Grist to water ratios and why they are important.

[rjb222]

According to John Palmer a scientist by trade an award winning beer brewer by choice. There is a formula for success when sparging. In this article from BYO magazine he describes laughtering efficiency and explains why to use a proper spargeing system. From what I read and think i understand the no sparge bag system is highly inefficient use of grain grist as there is much left behind in the grains that could be rinsed out. He is a proponent of fly spargeing claiming the speed of the wash determines the % of recovery and the actual flow of the grain bed. With proper flows a grain bed will produce up to 90% efficiency were as a single sparge will only produce a 75% efficiency. In more relative terms proper sparging technique will give the chosen brew the character of the grain,The body associated with the style of brew and the proper srm colour to the brew. Where as with single infusion mash the quality of the brew suffers or you need more grain to produce the desired quality of brew.So here is his article from February 2008.

http://byo.com/component/resource/article/1016-lautering-efficency-advanced-brewing

Happy reading

[koomber]

If you are planning an extract or allgrain brew I highly recomend his book How to Brew. It is (mostly) available for free online and is more or less required reading.

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Brewing has come a very long way since David Line did his pioneering work back in the day.

[Cellar_Rat]

If you are planning an extract or allgrain brew I highly recomend his book How to Brew. It is (mostly) available for free online and is more or less required reading.

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Brewing has come a very long way since David Line did his pioneering work back in the day.

Have you seen this anywhere as a PDF please?

[rjb222]

here is a link page that will give you lots to read and digest. I do not think that you will find John Palmer in any PDF file. I have down loaded his book and sections of it several times and printed copy's of it. John Palmer is the most informitve and the easyest read I have found for beer brewing.http://brewery.org/brewery/Library.html

[Delmonteman]

Whilst not free like the first edition of How to Brew, Graham Wheelers - Brew Your Own British Real Ale (published by the Campaign for Real Ale) is an excellent book for beginners. It covers the essentials of what you need to do for extract/ full mash whilst introducing why you need to do it without going in to too much detail. Palmer can tend to go a bit overboard on the detail especially for a beginner... The american terminology and measurements can also add to an element of confusion for someone starting off on beer brewing...

Wheeler also includes 100 recipes for well known british ales. Graham Wheeler is considered an authority on home brewed beer here in the UK.

Mash efficiency is something that a beginner (in my view) shouldn't be overly concerned about as getting your head round the basic process of full mash can be enough of a task in itself... Moreover, a lower mash efficiency can easily be accommodated by a marginal increase in the grain bill. A 10-15% increase in grain bill for a full mash 5 gallon batch would come with a cost of course, on average that might be about 80p. Not much to worry about when you think of the savings you make home brewing.

[Delmonteman]

Come to think of it, Graham doesn't mention no sparge... He recommends a grist to liquor ratio of 2.5l of water per kg of grist and this rule of thumb has served me well in all the beers I have made.

No sparge can be inefficient (but I know people who regularly hit 80%) and the lack of body attributed to the no sparge method can be accomodated in changes to mash temperature and increasing the amounts of grains which contribute non-fermentable sugars such as crystal malt.

Batch sparging is something completely different, the 2.5l water to 1kg of grain ratio is maintained but sparging is done in batched stages so the grains are rinsed fully a further 2 to 3 times by fresh hot water. Because of this, many people report batch sparging efficiencies in excess of those they achieved fly sparging.

[lockwood1956]

Brewing has come a very long way since David Line did his pioneering work back in the day.

I'm not sure thats completely the case......


just more people now know what he knew back then


no sparge, fly sparge or whatever method...its just variations on a theme, not new thinking.

[lockwood1956]

(I think!)

[koomber]

There seems to be a much better understanding of the hows and whys of brewing.

I really geeked out for the Palmer style with all it's techincal stuff, I just found the Big Book of rewing to be a bit light on equations and stuff.

I've got 2 David Line books and I think it would have been incredible if he hadn't died young. I'd love to have seen what he made of the American homebrew scene and where the UK scene would have gone.

I highly recommend that you pick up his books as they are very entertaining and infomative. Be warned though, apparently his recipies are a wee bit out based on modern techniques (too much fermentables, etc.)

Incedentally I used the How to Brew Fluid dnamics chapter to annoy one of my work mates by showing it to the boss and getting him to reactivate the guys project that got stopped owing to a lack of understanding of fluid dynamics

[rjb222]

I'm not sure thats completely the case......


just more people now know what he knew back then


no sparge, fly sparge or whatever method...its just variations on a theme, not new thinking.

Absolutely Bob. There is nothing new here it has all been tried before.The point being use what you are comfortable doing and have success with. But keep yourself informed and be aware of the shortcomings of your chosen method.

[Cellar_Rat]

.... the Big Book of Brewing

Just finished it. Thanks for the tip about the recipes.

[Cellar_Rat]

................ Graham Wheelers - Brew Your Own British Real Ale (published by the Campaign for Real Ale) is an excellent book for beginners. ..........

I'll let you know on the detail level - I too like my details - not just 'do this'. I would like some upto date recipes to experiment with and UK measures whoop whoop.

I have to admit I prefer reading stuff on paper - I use computers all day - reading to pleasure is best on paper IMO!