10 Gallon No Sparge

Why do you sparge?  Seriously, why?  Of course you sparge to rinse sugars off the grains, and to improve efficiency, and because that is what every book says to do, so that is what you do.  But other than that, why?   And why is improving efficiency a good thing?   Have you ever thought about that? I routinely get into the high 80s and low 90s with brew in a bag step mash with a sparge.  But why is that good?  Other than the fact that is means you did a great job extracting sugars, is there any benefit to supremely high efficiency?  

The answer may surprise you.  The answer is unequivocally, no.  In fact I think you could argue quite compellingly that super high efficiency actually reduces many of the malty flavor compounds (flavinoids, melanoids like dimethyl pyrazines) that give beer balance and it's delicious grainy, bready, taste. That's right sparging may be lessening the overall taste of your beer.  And further, sparging isn't necessary.  

If BIAB has taught us anything, it has taught us that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.   One of the most common methods of BIAB uses a no sparge.  All of the water, all of the grains. Perhaps a squeeze, but other than that no other method for pulling sugars out of grains.  

Built in bulk head
makes connecting a
valve really easy!

We have been looking for a better faster brewing method for some time.  A method that would allow us to do 10 gallon batches.  But we didn't want to spend a fortune.   Many of the 10 gallon systems are price prohibitive.  So we put on our thinking caps.  Here is what we came up with.

Stirring and Checking Mash
Temperatures.

We mash (no sparge) in a 100 quart (25 gallon, 95 liter) Coleman Extreme Cooler.   The cooler has a built in hose bulkhead, and a trap door in the lid.  Both of which come in very handy.

25 Gallons of mash is actually enough for quite a bit more than 10 gallons.  I am confident we could make a 15 gallon high gravity beer, or a 20 gallon medium gravity beer in the cooler with out sparging.   In the photo on the right you can see Jake and Mark have the door open and they are able to stir the mash.  The door is crazy helpful for infusions too, we do lots of step mashing.  And it sure is nice to be able to add the boiling water with out opening the entire cooler.

We still use a bag as our filter medium. The benefits of the bag are well established.  We get about 77% efficiency on these large no sparge batches.  We're good with that.  Although we are going to try an even finer crush and see what that gets us.

But as you can see in the photo at the left, the crush is already pretty good.  By the way, John isn't talking to the mash, he's telling me the temperature.  He's not encouraging them "come on little grains, you can do it"  As you can see, that is a whole lot of grains for a 10 gallon batch. (6.5 Gallon plastic bucket. )  the temperature is important.

All grain brewer's need to take this part of mashing in more seriously.  I can't tell you how many times people send a question about missing strike temps, or post the same on a forum.   I ask them..."what was the temperature of your grains?"  And I get back, "I don't know... room temperature I guess"  "Where were the grains stored?"  "In the basement...    Uh, yeah... no wonder that your temps were low.  Your grains were probably 60 F.  (15.5 C)

We generally do step mashes with infusion.   I have mentioned infusion step mashing before on the blog.  But I've never really gotten into detail.  Basically, you add a certain amount of boiling water to the mash to raise the temperature to the next rest.  It is similar to decoction mashing in that a certain amount of boiling water can be added to the mash to heat it to a certain temperature.   "Won't the boiling water denature the enzymes?"... yes... and no.   A very small amount of the enzymes in the mash will denature when you pour in boiling water. But not enough to cause any problems with conversion.

So we start with a protein rest, we dough in around 140 F (60 C) , the grains drop us to 129-132 F (54.4 C).  We let it sit for 10-15 minutes then up to 146 F (63.3 C) for 35 minutes,  Then up to 156 F (68.8 C) for 30 Minutes, then up to 168 F (75.5 C) for 10 Minutes.   Yes, our mash takes longer.  yes we generally have a little bit of water left over, no problem.  We add it to the keggle  as we start the transfer.    Our mash takes longer, but we didn't sparge.   Even a batch sparge takes 30 minutes by the time you heat the water, carry the kettle, pour the water, stir and transfer.   And fly sparging adds an hour minimum to your brew day.   We skip all of that, and just transfer and boil.  

We use a 7.5 gallon kettle and jet burner to get our infusions ready.  We use the keggle to keep the water damned warm during brew day, and then to boil the wort.

That isn't protein break, it is
bitter orange peel, ginger, and
black pepper.
Although, protein break is crazy
with step mashing and the
jaded hydra.

And boy oh boy can we boil.   We boil 10 gallon batches in a 15.1 gallon keggle.  It was legally sourced from a local distributor.  I don't know why guys steal kegs.  It is a crappy thing to do to a brewery. If you ask they will probably let you have one that can't be repaired.  At a minimum, they will probably sell you one.   So just do the right thing, buy an old keg.  

We use an old Bayou Classic KAB6.  It puts out an insane amount of heat.  Something like 185,000 - 200,000 BTUs.   We can bring 13.5 gallons to a boil in about 13 Minutes.  6.75 gallons comes to a boil in just minutes.   As you can see in the photo above,  it is up on a stand which means it is high enough for transfer into fermenters after chilling.   We chill with the Jaded hydra chiller.  It is plainly put, insane.  It chilled this 10 gallon batch from 210 F (100 C)  to 72 F (22 C) in 13 minutes.  Last week Jake and I chilled a 5 gallon IPA from boiling to 65 F (18.33 C) in 5 minutes.  

We ferment in glass, if we have it available.  But in plastic if we don't have glass available.   To be honest, I don't notice much of a difference.  The plastic v. glass debate is really just another silly home brew debate.   You're not more of a brewer if you ferment in glass.  You're not less if you ferment in plastic.  Enough already.
We both have fermentation chambers.   I also have a hot box for lactic fermentation and for saisons.

The ghetto brew 1280! Our no sparge HERM System
We are going cheap on the pump, our pump is
a food grade pump for a sous vide system.  It was $30.00

We are making some improvements to the no sparge system.   We are going to add a herms coil and a pump.  Herms = Heat Exchange Recirculating Mash System. This will allow us to stabilize water temperatures more, and to do a gradual rise to mash out temperatures.    Or to do much more precise step mashes, with far greater accuracy.   That is where we are heading.

It has taken me a long time to buy into the whole recirculating mash thing.  But the fact of the mater is that it keeps temperatures better and it makes cleaner wort.  So, after considerable deliberation, I'm in.

The brew day you are seeing photo's of is a 10 gallon batch of Saison, loosely inspired by Hennepin by Ommegang.  But we do make a change.  We add crushed black pepper corns to the boil for the last 10 minutes.   How many?  Well... that depends on how it smells.  Believe me when I say, quit trying to get exact recipes.   Learn to brew, learn to taste, learn to evaluate while you are brewing.   It will change everything for you.     We split off 5 gallons of this for sour beer.   The normal saison is fermenting with Belle Saison yeast.  The sour is fermenting with Imperial Chimera yeast blend.  Which is a low attenuating belgian ale, lacto, bret l, and bret c.  If those terms mean nothing to you, that's OK.  Sours are pretty advanced stuff.  We are learning about them in the sour series.

Updates and Evaluation;

C4 Hop Explostion pale ale -  Flavor is fantastic.  Could use a little more bitterness, not much just a tiny bit, and a little more dark crystal grain.   So next time, we'll make those changes.  But it is really excellent.

La Fin du Monde clone -   I would tell you this is the best tripel I have ever tasted.   John would not agree.  He still thinks the original is better.   But we're splitting frogs hairs here people.  It is world class.  

Allegement a la Framboise -  probably the best fruit beer I have ever tried.   A belgian blond and raspberries are a perfect combination.

Tank 7 Clone -  Can't capture tank 7 exactly, Boulevard uses a proprietary yeast.  But it is an excellent saison.   It will be loved all summer long.   The color and aroma are spot on.  

Kolsch - Clean easy drinking German Kolsch.

Cream Ale - Wonderful as always. Still a touch sweet, should clear up in the bottle.

The future of home brewing... Its in the bag!

You can get as complicated as you want!
If that is fun for you, go for it!
I prefer to keep it simple!

If recent days have taught us anything, they have taught us that we live in a world that is changing faster than any of us could have ever imagined.   Facebook and Twitter are a part of our everyday lives, they weren't even around 10 years ago.  (Well ok, they were around but not like they are today) And 10 years ago no one had ever even heard of eBIAB RIMS (or HERMS).  I'm sure they existed but very few home brewers were using them.

yes, I am that nerd who enjoys
a tripple decoction brew day!

Now it seems like everyone is building some behemoth system capable of cranking out home brew with the push of a button.   Bluetooth compatible, iPad controlled wort machines may be all the rage.  But I take a different tact. First of all, I don't really want push button beer.  I enjoy controlling the process.  I like the contact with my beer.  I imagine myself a wort whisperer.  I want to be the one to stir my mash and check it's temperature. I taste the mash.  Heck, I even enjoy decoction mashing. ( the SWMBO has a retreat coming up and I fully intend to fully nerd out and triple decoct a Vienna lager) I want to write it down in our brewing log, not have it automatically upload to google cloud. And I want everything to be simple and easy to clean.  (you cant clean what you can't see, and minor infections ruin good beer).

I know (not suspect KNOW) after 25 years that it is the brewer, not the equipment! I have tasted world class beer made on ghetto brewing systems! I will state quite arrogantly, I make far better beer than I can buy.  And for the most part far better beer than I have at club, or the LHBS.  (if you want to try my beer, come brew with us when you're in KC.you're always welcome and KC is a blast!)   I think part of the reason our beer (my beer) is so excellent is that we are in touch with our process.  So I try to keep everything old school.     So I avoid most of the new fangled technology up grades.   But there is one improvement I do not shy away from;

I think the most significant improvement in brewing, since I started brewing 25 years ago... it the Brew Bag. (the quality of malt extract being a close second)  

Affordable brew bags!

I use a brew bag for lautering my grains no matter what system I am using.   And as I have said numerous times.  I have several systems.  This weekend, we will be breaking out the 10 Gallon, 3 Vessel system.  We need to get ready for summer, and that means we need to get some 10 gallon batches of August Hyppo Pale ale, and Johns Cream Ale ready.  I don't often post about large brew days on the blog.  This blog targets newer, and intermediate brewers.  But we do brew some more advanced stuff, some sours, some decotions, and some large batches.  Saturday, I'll let you all behind the veil at counterbrew studio 2 (John's house)  But even when I use the ol' system, which I am admittedly somewhat romantic about.  I wont be doing it with out a brewing bag.   Brewing Bags offer home brewers many advantages.

• Higher efficiency due to finer crush.   
• yes I know some of you don't believe this, but it is true, try it for your self, this is a well established fact of home brewing now. 
• faster vourlauf - sometimes no vourlauf 
• you don't know till you give it a try, usually I pull about 1/2 of a quart and were done. 
• NO STUCK MASHES or SPARGE
• Can you brew a 100% wheat or rye beer?   I can.  
• Can you brew a pre prohibition pilsner with 65% corn & rice and 35% pilsner?  I can.
• Faster brew day
• Higher efficiency

Zapap Lauter tun still works
one bucket with holes drilled
inside of another bucket!

So, I don't understand why some guys will spend hundred and hundreds of dollars on an amazing false bottom, but wont spend $40 on a brew bag?   I have used bags from both of the major suppliers, they both worked fine.   They're both just tools for lautering.  When I started brewing we had separate lautering buckets.    We wold mash in a great big pot, then transfer the mash (grain and all) to a lautering tun (2 plastic buckets 6.5g and 5g).   The zappap lautering tun.  Still works.  But there are some of you that think the zappap is real brewing, and the use of a bag is sacrilege.  And folks that makes as much sense as mustard on a birthday cake! 

the overwhelming best advice I ever got
Keep it simple!  Learn your system!  Become a wort whisperer
and always remember "brewers make wort, yeast makes beer"
It's all about coaxing flavors out of the grains, and creating the
right environment for the yeast!

A brew bag is no different than any other filter you use for lautering... except... they work better.  What ever drunk aussie thought of the brew bag... should get a medal and free beer for life!  They make everything faster.   "if they're so great why aren't commercial breweries using them".   My answer;  They are, or at least they are trying to replicate them.  I have it on excellent authority from a brewer at a major label that they are trying to add a permanent filtering medium to their experimental brew house.   Inspired by BIAB efficiency, they are working with an engineering firm trying to create filters inspired by this home brewing process.  And why the hell wouldn't they? Increased efficiency = increased profits.   And further who cares what they do?  We are home brewers, we have certain advantages over the big boys.  This is one of them.   So no matter how you brew, I suggest strongly that you work a brew bag into your system.   You won't regret it!


BONUS MATERIAL
Here is my trusty ol mash tun, and keggle set up,  150,000 BTUs it can easily handle no sparge 5 gallon batches, and can easily handle traditional 10 gallon batches of beer.

My keggle was purchased legally
from a distributor.  It features
a 150000 BTU banjo burner!

I removed the pvc false bottom
from my ol mash tun, and now
use a bag.  The bag was sewn by a friend.
She charged me a beer, The fabric cost
me $9.00

And here it is in action.

Hot Brewing action inside...10 gallon double batch... Weizenbock and Stout

Sunday was brew day.  We brew almost every weekend as a group, and I brew every week, either with the group or on my own.   But this Sunday was a process test.  Can we make 10 gallons of beer nearly simultaneously on two 5 gallon systems.  With 4 of us brewing, 10 gallons is a case of 12 ounce beers, or 12 bombers each.  By brewing 2 batches we can make 2 different styles, and increase variety.

The day was cold, the
mash was a challenge

The Oatmeal Stout mashing in
the electric brew kettle.

Sunday was our test run.  And to tell the truth, it went well.  My fledgling brew crew is turning into a semi experienced efficient team.  Everyone has certain skill sets and personality attributes that will make this a championship team in the future.

We brewed a weizenbock and an Oatmeal Stout. The weizenbock because Jake loves weizenbock, and the stout, because... St Patrick's day is coming.   The Stout was also a tribute to Alan Rickman... so we named it "Severus Stout, The Potions Master"    The weizenbock is called "Ill be bock"

Brewing 2 batches at the same time can be hectic.  But with a good team and good planning, you can pull it off.   Organization, and division of responsibility are the key to a 2 batch brew day.  So John and Jake handled the Weizenbock, and Mark and I handled the stout. Jake and Mark are both very precise people. John and I are both overview people.  We all love beer.  So great team.

Jake had to stir and
adjust the heat
constantly during mash, 
He is not smoking, that is
the thermometer cover.
Very sanitary Jake!

The mash for the stout was uneventful.  Mark took charge and kept the temperatures perfect.  The weizenbock was more challenging.  The weizenbock was brewed in the garage.  The temperature outside was 2 F.  Maintaining the mash temperature was nearly impossible, even with sleeping bags, and reflectix insulation.   (next time well be using a bag in a cooler, and doing a no sparge brew in a bag in a mash tun type of thing...got it?  good!)   A bag in a cooler will allow us to continue to crush fine, and gain the efficiency of BIAB, but keep more consistent mash temperatures on Jake's system. And it takes about the same time as BIAB, so it won't expand our brew day.

As it was, Jake had to work his but off to keep the mash going,  Stirring, and heating occasionally.   I'm sure it was the most frustrating mash of his young brewing career.   But he and John powered through and still produced a 1.074 Mash, expecting 1.080 so not too far off.  That is actually pretty good on a brew day where you can't keep the mash temperature consistent.  They were also mashing at a fairly high temperature to create more mouth feel.

You can see the amazing deep dark
brown color, almost black... yes I
know BJCP says Black... I dont
really care.  It's awesome. 

The stout on the other hand overshot.   Mark kept it at 154-156 for the entire mash, and we still overshot by .05 points.  Still with in tolerable limits.   I must admit I love the smell of stout mashing. The roasted grains create the most wonderful aroma.   Some people cap their mash with the roasted grains opting for less bitterness, and "toasty-ness" from the grains.  But I prefer to just use a little less and let all of those flavors mash away.   I think that makes my stouts a cool color, deep brown, almost black, and full flavored.   They can take some time to mellow, but I don't really mind the wait.

The boils were uneventful.  Both systems easily handled the volume being boiled.  The weizenbock finished it's boil about 12 minutes before the stout.  Not quite enough time to chill before the stout was finished but close enough.  Next time well space them out better.   The weizenbock was chilled with the stainless 25 lft chiller.   It chilled in about 18 minutes.   The stout was chilled with both chillers.  It chilled in about 12 minutes.   Love using both chillers. Using two coils chills so fast.    The simplest and most affordable way to chill rapidly is to use two 25 linear foot chillers.   Just expand one large enough to allow the other one to slide into it.   Make sure all of your clamps and hoses are tight.  Boom, instant turbo powered chilling.

Aeration with a mixing
paddle.

Jake and John are experimenting with a new way of aerating wort prior to yeast pitch.  New to us at least.  And it worked great.   They attached a mixing paddle to a drill.  The mixing paddle was sanitized, and used to aerate the wort.   The stout was aerated with our standard aquarium pump method.

John pitching a 1 liter starter of wheat beer yeast into the
weizenbock.  It really took off. 

John made a yeast starter for the weizenbock.   It is a 1.074 beer, so it was necessary to pitch a big healthy colony of yeast.  If you're not making yeast starters, give it a try it is actually really easy.  A cup of DME, 4.25 cups of water... some yeast... easy.  Of course you have to sanitize everything.  But you don't even need a stir plate.  I suggest watching the brewing tv video, and using brewunited.com yeast calculator.  Just make sure you tell it how you're making your starter...  And despite what you may have read you can use liquid or dry yeast.   We use both. But remember it is hard to get more than 300 Billion cells growth per liter, so you may need to do a step up.  Making a yeast starter has lots of great benefits; less chance of minor infection, cleaner beer with less esters and phenols, faster fermentation, and higher attenuation of the yeast.  We only needed 277 Billion cells so, no step up was needed.

We had the common sense to attach a blow off tube to the weizenbock.  Good thing we did.  John is fermenting it upstairs to keep it warmer than usual.  We want those wheat beer flavors... He reports full blow off, and bubbling so loud that it kept them awake at night.  Awesome...well awesome except for keeping John and Beth awake.

I think next time we do a double batch, we'll make 10 gallons of John's cream ale recipe. Brew on 2 systems and combine.  He calls for kolsch yeast, but you may want to try US05 for a crisper beer, or white labs cream ale blend. It is really excellent recipe.  UPDATE:  TRY K-97 for john's cream ale recipe.   He leaves out the rice... and after years of "barley, corn, rice... repeat" cream ale recipes, it is a really nice change.

That's all for now sports fans...

Prost!