I recently put together a larger mashtun out of a Coleman square cooler and now have the capacity to deal with larger amounts of grain than before.
What are the best beers to do a no sparge on?
Is it okay to do a second runnings and put it into the fridge for a week or three and then boil?
Malt forward beers are great for No-Sparge but most beers should work fine.
I’d think twice about waiting that long for the second runnings though. Use it for starter wort.
Can’t help you on the second runnings question (one reason I am 100% no-sparge is so I don’t have to, well, sparge) but oatmeal and milk stouts and porters come out very nicely. I also liked how a California Common came out; it was different, but in a nice McCommon sort of way.
If you want to store unused wort you’re better off freezing it or preferably using it right away. At fridge temps it’s not going to be cold enough to deter microbial action for very long. Runnings, just like boiled wort, is a buffet for microbes. Anything that has taken up residence in the runnings is going to eat. Without any antibacterial elements (like hops) it’s going to be even more of a free for all.
^^^^^^^^^THIS
I have been using a modified no-sparge for several years now with great results for ALL of my beers from Old Ales to Munich Helles to Tripels. PM me if you are interested in my take on it.
How do you modify “no sparge?” Don’t you either sparge or not sparge?
This confused me a bit as well, although he may be talking about a diluted first runnings vs a beer that has the full mash and sparge volumes added at the beginning.
I’ve heard no sparge described both ways.
To add something to this thread…I’ve read about small (5%) losses in efficiency with this method. For those of you who do this method, how much extra grain are you adding if any to offset this?
no sparge
I have heard it a few ways:
1.) Expect 50-60% efficiency depending on gravity.
2.) Use 30-40% more grain.
It will vary depending on the setup used.
I’m not sure about BeerSmith or other forms of software, but ProMash has that great feature where you can lock the ingredients in a recipe to the efficiency. Then you scale the efficiency up or down and the grain amounts change. If you average, say 75% efficiency on a normal brew, you could do a no-sparge brew and measure your efficiency. With this in hand you could then input that lowered efficiency next time Into your software and calculate a ballpark percentage for grain scaling.
That seems really low from an efficiency standpoint. I was hearing a few points of efficiency loss.
Hearing from where?
This will vary based on setup and process.
I wouldn’t take 3-5% dip as a general rule. That may hold true for some on low gravity beers but you’ll experience much more η loss as the gravity increases.
The beers that I was thinking about specifically were wee heavy, dopple bock, and maybe mild.
Thumbs way up on no-sparge
I’m not specifically trying to eliminate sparging, but wanting to get a fuller flavor from the main beer I’m brewing.
Works on all beers. Especially good for lagers and light ales that are prone to being spoilt by over-sparging.
Definitely not OK to keep 2nd runnings without boiling first - malt is full of bacteria and mash temp doesn’t kill them.
It’s more like 10% less than normal. Smaller than that if you mash overnight.
What’s normal? That’s the variable really.
What η value are you getting doing no-sparge?