German Brewing

For those who do no sparge, what is the water to grain ratio?

After making the mistake of doing a decoction the first time, I'm thinking of doing 10kg of grain for 50 liters of water in a Speidel I can borrow. As the max is 12kg, it should leave room for circulation.


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I did a no sparge yesterday with the 50 liter Speidel, dough-in with 45 liters, and added 20 liters more. There was about 5cm between the water level and the lid. With 11kg of malt, I got an OG of 1046.

used a low and wide box from Ikea, spread out the grains, and sprayed 2% water with lactic acid. First time using a mill. Thinking about a way to connect a pipe from this box to the mill, and make a closed system that can be purged with co2.


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I have noticed my lagers now take forever to clear up, since reducing mash oxygen. Which I understand has an effect on clarity, but they don't really seem to ever clear (really just lagers).

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Insufficent boil can be the culprit

It could be your fermentation.

I've noticed three things that dramatically help my beer clear up and mature faster (and stay fresher longer):

1) Beginning the ramp down to lager temperature much later

2) Carrying as little yeast as possible into the lager keg

3) lagering warmer

Specifically, I pitch at 6c, ferment at 9c with no pressure until 2-3% extract remains. Then, I allow the pressure in the primary vessel to start building to 0.5 bar. When 1% extract remains, I cool to 6c over the course of 2 days, then let the beer sit at 6c for another day. By this time, I've got 0.3 to 0.5% remaining fermentable extract, and most of the yeast has dropped out. I rack to my lager keg now - the beer is clear enough to read through in the liquid transfer line (but still appears cloudy when poured into a glass). I raise the pressure to 1 bar in the lagering vessel and let the beer ferment to FG at 6c - this takes another couple days. Then, I cool by 1c/day to 3c. I hold 3c for another 2-4 weeks, at which point the beer is clear and ready to drink.