As Punch said "Thats the way to do it"I do 18l mash and the put the bag on a colander on top of the boiler and pour 4-6l through the bag.
Then use a small pan lid to squash the bag in to the colander to get the most out of it.
13l mash (depending upon grain bill) and 15l at 75° for the sparge. No real hassle to be honest and the results are much better. Higher volume and gravity roughly the same, win win.
In what way are the results much better? You get an extra couple of gravity points by sparging, but that is easily rectified by using slightly more grain to compensate. Fewer containers to clean and shortens the brew day significantly.
+1I sparge just to get the maximum out of my brew day. I only have a 30 litre burco boiler. So I normally have to sparge to get another 8-9 litres of wort to top up before the boil. Normally gets me on average 38 500ml bottles
Have you a link I am always willing to try.If size is the issue then a top up with cold water at the end of the boil makes up the difference and speeds up the cooling process.
Brülosophy did a great podcast on this a year or so ago. Well worth a listen.
Have you a link I am always willing to try.
I will get a listen. I don't see sparging as a problem. I would normally do it as the wort comes to the boil. I don't think it adds that much time as your sparging at higher tempsIf you have Spotify, or use any other apps for podcasts, you'll find the whole lot of their podcasts on there. If not, then I'd imagine they will be available on their website. All free. I think the no-sparge one was episode 2.
I'll brew 20L (bottled/kegged volume) in a 35L boiler.
No sparge 'cos I don't need the hassle and mess. Or want to spend another hour farting about with it. I'd disagree with those saying they get a drop of just a few points in gravity by not sparging: I don't think you notice any loss of gravity.
I'll brew beer up to about 1.050 using full-boil-volume-mashes, but may have to top up with 2-3L of plain water prior to boil.
If I want to brew above 1.050 (and keep the same volume) I will sparge. So I don't think there is a right or wrong answer; being flexible and adapting for circumstances seems key.
Unless you just love sparging that is?
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