Sparging, how does it effect the flavor of the final product?

[Dmntd]

From what I've been reading, it seems that sparging is meant to get as much of the sugar from the grain as possible. Having played with different forms of brewing coffee and tea, one of the things I've tried was to run hot water or coffee through spent grounds, what you get is more bitter not more flavor.

This makes me wonder if rinsing every last bit of sugar one can get out of the grist really makes for the best tasting product or if it simply saves money on the grail bill. The 33% total weight you'd add to a 9 lb. grain bill is 3 lb. which is at most $6.00.

Has anyone tried this?

Does it make a difference in the flavor?

Anthony

 

[Oskaar]

Never had a problem when I was sparging the grain with bitterness from over sparging. I suppose it can happen, but I've had great success with just sparging for the appropriate amount of time and then pumping over to the boiling vessel.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

 

[Dmntd]

I'm not really worried about bitternes from sparging, so much as I'm wondering if it really does anything for the wort other then reducing the amout of grain needed.

Anthony

 

[byathread]

Dmtd,

I've only brewed a couple of all-grain batches as I'm really not setup with the ideal equipment for it. Its my understanding that brewers are trying to strike a balance between effeciency and flavor. I heard it said that if you continue to sparge past 1.009 or 1.007, then it becomes counter-effective and you start extracting qualities of the grain that produce more bad than good.

Does it make a difference in the flavor?

There's only 1 way to find out..... EXPERIMENT! And be sure to let us know!

kirk

 

[Oskaar]

If you buy more grain than you really need you'd be underutilizing the ambient sugars available, or bringing your gravity up further than you really need for the recipe. I guess I'm not sure of what it is that you're asking. The grain recipes I've made are pretty well laid out and precise so that you extract the correct amount of sugars and reach a certain gravity for proper yeast attenuation, expression of hops and rounded malty flavor.

I guess you could overbuy your grain and underutilize it if you're afraid of imparting barnyardy flavors, but I really don't see the need.

Cheers,

Oskaar

 

[Dmntd]

Oskaar, you've answered part of the question; Sparging extracts all of the available sugar from the grain".

From what I've read, the practice of sparging came from commercial breweries as a means to reduce the amount of grain needed to reach a target gravity, cutting cost / increasing profit.

The other part of the question is; does sparging effect the flavor of the finished product one way or the other?

Anthony

 

[JoeM]

Oversparging, or sparging at too high a temp, can leech bitter tannins from the grain husks. However, sparging the proper amount at the proper temperature will not result in these off flavors.

 

[Dmntd]

Thanks Joe,

Thats good to know.

Have you ever made a Beer / Braggot with grain you didn't sparge?

 

[briankettering]

When I brew beer I batch sparge. That means I will have first and second runnings that are combined to create the pre-boil wort.

I have also made beer from the first and second runnings separately.

Your first runnings will be a much higher Specific Gravity than your second runnings.

If you make a braggot with the first runnings, you will not have to add too much honey.

Brian K

 

[JoeM]

I always sparge to some extent, there is no reason not to if it isnt overdone.

 

[Oskaar]

I'm with Joe, if your grain bill is accurate and your mashing is on the spot, you won't have to worry about oversparging to get all the sugars you need. Also, I don't think most big batch commercial brewers are too worried about their grain bill as compared to their other large considerable costs (advertising, shipping, etc.)

Bottom line is that when mashing and sparging are done correctly the grain bill shouldn't really be a huge consideration past the initial investment.

Cheers,

Oskaar