Last 5 batches have been No Sparge... NEVER going back!

[FVillatoro]

Hola everyone,

After I went all grain I used a braided hose filter, and did a batch sparge and sailed happily at 70-72% efficiency for close to 2 years.

After trying out no sparge mashing for my last 5 batches, I can say that I will never go back to batch sparging for the following reasons!

Pros:

Only one kettle is needed now: I just calculate my water loss per lb/grain, and heat to desired temp, add to mash tun to warm up, then dough in - done. Not having to worry about heating up another measurement of water in another kettle opened me up to take care of other things (such as calibrating my PH meter).

Mash PH: Using the Brun'Water calculator, I add all the minerals and lactic acid to one kettle, and that requires only one weigh/measurement and so far my results have been predictable. If I need a mash adjustment, I can calculate before hand the amount of acid or pickling lime needed to raise/lower PH.

Boil PH: For my light beers I go for a 5.2-5.3 mash PH. Since I am doing a full mash, the mash PH = Boil PH! If i wanted to bring down the boil PH i can add a measurement to the kettle and then drain the wort to it.

Reduction of tannins: Since I know what the mash PH is, it is easy to keep under 5.6 to lower the tannin extraction during the entire mash/lauter.

Ease of lautering Oatmeal Stouts: This last weekend I made an oatmeal stout, which usually took a long time to drain the first runnings due to the viscosity. Since I had a grain/water ratio of 3.02, the runnings drained significantly faster as it was more diluted.

Less pickling lime needed for big stouts: the higher water/grain ratio acts as a buffer and I don't need to add as much pickling lime.

Cons:
Heavy kettle: since all the water is heated at once, it requires a lot of force to lift 9+ gallons of water in a huge pot!!! I am going to be installing a 1/2 bulkead to the kettle so that I can drain into the mash tun.

Initial low efficiency: I had to re-tune my system as I was getting 65% efficiency after going this route. My solution was to lower the water/grain ratio, and I bought a BrewBag.
My efficiency is now a constant 75-78%.

More lactic acid needed for really light beers: Although this helps with stouts, it may not necessarily be the best with light beers...I've had to add up to 7-8 ml of acid to keep the PH where I want it. However, according to Brun'Water, they were all under the taste threshold.

I would recommend this mashing method as it may help you out. My brewing day has been cut down to 4:30 hours from begging to end now, and I love that!

Anyone else here using no sparge?

Thank you everyone!

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

Hmm, Id be willing to gives this a try... what is the process exactly.

 

[schatzke]

Mashing with the full volume of water. If you need 8 total gallons of water for your brew day, dough in with 8 gallons. Very thin mash but eliminate heating strike water and doing a batch sparge or 2.

 

[FVillatoro]

Hmm, Id be willing to gives this a try... what is the process exactly.

It's actually very easy.

First you need to see if your mash tun has enough room to hold all of the water and grains. For that check out this calculator: http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml <-- Look at the Can I Mash it? calculator.

Second, you need to calculate how much water you need for your grist.
For example, if my grain bill were 11.75lbs, I would use 8.85 gallons of water in the mash tun, given that I calculate a water loss of .115 gallons per pound of grain. This equates to a water/grain ratio of 3.01 qt/lb. Therefore, when I go to my mashing calculator (brewersfriend.com) I simply input the grain weight, the mash temp desired, and make sure that you enter the correct water/grain ratio for your particular mash - 3.01 qt/lb in this instance.

Once that's done heat up the entire water measurement in a pot to the temperature, add to the mash tun to pre-heat (I wait 10 mins to pre-heat), then dough-in and start the time.

Then proceed as usual.

It's really pretty easy.

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

cool, I will give it a shot.

 

[day_trippr]

[..]
More lactic acid needed for really light beers: Although this helps with stouts, it may not necessarily be the best with light beers...I've had to add up to 7-8 ml of acid to keep the PH where I want it. However, according to Brun'Water, they were all under the taste threshold.
[...]

fwiw, if you switch to phosphoric that lactic taste problem goes away.
There've been recipes I've needed to add up to 15 ml of 25% H3PO4 between mash and sparge and have never been able to detect it...

Cheers!

 

[wilserbrewer]

Sounds like your working your way toward full volume BIAB. Lol

 

[FVillatoro]

Sounds like your working your way toward full volume BIAB. Lol

Haha... I think you are correct!

I am going to be building a mashtun + RIMS setup in the upcoming months - getting tired of lifting hot pots!

 

[missiletech]

I like doing mash in at lower temps and recirc up in my direct fired MLT to sugar rest temps and I like starting stiff , then filling the MLT the rest of the way and then still have to sparge (but that's because I usually run around 30-40lbs of grain and would need more volume to get that ratio).

I need a bigger MLT.

 

[mashinary]

I tried no sparge for the the first time yesterday. Efficiency dropped 5%, which is no big deal. For you that are doing this regularly, are you still doing a mash out? I didn't.

 

[Sailingeric]

No sparge on my lower OG beers and it works like a charm. I love brewing but I don't want it to be an all day event and anything I can do cut some time the better!

 

[FVillatoro]

I tried no sparge for the the first time yesterday. Efficiency dropped 5%, which is no big deal. For you that are doing this regularly, are you still doing a mash out? I didn't.

No mashout here - I just drain and as soon I get my 7.5 gallons straight to the burner for boiling.

I compensated for my efficiency drop by getting a Brewbag and using slighly less water (.115 gallons now vs .14 gallons per pound of grain from my old braided hose).

 

[Singletrack]

I compensated for my efficiency drop by getting a Brewbag and using slighly less water (.115 gallons now vs .14 gallons per pound of grain from my old braided hose).

How does the brew bag increase efficiency? Did you change your crush?

Does the brew bag allow you to use less water? Or, maybe using less water is unrelated to the brew bag? If so, now that you use less water, did you reduce boil time? Or, are you saying you used to stop runoff before the mash tun was completely drained?

 

[FVillatoro]

How does the brew bag increase efficiency? Did you change your crush?

Does the brew bag allow you to use less water? Or, maybe using less water is unrelated to the brew bag? If so, now that you use less water, did you reduce boil time? Or, are you saying you used to stop runoff before the mash tun was completely drained?

Initially I went with the BrewBag to make it easier to dump the grains out of the mashtun. But i noticed I was leaving a lot of wort behind when I lifted the bag out, so i figured I could reduce the water loss calculation to extract more of the sugars I was leaving behind. With my braided hose setup the wort would stop flowing out - with the BrewBag I saw that quite a bit wasn't being drained for some reason (probably a dead spot).

The BrewBag runs out clear compared to the braided hoses - I don't even vorlauf anymore and just drain straight, and it allows me to use oats and wheat without the need for rice hulls anymore.

Essentially I was able to extract more concentrated wort with the BrewBag. After I reduced water loss to .115, I noticed A LOT less wort being left behind. I have considered lowering it more, but I am happy with my efficiency, and I don't want to start lifting/squeezing the bag to get the volume.

As for my boil, I always collect 7.5 gallons that I boil down to about 6 in 1 and a half hours.

 

[wilserbrewer]

BIAB often reduces system losses or dead space in the mash tun thereby increasing efficiency.

No where for the wort to hide and more goes to the kettle.

 

[shortyz]

doesnt a super thin mash effect the clarity of the wort? for stouts does it matter?

 

[Smellyglove]

I've also gone from a three vessel to a no sparge, but I use two vessels, mash and boil, with a herms-loop. I love the simplicity of it. pH, efficiency. You just read the mash and that's where you're at. The tricky part is that since you don't sparge, you can't add any "more" sparge water (and thus boiling longer) to weigh up for lower efficiency doing bigger beers. So you need to know what your efficiency will be at x and y kilos of grain, and get a vessel that is big enough to reach those big beers without have to do anything "tricky".

I wish this was my first setup, not my fourth. But the three previous setups and the experiences gained lead me to this setup.

 

[FVillatoro]

doesnt a super thin mash effect the clarity of the wort? for stouts does it matter?

It does not affect the clarity or color (SRM) of the wort.

Think of it like this example: Before I used 3 gallons of water to mash, and 5 gallons to sparge (total of 8 gallons). The first runnings would be very concentrated and dark, but after you add the 2nd runnings to it, you are essentially diluting it to your pre-boil volume (7.5 gallons for me).

With no sparge, I add the entire 8 gallons to the mash, and the runnings are already diluted as if if I had added the sparge water to the first runnings - 7.5 gallons of wort are collected, and boiled down to 6 gallons.

It does require a bit of tuning at first, but I am hitting my gravity numbers as the concentration of wort (color/gravity) is the same for either method.