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After reading an article in Brew Your Own magazine (V.17 No. 7) about no-sparge brewing I figured that it would be worth a try. Not sparging has several advantages that I feel are valuable over mash efficiency and saving a couple of dollars. Because of the constraints of living in an apartment (BIAB method) and only having 2 5 gal pots and a couple smaller ones, I realized that it would be incredibly hard to get an appropriate amount of wort for a 5 gal batch unless it was a very low gravity beer (because of the extra water added), or I scaled down my batch sizes by a gallon or two.
To get around this problem, I thought that I could do 2 mashes in each of the pots. At first this sounded like a real nuisance, but I'm starting to think about the advantages. With 2 separate mashes, I think I could really control the malt profile of my beer. I have already thought of some experiments:
1) Doing one mash at a low temperature (145-150 degrees), and doing the other at > 150 degrees. The two mashes also don't even need to be the same size, so I could have most or the grains mashed at one temp, and just a little bit at another temp.
2) Having one mash done with a high water to grain ratio (2.5 qt/lb), and the other with a lower one (1.25 qt/lb)
3) Having one mash going normally for the full hour or longer, and having the other stopped early, perhaps even boiled for an easy decoction which doesn't require any 'pulling' from the mash, so virtually no calculations would need to be made. All you have to do is pull the grain bag out of the pot and then bring the wort to a boil.
Has anyone ever tried anything like this or have advice?
To get around this problem, I thought that I could do 2 mashes in each of the pots. At first this sounded like a real nuisance, but I'm starting to think about the advantages. With 2 separate mashes, I think I could really control the malt profile of my beer. I have already thought of some experiments:
1) Doing one mash at a low temperature (145-150 degrees), and doing the other at > 150 degrees. The two mashes also don't even need to be the same size, so I could have most or the grains mashed at one temp, and just a little bit at another temp.
2) Having one mash done with a high water to grain ratio (2.5 qt/lb), and the other with a lower one (1.25 qt/lb)
3) Having one mash going normally for the full hour or longer, and having the other stopped early, perhaps even boiled for an easy decoction which doesn't require any 'pulling' from the mash, so virtually no calculations would need to be made. All you have to do is pull the grain bag out of the pot and then bring the wort to a boil.
Has anyone ever tried anything like this or have advice?
