Your a hero and should be recognized for the beer nobel prize. I was about to literally do this same experiment with 4 batches of the same exact grain bill and see the efficiency results. Saved me a lot of work and now my wife wont divorce me. Subbed
I whole heartedly agree, I'd love to see the numbers for 4 simple and identical grain bills, like 4 smashes but the fact that you have done this at all is awesome! I have just today heard of overnight mashing as well... I may not have to chose between remembering my kids faces and making beer any more!
I got my most efficient lauter and sparge by accident. My mash tun is a cooler with a steel braid strainer. I cleaned out my mash tun, dumped in the strike water, stirred in the grains, then realized I left the strainer out. Rather than messing up my temperature at that point, I let the mash sit for two hours. Then I scooped the grain out of the cooler into buckets, cleaned out the spigot so it wouldn't clog, put the strainer back in, put the mash back into the cooler, and rinsed the scoop and the buckets with sparge water. I ended up with a higher gravity than I was shooting for. That extended mash coupled with the extra handling must have squeezed more of the goodies out of the grain.
I have always done a cold sparge with with my Brewzilla and am happy with the results. I pull the grain basket up to drain and have 1 gallon of room temp water set aside to sparge with while i have the elements on to start heating up to the boil. I see it as getting the extra wort and heat out of my grain bed. Saves a lot of time and hassle.
I would think that for salts if you put 7 gal worth in up front and then mashed with 6 and sparged with 1 would be the same as if you spread out the salts over mash and sparge
I would agree with that! I cant recall what was exactly discussed in this video but that is how I do water chemistry and just account for the final volume!
Oh yeah I used to cold sparge back when i was apartment brewing and didn't have room for a separate HLT. Barely ever noticed much of a drop in efficiency from my old style of doing hot sparge water. Now though like you I do almost every batch no sparge as the time saved is way more valuable than a little extra grain. Cheers
In the traditional sparge method, why do you measure the brewing salts separately for the mash and the sparge water? Is there a reason not to put them all in the mash water and sparge with distilled or RO water? It's all going to combine together so the result should be the same, either way right?
Yes you can totally do this! measure once and then separate the volume. I actually didn't think about this until after I was done with both brew days... lol...
Salts like gypsum and calcium chloride will lower your mash pH as you use more of them. Depending on your water to grist ratio when you mash, if you use all of the salts to hit your target water profile in the mash alone then chances are you're going to way undershoot your mash pH. Too high or too low a mash pH has been tied to quite a few non-ideal situations like lowered mash efficiency, higher tannin extraction, lowered solid precipitation, etc.
Currently getting about 70%, I cant recall the examples I recorded in this video but keep in mind the sample size is small. Efficiency is impacted by a ton of different factors. The equipment you use is just one factor.
You are not comparing like with like! The variety of malts would surely affect the potential efficiency. You should be doing each recipe both the "proper" way and the "cold way" and comparing. I have consequently stopped watching the video half way through :) I had been hoping for a revelation! Actually I'd already seen the Brulosophy episode on this topic.
Your a hero and should be recognized for the beer nobel prize. I was about to literally do this same experiment with 4 batches of the same exact grain bill and see the efficiency results. Saved me a lot of work and now my wife wont divorce me. Subbed
I whole heartedly agree, I'd love to see the numbers for 4 simple and identical grain bills, like 4 smashes but the fact that you have done this at all is awesome! I have just today heard of overnight mashing as well... I may not have to chose between remembering my kids faces and making beer any more!
Thanks for taking the time to conduct this experiment, this is valuable stuff!
Cheers Braj!
Thanks!
Great overview, I forget to heat up the sparge water most batches and haven't really noticed a difference as well. Cheers!
I got my most efficient lauter and sparge by accident. My mash tun is a cooler with a steel braid strainer. I cleaned out my mash tun, dumped in the strike water, stirred in the grains, then realized I left the strainer out. Rather than messing up my temperature at that point, I let the mash sit for two hours. Then I scooped the grain out of the cooler into buckets, cleaned out the spigot so it wouldn't clog, put the strainer back in, put the mash back into the cooler, and rinsed the scoop and the buckets with sparge water. I ended up with a higher gravity than I was shooting for. That extended mash coupled with the extra handling must have squeezed more of the goodies out of the grain.
I have always done a cold sparge with with my Brewzilla and am happy with the results.
I pull the grain basket up to drain and have 1 gallon of room temp water set aside to sparge with while i have the elements on to start heating up to the boil. I see it as getting the extra wort and heat out of my grain bed. Saves a lot of time and hassle.
I would think that for salts if you put 7 gal worth in up front and then mashed with 6 and sparged with 1 would be the same as if you spread out the salts over mash and sparge
I would agree with that! I cant recall what was exactly discussed in this video but that is how I do water chemistry and just account for the final volume!
Oh yeah I used to cold sparge back when i was apartment brewing and didn't have room for a separate HLT. Barely ever noticed much of a drop in efficiency from my old style of doing hot sparge water. Now though like you I do almost every batch no sparge as the time saved is way more valuable than a little extra grain. Cheers
Thanks for doing the work for us!
In the traditional sparge method, why do you measure the brewing salts separately for the mash and the sparge water? Is there a reason not to put them all in the mash water and sparge with distilled or RO water? It's all going to combine together so the result should be the same, either way right?
Yes you can totally do this! measure once and then separate the volume. I actually didn't think about this until after I was done with both brew days... lol...
Salts like gypsum and calcium chloride will lower your mash pH as you use more of them. Depending on your water to grist ratio when you mash, if you use all of the salts to hit your target water profile in the mash alone then chances are you're going to way undershoot your mash pH.
Too high or too low a mash pH has been tied to quite a few non-ideal situations like lowered mash efficiency, higher tannin extraction, lowered solid precipitation, etc.
Want save time, boil while sparging, the steam helps keep sparge temp too
Very true! I do ramp up to a boil while sparging but since its 120 its pretty slow so I never get there until much after the sparge.
great info man......thank you
So with the clawhammer system, without sparging you can expect to get 60% efficiency?
Currently getting about 70%, I cant recall the examples I recorded in this video but keep in mind the sample size is small. Efficiency is impacted by a ton of different factors. The equipment you use is just one factor.
Nice one fella . Subbed
Great Information Matt. Zum Wohl
Lazy / Cold Mash 4-life! :)
Fallout 4 Buddy(beer machine robot) you should make your recipes: D
You are not comparing like with like! The variety of malts would surely affect the potential efficiency. You should be doing each recipe both the "proper" way and the "cold way" and comparing. I have consequently stopped watching the video half way through :) I had been hoping for a revelation! Actually I'd already seen the Brulosophy episode on this topic.