no sparge brewing question

[HOPSareKEY]

Hello all,
A recipe I want to brew is calling for no sparge, but it doesn't give water volumes or instructions. It is all grain. I have several all grain batches down and am comfortable with conventional sparging. Have never heard of no sparge.

Do I just combine volumes of strike and sparge all at once into mash tun and drain to boil kettle and that's it?

What is the exact purpose of this?

Any other tips would be great. Thanks!

 

[Falcon3]

I have done no sparge a few times. Basically, just calculate total water needed to get your boil volume, and add that all in when you mash in. I only use it on very light gravity recipes. After your mash is done, I take a portion out and boil it then add it back to the mash tun to achieve mash out temp. This bumps efficiency considerably.

I use brew 365 water volume calc and it's super accurate for temp calc and allows customization of volume for your system ( trub loss, boil off, dead space)


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[Falcon3]

I'll clarify, for mash out I remove only the liquid portion to boil for getting mash out temp, I don't boil any grain like traditional decoction.


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[HOPSareKEY]

Ok thank you. I plan to do a bourbon county stout clone recipe. What exactly are the benefits of no sparge?

 

[Falcon3]

Really just easier. Takes less time. I use it on my ordinary bitter recipe that I've brewed in 3 hours before after work.


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[skw]

The purpose of no sparge brewing is that it's supposed to be a higher quality brew. Sparging can extract tannins from the grain, by skipping the sparge you're not getting them into your wort.

 

[yoyostevo]

Falcon: you said you only use it for light gravity beers. But I've always heard "no sparge" used for high gravity, which is what OP's brew sounds like. You sacrifice efficiency, but end up with a much richer wort by just using the first runnings.


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[Falcon3]

Yeah if you're doing partigyle then you do a big beer with first runnings. Usually though you follow up and make a small beer with the sparge runnings so I guess I don't really consider it "no sparge". Just making two beers with one grist.


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[Hello]

I have done no sparge a few times. Basically, just calculate total water needed to get your boil volume, and add that all in when you mash in. I only use it on very light gravity recipes. After your mash is done, I take a portion out and boil it then add it back to the mash tun to achieve mash out temp. This bumps efficiency considerably.

I use brew 365 water volume calc and it's super accurate for temp calc and allows customization of volume for your system ( trub loss, boil off, dead space)

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The part in bold is not going to get him his boil volume because you need to factor in grain absorption. If I aim for 6.25 gallons pre-boil volume then I need more than 6.25 gallons of water for any mash regardless of sparge technique used.

Using a BIAB calculator is actually good because no-sparge is a lot like BIAB. Even in BeerSmith you can take a BIAB mash profile, change it a bit to cater to your equipment and efficiency and work from there.

Falcon: you said you only use it for light gravity beers. But I've always heard "no sparge" used for high gravity, which is what OP's brew sounds like. You sacrifice efficiency, but end up with a much richer wort by just using the first runnings.


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No sparge was said to be used for lower gravity beers but it has been done with higher gravity. What I did not know when I first tried it is that I have to consider the reduced efficiency and for that I must up my grain bill. My 1.080 beer came in lower because I didn't account for lower than 75% efficiency. I am not sure what others are getting but based on my efficiency with my first no-sparge brew day, I needed to add a couple pounds of grain to reach 1.080. As a result, my beer was supposed to be 1.080 but it ended up being 1.074.

Biggest thing to consider is space in the mash tun. To re-brew the 1.080 beer I need 10.12 gallons free in my mash tun. I have a 10-gallon mash tun. So at the efficiency I got the first time and the grain bill adjustment, I cannot do no sparge on that recipe. For me the efficiency was bumped all the way down to 55% because that is what I got with my first no-sparge brew. It could be higher after all, but it is certainly something to think about.

 

[HOPSareKEY]

Thanks for the replies

 

[MattGuk]

i only ever do no sparge brewing, be that for light lagers through to stouts and have fiund it makes a good beer, plus the fact it shorten a brew by an hour easy.
All i do is add all my water for the entire batch and always hit my.volumes and gravity and have enen hit 88% before, though usually anywhere between 73% and 78%.
As far as grain absorbsion goes, i just calculate it on the basis that most grain absorbs it own weight in water.
There are to ways of no sparge brewing however, the one.i mentioned, ie all the water you can use going directly into the mash, or using the first runnings only, which is less efficient, but u can then sparge to make a light gravity beer from the second running.
Hope that helps