According the Brewing Science and Practice extract rates with pro mash tuns should be 96-97%. With lauter tuns it’s 98-99%, and mash filters at 102%. The polyphenols do seem to be extracted in a greater proportion than the gravity. Mash tun’s at 165 ppm, lauter tuns at 180 ppm, and mash filters at 195 ppm. The polyphenols can be reduced by fining and/or filtering later. High adjunct mashes probably have much less.
what do you get to mess with on a boil kettle?
[quote=“grainbelt”]what do you get to mess with on a boil kettle?[/quote]Adding a hard-plumbed return for whirlpooling (bought a pump, too).
[quote=“Viktste”]I wonder if I can make better beer by lowering efficiency. That was the the guy in hte BYO article said no sparge brewing did for him…
I guess will try add batch sparge water as normal but only partially drain the last batch sparge on my next brew…[/quote]
If you want to test this I wouldn’t recommend the technique of leaving water behind, because then you are still getting the same efficiency, as far as the grain is concerned, you are just throwing some of it down the drain.
No-sparge gives me 70-75% efficiency on a typical beer, if you want to intentionally shoot for ~70%. I think the beer is slightly different than the same beer sparged at 85% efficiency, but I think variables like malt selection, recipe formulation, yeast selection and water chemistry have a bigger effect. My No-sparged beers have a slightly mellower character, possibly due to slightly less tannin extraction, which can help the malt flavors to come through.
If you don’t want to change your procedures, you might also just adjust the gap on your mill a little bit wider, to create a smaller percentage of flour in your grist, and see where your efficiency lands.
