Just for convenience and a bit of time saving for a midweek brew I'm going to chance a single infusion no sparge mash this evening. What am I looking at about a 3% loss in brewhouse efficiency? And am I using the same amount of water I would have used in my batch sparge including losses etc. but just all in one go? Doing a 20L batch and have a 50L mash tun so should be fine. Anyone else ever use this method? I've read there is no difference in quality so long as you don't mind a couple percent loss of efficiency.
First beer I ever did , I used this method ,
Didn't work out very well ( I was an absolute beginner though )
Low alcohol and not a complete conversion in the mash so caused incessant potty trips .
( Still it was the best beer I'd ever made at that time !!)
It was BIAB so I may have not controlled mash temp sufficiently and could have killed off enzymes .
Sean Billings convinced me after that , that Sparging was the way forward .. ( although I still toy with the idea of
doing a big beer and a small beer sometime ...)
How much time do you think you will save ? Could you save the same time by running off your first runnings earlier than an hour ?( if you have a ph meter you can check the mash at 35 -40 mins and see if conversion has happened then your good to start batch / Flysparging then )
When I have done it, I set my efficiency to 50%
Quote from: wallacebiy on September 14, 2016, 02:10:01 PM
First beer I ever did , I used this method ,
Didn't work out very well ( I was an absolute beginner though )
Low alcohol and not a complete conversion in the mash so caused incessant potty trips .
( Still it was the best beer I'd ever made at that time !!)
It was BIAB so I may have not controlled mash temp sufficiently and could have killed off enzymes .
Sean Billings convinced me after that , that Sparging was the way forward .. ( although I still toy with the idea of
doing a big beer and a small beer sometime ...)
How much time do you think you will save ? Could you save the same time by running off your first runnings earlier than an hour ?( if you have a ph meter you can check the mash at 35 -40 mins and see if conversion has happened then your good to start batch / Flysparging then )
I usually use an iodine test to see if conversion is complete. I regularly check pH but not for conversion purposes. It could be converted in 30 mins to 45 mins. I reckon I'll save about half an hour to 45 minutes from a 5hr 30min brewday using no sparge. I usually leave for 60 minutes anyway though.
Very apt one here:
http://brulosophy.com/2016/08/29/mash-methods-pt-2-batch-sparge-vs-no-sparge-exbeeriment-results/
And there was a basic brewing podcast on it very recently too.
Quote from: Slev on September 14, 2016, 02:48:52 PM
Very apt one here:
http://brulosophy.com/2016/08/29/mash-methods-pt-2-batch-sparge-vs-no-sparge-exbeeriment-results/
And there was a basic brewing podcast on it very recently too.
It was this experiment that put it in my head alright.
The main dude from brulosophy says he does the no sparge method for most of his experiments.
I was no sparging a lot before I got my new bigger kettle. My efficiency dropped a lot at the start but I learned that giving the mash a few good stirs, say one every 10-15 minutes really helped. Its a very handy way to brew. As well as the time saving you have less to do during the mash so you can relax a bit more while preparing for the boil, etc
Biab, basically - well apart from not using a bag, it's basically biab. ..... and using more than one vessel. But apart from those, it's biab
Quote from: Slev on September 14, 2016, 03:42:51 PM
Biab, basically - well apart from not using a bag, it's basically biab. ..... and using more than one vessel. But apart from those, it's biab
I never BIAB'd but I always thought the grains were sparged in BIAB no?
Let us all know how you get on anyway !!!
Typically, the full volume of water is used for the mash. At the end of the mash, (or raise to mash out temp) just pull the bag, give a little squeeze, and continue to the boil.
The odd person, holds back a small quantity of water to sparge with.
You can also look up 'Full Volume Mashing' - this is what you are doing with BIAB.
No sparge & all in one vessel are two of the benefits (speed & convenient) of BIAB.
Anyone know How do you set up a no sparge profile on beersmith
You can edit the water volume in the mash screen, double click on the stage and it will open a new window. I do it a lot for herms
Brilliant cheers CH