No Sparge Efficiency

[mrcej23]

I have had success doing a double batch spare in my cooler mash tun. I use the default beer smith efficiency of 72% and always get at or near the predicted OG. However, I would like to do a no spare batch, just to see how it goes, and to shave off a significant amount of time from my brew day. The beer I want to brew is a double IPA with an OG of 1.075. Does anyone have a rough idea of what I should put in for efficiency? The default BIAB efficiency is 70% but I'm seeing that it might be different for such a big beer. I should add that there is 0.75 lb of dextrose added to the wort for this recipe.

 

[doug293cz]

This should help guide you.

Determine your typical grain weight to pre-boil volume ratio, and look up the efficiency for that ratio on the solid purple line. Then calculate the ratio for you proposed DIPA, and look up the efficiency for that ratio on the solid blue line. Subtract the second efficiency from the first efficiency. That's how much you should reduce your usual efficiency estimate in BS for the big beer.

Note that the chart is for lauter efficiency. Mash efficiency is equal to conversion efficiency times lauter efficiency. If the chart value is higher than your typical mash efficiency, that means your conversion efficiency is less than 100%, and will also likely be less than 100% for the big beer. This is why you don't use the chart efficiencies as YOUR mash efficiency estimates. BeerSmith wants you to input your BrewHouse Efficiency for recipe calculations. Brewhouse efficiency is mash efficiency times volume to fermenter divided by post-boil volume. Since the volume losses are system dependent, I can't give you any guidance with that.

Brew on

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I'd suggest 60%, assuming your no-sparge batch is on the same cooler mash tun system you've been using (i.e. it's not BIAB where you'll squeeze the bag).

Why? Look at Doug's chart above. There's about a 12% difference between no-sparge and double batch sparge.

 

[doug293cz]

I'd suggest 60%, assuming your no-sparge batch is on the same cooler mash tun system you've been using (i.e. it's not BIAB where you'll squeeze the bag).

Why? Look at Doug's chart above. There's about a 12% difference between no-sparge and double batch sparge.

Yes, but also you have to also factor in the higher grain weight to pre-boil volume ratio when you are brewing larger than normal beers. Larger beers have lower lauter efficiency than smaller beers, all else being equal.

Brew on

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Yes, but also you have to also factor in the higher grain weight to pre-boil volume ratio when you are brewing larger than normal beers. Larger beers have lower lauter efficiency than smaller beers, all else being equal.

Brew on

Yes, I'm aware of that, but 7 gravity points are coming from dextrose, which automatically gives 100% efficiency for that addition. That would roughly cancel out the reduced efficiency from the bigger grain bill.

 

[dmtaylor]

Expect about 50-55% efficiency in my experience UNLESS you sparge an extra couple gallons and plan on a 2-3 hour boil, then you can still get 70%.

 

[doug293cz]

Expect about 50-55% efficiency in my experience UNLESS you sparge an extra couple gallons and plan on a 2-3 hour boil, then you can still get 70%.

Yeah, what the extra water does is increase your pre-boil volume, thus decreasing your grain weight to pre-boil volume ratio, thus moving you to the left on the chart I posted above. If you increase your grain weight by 50%, then you have to increase your pre-boil volume by 50% to get the same efficiency (for the same process.) For example a 7 gal pre-boil would become a 10.5 gal pre-boil. If your boil-off is 1.25 gal/hr you would now be looking at a (10.5 - 5.75) / 1.25 = 3.8 hour boil.

Brew on

 

[eric19312]

I tried no sparge once and was disappointed in the results. It might be great for BIAB brewers but I have three vessel system and tried two vessel no sparge for fun recently. I had the full volume of water split between brew kettle and mash tun and circulated from bottom of mash tun to kettle and back to mash tun for duration.

Temperature held solid for the mash but conversion was slow. I extended mash based on pre boil gravity reading at 60 min, think I went total of 120 min before stopping. Not sure if reason was thin mash or poor crush...still getting used to my MM3 mill.

Then sure it was easy to get the full volume into my brew kettle quickly...filled it on up in about 10 minutes to the 20 gallon mark. Then waited about 45 minutes to get the full volume to a boil. Normally I sparge for about 60 min but am heating the boil kettle during that time...so when sparge is done I'm boiling. So maybe full volume no sparge saved me 5 minutes (50 min time savings on the sparging but 45 min time lost on the kettle heating) and the efficiency hit was substantial.

At 1.75 lbs grain / gallon final runnings I hit about 68% mash efficiency. I used some DME to bump the gravity and extended boil about 30 min and ended the day pretty close to my intended gravity (I got 1.063 vs target 1.066) but brewhouse efficiency came in a 62% vs my typical mid 70s.