what "no sparge" means. Thanks. I'm fairly new and just picking up as I go.

 

put your full volume of water into the mash then run off into the kettle for the boil without rinsing (sparging) the grain.

 

Ok thank you that's what I was thinking it meant.

 

I have a question about how critical the sparge temperature is. I start at 170F but all my sparge water is sitting on my stand waiting to go. I thought about this the other day when I was brewing on a cold day. By the time I got to the end of the sparge the temp had dropped significantly. I was close to 120. I guess I should go buy a small 2 gallon pail with a petcock and put up 1 gallon at a time at 170F. My efficiency is nothing to write home about (70%) and I am wondering if this is part of it.

 

I do no sparge sometimes and use the second runnings for starter wort.

 

A thread about not sparging is an odd place for a question about sparge temps, but the short answer is that it is not really critical at all.

 

I am not an AG guy yet but have been trying to decide what type of set up to build.

I have often wondered why not just have a big enough tun to hold all your liquid at once ( say 6.5- 7 gallons for a 5 gallon batch) and let it sit longer than the traditional 60-90 minutes or make a simple continuous stir to increase efficiency.

A simple motor or drill mounted to a stirring blade through the lid would probably do it.

 

That's almost a description of BIAB but when you have that much liquid you really don't have to stir to get great efficiency. The difference with the system you are describing and BIAB is that with BIAB you have a huge filter area and pressure to get the liquid out so you can use a very fine crush/grind and still get your wort. With the fine crush, your efficiency goes up.

 

That begs the next question why not do BIAB?

Sounds like it is simpler

 

Sparging is a process for making a beer. There is something bother in my mind as of now, how people calculate their sparge volumes when brewing stronger beer?

 

I do BIAB and usually do no-sparge with 60 to 65% efficiency. This time I drained the wort into a pail and sparged once through the bag with two gallons of cold water. Efficiency rose to 75%. Can't complain about that.

Worxman02, you get 80% BIAB with no sparge? Nice. I gotta practice more.

 

While I do not make strong beers I can think of two ways to get a high gravity. Either just use the first runnings or boil down the batch to whatever gravity you want. I would think use the first runnings and then make a smaller beer out of the rest of the runnings.

I used to batch sparge but now just do a no sparge. I found I need to add a little grain to keep my efficiency up but the ease on brew day is worth it to me. Not to mention the chickens really love the grain if it is a little sweeter

 

It isn't more practice you need, its a finer crush on your grain that is needed. My first few times of BIAB I got 80% efficiency but I used a Corona style mill and ground that grain until it looked like coarse corn meal with ripped up husks. It would have beer a problem setting a grain bed on a conventional mash tun but it works great on BIAB.:rockin:

 

Yes, BIAB is traditionally a no sparge one pot brew. Lately, people have adapted the technique to enable the use of a smaller brewpot by the use of either a "dunk sparge" in another vessel (pot / bucket), or a "sprinkle sparge" of pouring sparge water through the grain bag while it is suspended above the pot.

Some even brew a concentrated boil BIAB style and top up like you would an extract batch.

The Biabbrewer.com website has a bunch of terms defining the different methods of BIAB...something like Maxi, Mini, and Midi, ah maybe that's skirts....cheers.

 

Is there a style of beer that benefits from the no sparge method?

 

Well not really, but maybe sort of, lower gravity brews may take less of a hit on efficiency, where higher gravities may benefit a sparge.

 

I would disagree, parti-gyle can have a great first run-off (barleywine?) with a grainy second running acting as a separate batch... or starter wort as mentioned before. Some English breweries still operate this way.

 

How do you say no to sparge.

I would like to give it a shot. Do you put all the water in for the mash at the mash temp or do you wait and add all the sparge water at the end of the mash at the sparge temp? Or does it matter?

 

I put it all in at the beginning and let it mash for the hour or so then stir the crap out of it and drain into the boil kettle.

Works pretty good so far for me and I do not think I will go back to sparging

 

Hmmmmm...interesting.

I'd like to try not sparging. Should I increase the weight on all the grains by 10%,

Also, let's say after hour you drain the mash tun and your OG is not where it should be...what would happen if you just ran the entire volume of wort through the grain again?

I have a large enough tun to accomplish this, if it would work

 

I just tried my hand at my first BIAB a week ago, usually do all grain. What I did was mash in pretty thin (2-2 1/2 q per g) then held for conversion @ 152 for an hour, then heated my sparge water and poured it in with it, bringing the total volume up to 165 and stirred the living crap out of it for 10 mins or so, pulled the bag and grains out and set it into a collander to drain..got 78% EFF. Doing it that way.

 

I'm doing a no sparge BIAB on my stove top during winter.

I gest consistent 76-77 efficiency by doing a 10min mashout @ 167 degress for 10 minutes.

Why would I ever want to sparge or even use a mash tun!

 

I like to take the unsparged grains, sparge them and use it for a braggot base.