This rise in mash pH tends to extract greater proportions of tannins, polyphenols and silicates into the wort that have a dulling effect on the taste.
If the grain bed is oversparged and the gravity drops below that point, it is likely that harsh tannins and polyphenols will be extracted from the grain husks.Īt the end of the continuous sparging process, the mash pH typically rises to around 6 as the sugars are extracted and the buffering effect of the malt and wort is replaced by water.
Sparging continues until the full boil volume is achieved or the gravity of the runnings gets down to 1.008. Typically, sparge water is added continuously as the wort is drained from the grain bed to rinse the remaining sugars from the grain. No-sparge brewing differs from conventional all-grain brewing by incorporating the full boil volume of water into the mash, instead of adding it afterwards during the lauter as a separate sparging (rinsing) step.
This method produces a richer, smoother-tasting wort with the same gravity as a standard recipe, but with a mashing and lautering process that makes the wort more robust and pH-stable. This produces a larger mash that can simply be drained to achieve your full boil volume.
The “no-sparge” technique uses 20-25 percent more grain than a standard recipe. Have you ever wanted to make an all-grain beer that practically brewed itself? A batch that didn’t require you to monitor everything - the mash pH, the sparge flow rate, the gravity of the runnings and more? Have you been searching for that perfect batch - a batch in which the malt flavors are clean, without any drying or dullness to the palate? There is a technique that can deliver these wishes, and it is simply this: “Don’t sparge.”