24 replies to this topic

[Howie]

Just go extract, you can brew a lot of good beers with extract alone, even without a partial mash. Pick up Brewing Classic Styles, if you haven't already. I think Jamil does a good job with converting his AG recipes to extract.

I'll no doubt do some extract only brews, but I gotta have my biscuit malt and rye!

[denny]

Thinking about the idea of no-sparge brewing for the occasional quick brew session. Particularly the method of mashing in at a normal water/grist ratio, and then adding the extra water right before recirculation.What type of efficiency do you guys get? I generally get around 70-75% with batch sparging.

I get 50-55% no sparge and about 84% with a single batch sparge. That only takes me 15 min., so there isn't a considerable time saving doing no sparge.

[Stout_fan]

at what gravity is it reasonable to start considering making two beers (partigyle)? I'm not really aware how I would calculate what the two gravities would be.

Well... It depends...No seriously it really does change based upon the efficiency of your system.After you get your first beer and figure how many points you have you can figure what's left in the grains.Then you can do a second running that is half the size of the original or increase the volume for a lighter beer.Again use your system efficiency to calculate what you would pull out of the second runnings.For me, it starts around 1.070 OG for the first beer.The 13.5 gal (post boil) Samiclaus made ten gallons of 1.056 wort. We made a pumpkin beer out of that. It was QUITE tasty!

[djinkc]

The only time I no sparge is for making a starter when I'm cheap or too lazy to go to the LHBS and get some dry extract. Usually 55%, not worth a sparge since I can usually knock out a 2+ L starter in 45 minutes or so (20 min low temp mash).

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Well... It depends...No seriously it really does change based upon the efficiency of your system.After you get your first beer and figure how many points you have you can figure what's left in the grains.Then you can do a second running that is half the size of the original or increase the volume for a lighter beer.Again use your system efficiency to calculate what you would pull out of the second runnings.For me, it starts around 1.070 OG for the first beer.The 13.5 gal (post boil) Samiclaus made ten gallons of 1.056 wort. We made a pumpkin beer out of that. It was QUITE tasty!

Well - the biggest beer I've made so far was 1.07 OG and I calculated about 77% efficiency on that one. I'm not sure what my first and second runnings are individually though.