Sparging a grain mash question..

Production methods from starch to sugars.

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decoy
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Sparging a grain mash question..

Post by decoy »

when you guys do a grain mash you need 5 galons of water but you do your mash with 2 galons then sparge it with the remaining 3 galons.

if you had a big enough drum can you just just do the mash with the whole 5 galons of water instead of sparging or is there a reson for it..?

cheers..
speedfreaksteve
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Post by speedfreaksteve »

I think most people here just ferment on the grain. I know I've had good success doing that, and you don't have to sparge.
Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

I sparged an all malt wash before. What I did was filter the grain out in a nylon sack and squeeze as much liquid as I could out of it and then gave it a rinse with a couple liters of fresh water.
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
decoy
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Post by decoy »

thanx steve and remus..

ok so i can mash the whole lot at once
then if i want i take the grain or leave it in there
then distill..

i have seen this mentioned in other posts about distilling with grain
i recall somthing about tanins etc... if you distill with grain..

1 more question... do i need to cool the mash or can i just leave it over night to cool.. before pitching yeast ?

i have seen 1 or 2 posts were its left over night but mostly i see that people cool there mash... and when cool enough pitch there yeast ..
Uncle Remus
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Post by Uncle Remus »

Everything make a difference in taste ( and IMHO not just minor differences)
Fermenting on the grain gives you one flavour, sparging the grain and fermenting the wort another, distilling on the grain yet another...way more robust and flavourfull.

My 2 best whiskies I've made to date have been sparged and fermented on the wort and fermented and distilled on the grain.

.......but grasshopper, I have still much to learn....
Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat all day and drink beer.
junkyard dawg
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Post by junkyard dawg »

oh there's so much to learn... :shock:

I don't mess with sparging, but if I had one of those slick RIMS setups like the beer brewers use...(recirculating infusion mashing system... google and drool...)

I like fermenting on the grain, for many reasons. Mainly that I don't have to fool around with sparging.
muckanic
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Post by muckanic »

The reason for mashing with a relatively small amount of water is to bring the enzymes into contact with the starch. In fact, this is one way of altering the balance of how many unfermentable sugars are produced. If you want to ferment on the grain, better to dilute after the mashing, not before.
decoy
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Post by decoy »

JD im just trying to find out if i was to mash the grain bill with the entire qty of water the starch that has been converted to sugars will be disolved in the water anyway and then strain or filter the grain out with a nylon stocking or other means as Unlce Remus stated..

theoreticly that should produce the same result as sparging, would i be correct in making this assumption or is there somthing im missing that can be pointed out to me ?

sorry Muckanic missed your post while typing this one... good point.

cheers.
pintoshine
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Post by pintoshine »

I use a step infusion method to mash so here goes....

For each pound of grain I add 1 quart of water at 185F into the mashing insulated Gott water cooler with a false bottom. (see other post's of mine for the source of the false bottom) This gets the grain to 154 to 160 and keeps it there for a long time. Of course this is for 100% malted grain. It converts quite well.

I open the valve and drain all the liquid I can. I then add the additional water required to sparge.

The reason is that most of the sugar went out with the first draining. The second water is mostly rinse water. I generally overdo the rince cycle a bit because I am going to reduce the wort to a specific SG by boiling anyway. Being there is no grain I never have to worry about burning anything while boiling or distilling.

With corn, I tend to stop up the sparger. I have used numerous things to help with the filterbed but little works except for waiting.
I have had a moderate success using new clean, polyester fiberfill in the base over the false bottom. This requires the mash tun and lauter tun be different coolers though. And it require the lauter tun to be partially filled with water to keep the fiber from compressing.

Mashing can be as simple or complicated as you want. It all depends on your goal. If I am brewing for the state fair, where clarity is most important, I will be mashing and sparging in seperate tuns.
jim81147
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Post by jim81147 »

decoy wrote:JD im just trying to find out if i was to mash the grain bill with the entire qty of water the starch that has been converted to sugars will be disolved in the water anyway and then strain or filter the grain out with a nylon stocking or other means as Unlce Remus stated..

theoreticly that should produce the same result as sparging, would i be correct in making this assumption or is there somthing im missing that can be pointed out to me ?

sorry Muckanic missed your post while typing this one... good point.

cheers.
No that wont produce the same results . Sparging is a hard way of saying rinse.As you rinse the grains you gather sugars that would have otherwise stayed in the grain bed. You also have to figure into your 5 gallon equation a loss factor for absorbtion . On a typical grain bill I lose about a gallon and a quarter (thats 12-15 pounds of grain) of water, but this will vary with the type of grain.
decoy
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Post by decoy »

Thanx for your help guys that will keep the gears grinding for a bit.

Ill get the stuff together that i need thru the week and give a small batch a go and see how it turns out...

cheers and thanx again..
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