Two vessel no sparge mash. Possible?

[AMH_]

I’ve been reading a lot about no sparge mashing. Seems like something I want to try on the next brew but I have a question I’d like to get some opinions on. Since no sparge requires more space in the mash tun to handle the full volume of grain and water - I’ll likely not be able to fit it all in my mash tun.

So. The question...

Can I use 2 mash tuns and split the grains and water between the two evenly . Mash simultaneously and drain both into the kettle and get the same results as I would with a single mash tun?

I happen to have two mash tuns (my mash king coolers were on an insane sale and it was cheaper to by two tuns instead of one tun and one hlt - not sure why)


Thanks in advance.

 

[JimRausch]

Yes, that could work. And you might find you get a better mash efficiency that way.

 

[wilserbrewer]

You can use as many mash tuns as you like...
Rather than two MT’s, might be easier to use one MT and do a cold water batch sparge...
Easier and higher efficiency win win but whatever suits you best ftw

 

[AMH_]

You can use as many mash tuns as you like...
Rather than two MT’s, might be easier to use one MT and do a cold water batch sparge...
Easier and higher efficiency win win but whatever suits you best ftw

Why cold? Never heard of that

One of my many goals is to shorten brew days. The other is to avoid over sparging

 

[milldoggy]

I moved from a 3 vessel herms(8 years) to a 2 vessel full volume mash. My efficiency has going down from 80ish to 64(although I got 74 with my latest hefe). I also overnight mash now too. I feel my beer has improved. Not sure I will go back to sparging. I like it as it has made cleaning easier, less pumps, less vessels, etc. Sure splitting a mash will work, but then you have 2 things to clean vs one

 

[AMH_]

I moved from a 3 vessel herms(8 years) to a 2 vessel full volume mash. My efficiency has going down from 80ish to 64(although I got 74 with my latest hefe). I also overnight mash now too. I feel my beer has improved. Not sure I will go back to sparging. I like it as it has made cleaning easier, less pumps, less vessels, etc. Sure splitting a mash will work, but then you have 2 things to clean vs one

Do you feel it’s more of the overnight or the no sparge that have improved your beers?

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Why cold? Never heard of that

One of my many goals is to shorten brew days. The other is to avoid over sparging

I suspect the recommendation for a cold water sparge is that it just removes the step needed to heat your sparge water. I have not done it, but I am sure that dunking a hot bag of grains into cool water extracts about the same as dunking into 180F water.

I have recently moved to BIAB (a few 5 gal batches and a few stovetop batches). On my 5 gal batches I have been doing a dunk sparge, mostly because then my kettle (with 4 gal of water and 12 lbs of grain) is still light enough that I can move it indoors off the propane burner for the mash step. I can see where full volume mashing is easier, but it might be easier to just work in a sparge step in your process than trying to split the mash into two.

A sparge does not increase my brew day time, since I have the initial mash volume in a pot on my burner heating up while I do the dunk sparge (I am using an old fermentation bucket for the sparge).

 

[milldoggy]

Do you feel it’s more of the overnight or the no sparge that have improved your beers?

Not sure, need to do isolated test

 

[wilserbrewer]

Why cold? Never heard of that

One of my many goals is to shorten brew days. The other is to avoid over sparging

I understood your post such that you were looking for a way to shorten, and or simplify your process.

Rather than using 2 mash tuns, one tun with a cold sparge might be easier and perhaps faster when one considers set up and cleaning etc.

Cold sparge efficiently produces wort same as a hot sparge, but eliminates the heating step.

Draw back is that it will cool down your 1st runnings and require more time to come to boil, but less time initially prior to mashing as your heating less mash water. Perhaps a wash.

2 mash tuns sounds like a hassle to me...but should work fine if that suits you.

 

[RM-MN]

Cold sparge efficiently produces wort same as a hot sparge, but eliminates the heating step.

Draw back is that it will cool down your 1st runnings and require more time to come to boil, but less time initially prior to mashing as your heating less mash water. Perhaps a wash.

Cold water sparge doesn't seem to slow the heating of the wort all that much. The mass of grain is saturated with wort and is still about 150 degrees when the water is added. That heats up the sparge water pretty well, not to the 150 degree mark but quite a bit.

 

[SanPancho]

It depends on how cold your “cold” is. I get about 125f out of the tap so not too bad. But it takes more time to boil, and isn’t great for grists with sticky stuff like oats, rye, or lots of wheat.

I too now do overnights. Depending on recipe i can get 75-80%. Sometimes i need to add maybe a gallon as a rinse/sparge since my cooler isnt that big. But it doesnt really add more than 10 minutes or so.

All told its 2-3 hours in the morning and im done.

 

[AMH_]

So many options! Thanks everyone.

Looks like I need to read more on overnight mashing.

I hate sparging. And cleaning two coolers is quick and easy, especially since it’s all pre boil.

 

[milldoggy]

So many options! Thanks everyone.

Looks like I need to read more on overnight mashing.

I hate sparging. And cleaning two coolers is quick and easy, especially since it’s all pre boil.

Overnight mash is the way to go. Nice time saver and helps break up then process.