In fact, they do the reverse by implying that all three procedures are related to sparging when only one of them is. So in what follows I shall use the terms I have described here, and desist from further pontification. A normal infusion mash is carried out with about 1. As a rough guide, the grain will hold up to 0. Therefore, straight run off will give you less than 2 gallons 7.
In other words, you have lost a third of your extract, and your expected OG will only be a maximum of 1. So you have therefore got to do something to recover that lost one gallon 3. To get all the extract into your wort you will have to add considerably more than one gallon 3. As I have mentioned above, sparging means sprinkling hot water over the grain and allowing it to trickle through the bed.
This involves balancing the rate of sparging with the rate of wort run-off so that there is always an inch or so of water on top of the bed. Higher water levels will increase the pressure drop across the bed, which could pack the grains down tightly and slow the process considerably. If the bed dries out at all, it will crack open channels and the sparge water can run right through the bed without picking up any of the retained wort.
Therefore, sparging takes some attention on the part of the brewer, and some extra equipment. A sparge arm consists of a piece of tubing with a second tube at right angles to it; perforations on this latter mean that it swivels about the former when hot water passes through it.
The upper tube is connected to the hot liquor tank; the valve on that is opened as you start run-off and the hot water is sprinkled gently over the bed by the rotating perforated arm. Generally you would use an amount of sparge water up to the volume of the finished beer 5 gallons in this case. Sparging in this way is quite an efficient process, as all the water has to pass from top to bottom of the bed allowing good contact between water and grain.
The more slowly sparging is carried out, the better that contact will be, and many believe hours duration to be optimal, though that does depend upon how finely the grain has been ground. For many of you that extra time on your brew day may be unacceptable, and I must say I usually only sparge for about 30 minutes. There are some other points about sparging, the first being that the sparge water should ideally be treated that is with whatever added salts the same way as the mash water.
If it is not, then as the sparge continues, the pH of the liquid in the tun will increase as the gravity drops and unwanted materials such as silica and tannins may be leached out into the wort.
For the same reason, it is normal practice to stop sparging when the liquid from the tun has reached a specific gravity SG of about 1. By that time you should have collected 5. This is an old, traditional procedure that was widely used until the invention of sparging sometime in the early 19th century. Brewers would run off from the first mash, then re-mash with hot water, collect a second wort, then maybe mash one or two times more, to give a total of up to four worts.
Often the first, or the first and second together would go to make a strong beer, while the third might make a table beer, and the fourth a small beer. This is obviously simpler and quicker than sparging, for it requires no extra equipment and the second mash can be run off quickly, with the spigot wide open.
There are some difficulties with this approach, for you have to stir the bed and second mash water very thoroughly, which means you must recycle the first running of the wort to ensure there is no carry-over of grain particles or unconverted starch. Sparging this is the step not all brewers do is a process that some all grain brewers use to rinse as many remaining sugars as possible out of their mash.
However brewers using more traditional brewing methods three vessel systems , sparging is regarded as a requirement. The Mash involves soaking grain in hot water to convert starches to sugar. First I'll go into different mashing methods employed by all-grain brewers. Single Infusion Mash: This is the simplest of any all grain mash, and it's "step" is still employed even if you're doing a more complicated method.
Essentially you're holding the crushed grain in water at a certain ratio at a certain temperature for an hour. You can mash for shorter or longer periods of time, but for simplicity's sake, an hour. The temperature of the mash dictates a few things about your beer. First, a higher temperature mash will convert faster than a lower temperature mash. A lower temperature mash may take a bit longer to convert all of the sugars. So why not mash at a high temperature all the time to be done faster?
Well, grains mashed at a higher temperature will be less fermentable than those converted during a lower temperature mash. The average range for a "normal" mash is about F. This range is sort of the Goldilocks of mashing. Not too hot, not too cold, just right. So in a single infusion mash, your goal is to hold the mash in that temperature range for an hour, and you're good to go.
You can also test if your mash actually succeeded in converting the starches to sugars using an iodine test lead image. To do this, remove some of the liquid no grain and place it in a shallow pool.
A plate or small vial works well for this you only need a little bit. Next drip a few drops of iodine tincture available at your local drug store , into the sample. If it turns black, conversion is not complete.
Give the mash another minutes and try again. If it doesn't turn black, you're good to go! If you're wondering how much water to use, a ratio of about 1 quart of water per pound of grain will suffice.
BIAB brewers typically have a thinner mash, as they include what would be their sparge water in the initial mash. You will come across some pretty solid arguments for and against, but for me, the arguments for outweigh those against.
One reason goes back to a homebrew disaster we had several years ago. Grains dislodged from the grain bed, got stuck in the drainpipe, and clogged the mash tun. A set grain bed also creates a filter for the sparge water to run through, allowing for greater clarity. Tannins result in an astringent flavor and haze, both of which you do not want in your final beer.
You will need a sieve of some sort—a large colander, a stainless steel vegetable steamer basket, or a large piece of foil with holes poked in it.
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