No sparge mash for low abv.

[Sadfield]

I'm planning to do a brew this weekend, inspired by beers like Kernel Table Beer, Founders All Day Ipa, Quantum Small Beer. I'm shooting for around 3%, maybe 30 IBUs (1.0 BU:GU), using something like the following grist.

45% Maris Otter
45% Belgian Pilsner
5% Crystal
5% Pale Wheat Malt

My aim for the mash is to get as much flavour, sweetness and body as I can, to counteract the bitterness, sacrificing efficiency, as at 3%, slightly increasing the grain bill isn't too much of an issue. I've read that not sparging, but mashing with all my liquor at once should help this. I was thinking of mashing at 68C for an hour, possibly longer, in a igloo cooler mash tun.

Has anyone tried this? What efficency losses should be accounted for when formulating a recipe? How easy is it to settle and filter through the grain bed at such a thin mash thickness?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[killer]

I've been itching to do this for quite some time....

http://pdtnc.wordpress.com/2013/09/27/a ... t-73-e366/

[Sadfield]

Cheers for the link. I think I will raise my mash temperature.

[dave.wilton]

I brew a table beer style beer a lot and I strike for 69/70 for one hour. I carapils to add body. What crystal is that? I'd be vary wary of 5% crystal if it's say 120ebc. That is a lot of crystal and more into bitter territory. Unless it's a light crystal. Dry hop is obviously the key to this beer

[Sadfield]

Brewed this yesterday. The aim was to kill two birds with one stone, and experiment with no sparge for greater body in low abv, and also to use some odds and sods of hops that were given to me, hence the strange amounts of some additions. The bulk of these hops were Nonsuch (from the national hop collection) which I have no knowledge of the flavour profile of. It'll be beer, just don't know what kind. To be honest I wanted to avoid relying too much on heavily dry hopping, as I have had a couple of poor commercial examples of the style that were very one dimensional hop water with no body, just all aroma. The aim was to pack as much flavour in as possible before fermentation. Also the reasons for going with S04 over the cleaner US05. Still have dry hopping in the arsenal.

Fermentables:
Pilsner Malt – 45%
Maris Otter - 45%
Light Crystal Malt 100 EBC - 5%
Pale Wheat Malt – 5%

Hops:
Nonsuch – 6.42 % @ First Wort – 10g
Goldings – 5.36 % @ 60 mins - 10
Cascade – 7.6% @ 20 mins – 6g
Nonsuch – 6.42% @ 10 mins – 10g
Nonsuch - 6.42% @ 5 mins - 13g
Nonsuch - 6.42% @ 0 mins - 13g
Nelson Sauvin 12.4% @ 0 mins - 2.6g


Final Volume: 12 L
Original Gravity: 1.037
Final Gravity: 1.010
Alcohol Content: 3.5% ABV
Bitterness: 27.4
BU/GU: 0.87
Colour: 9.8 EBC
Mash: 60 minutes @ 69C
Boil: 60 minutes
Yeast: Safale S04

The interesting thing for me is that I was expecting significant drop in efficiency due to not rinsing the sugar from the grain. However this didn't appear the case, I found that as my igloo drinks cooler mash tun is a tall cylindrical column the grain settled to the bottom, and the first runnings were of a higher gravity, than liquor at the top of the tun. In effect, self sparging when left to drain.