Sparge vs no sparge.

[mpietropaoli]

Ok. I've read the paper. Several times. I've asked some of the the questions.

My latest: how much fresh malt flavor am I sacrificing by doing a sparge? Our system would allow us to make 12 gallons or so with a no sparge, but if we maxed out the tun, we could make closer to 20 gallons if sparging to 4-5*P.

When implementing low o2 on our system, we could immerse a hose from the hlt to feed into the mash tun below the liquid level, so without o2 ingress (as opposed to the lawn-sprinkler type fly sparge arm we have that has been adding lots of o2).

Thanks again for sharing this great work guys!

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[Bryan R]

Well, great question. I would say No sparge is the culmination of low o2 first, possible benefits of more flavors second. However many years ago(early 2000's) I did a test where we brewed the same beer at varying efficiencies from 50 to high 90's in 10% intervals. The beer was a pale ale. The common consensus was that the middle efficiency beer 60-70 had better flavor than the lower and certainly better than the upper. We attributed this to the amount of grain in tun. I would say it's subjective at best. We have plenty of spargers in this group that have great success.

[Roachbrau]

[mpietropaoli]

Ok so it sounds like even when adjusting for additional o2 ingress, assuming you had equal or lower DO readings, sparging made for a decidedly worse beer in your case. I was assuming we could deal with, or fully mitigate any negative o2 effects from the sparge.

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[Roachbrau]

No dissolved oxygen meter for me (yet), which is why I'm hesitant to provide a definitive answer. I can't say really what caused the improvement, since I also was dialing in recipes and fermentation process. I will say that forgoing decoctions didn't cause a marked decrease in the beer.

[Kit_B]

I have sparged & found good success.
The main problem is keeping it in the keg.

[Owenbräu]

I sparge, and I have no problems.

[Brew4Fun]

It would seem that any form of batch sparging that leaves an emptied grainbed prior to the sparge would ruin any attempts at low O2, is that correct? I guess if you're pushing argon or nitrogen into the grainbed as it's draining then you might be alright, but aside from that.

[Bryan R]

[Brew4Fun]