Maybe a bit of a silly question...

[peelman]

I have now got my first AG under my belt and followed the guidance to the letter and it turned out ok, if just a little short of the good stuff at the end..
I was just planning my next one when I asked myself a question I didn't know the answer to.. (Does anybody else do that?)

If you have a big enough mash tun to put the total volume of water required for your brew in plus the grain, then why do you need to sparge?? Surely if all the water was in with the grain for the total mash time, then more sugars would be extracted into the wort rather than just basically rinsing it with hot fresh water at the end of the mash?

Any thoughts? There must be a reason for it I just cant see it at the moment... :wha:

 

[bobsbeer]

As I see it if you do that you will need more grain as the reason for sparging is to rinse the sugars out of the grains. So if you just drop the liquid without rinsing you will miss some of the sugar. So the grain bill would need to be increased to allow for the loss of efficiency.

 

[PD]

thats what batch sparging does basically, although its usually done in 2 lots..add water stir leave a while drain...add rest of water stirs leave and drain.

 

[peelman]

Ok thanks.

I was going to do the sparging again as per the guidelines anyway. I was just wondering that is all.

Would be interested to hear if anyone has done a brew that way (the no sparge (lazy) method) for an experiment or something though...

:hat:

 

[Dave1970]

I'd assumed that if your mash was too thin there wouldn't be sufficient concentration of the enzymes needed to convert your starches into sugars.

I must emphasise assumed here, now that I think about it I don't think I have anything to base this on...Am I talking bollocks?

 

[peelman]

Am I talking bollocks?

I don't know.. Someone must have tried it? Even by mistake, someone must of done it....
:?

 

[DirtyCaner]

You want 2.5l of water for every kilo of grain for optimum mash efficiency.

I would suggest you sparge to get all the sugar out your mash.

DirtyC

 

[bunkerbrewer]

You want 2.5l of water for every kilo of grain for optimum mash efficiency.

I would suggest you sparge to get all the sugar out your mash.

DirtyC

Hm, I see this re-quoted often, but with BIAB brews I often have a liquor to grist ratio of 6, and easily get 85% efficiency into kettle (without any sparging, of course).

 

[rpt]

Full volume BIAB always mashes with all the water. So it's been successfully done a lot and so must work. It's what I'll be doing for my first AG next week.

 

[evanvine]

2.5l/kg may well be the ultimate ratio!
I use 3l/kg + vol under the false bottom, but I use the HERMS system which needs the mash to be a little thinner.
My average BHE is 84%, not the best, but it does me.

 

[peelman]

Well I may of thought it was a silly question from a relative noob, but it seems to have sparked a bit of a debate at least!

Cheers chaps :

 

[evanvine]

There are no silly questions!

 

[peelman]

There are no silly questions!

Really? What about this one! Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
:hmm:

 

[evanvine]

There are no silly questions!

Really? What about this one! Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
:hmm:

Why is it when you try to help people they despise you for it?

 

[ryanshelton]

There are no silly questions!

Really? What about this one! Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
:hmm:

Square boxes are cheaper to produce and easier to carry :thumb: :

 

[kev]

Nobody has mentioned this yet, but a sparge also raises the temp of the grain which stops the conversion of starches.

K

 

[orlando]

My average BHE is 84%, not the best, but it does me.

Wow that is astonishing, I'm lucky if I get my brewhouse efficiency into the 70's. What is your mash efficiency?

 

[evanvine]

What is your mash efficiency?

Not exactly sure what you're asking.
I calculate the theoretical 100% gravity and divide my actual gravity by it.
On my last brew my theoretical gravity was 1.051 and my actual gravity was 1.042.
42/51 = 82%

 

[johnnyh]

Nobody has mentioned this yet, but a sparge also raises the temp of the grain which stops the conversion of starches.

K

That would be like the "mash out" when BIAB'ing I guess?

 

[bunkerbrewer]

What is your mash efficiency?

Not exactly sure what you're asking.
I calculate the theoretical 100% gravity and divide my actual gravity by it.
On my last brew my theoretical gravity was 1.051 and my actual gravity was 1.042.
42/51 = 82%

You need to factor in the volumes. Brewhouse efficiency takes into account equipment losses (boiler deadspace etc), so it'll be lower than a percentage of your theoretical maximum extraction.

If you're using software like Beersmith or Brewmate, this can tell you your BHE.