Xpertskir

Recipes 

I am preparing to do my first AG recipe and have a few simple questions. Like many things with brewing there are many ways to skin this cat.

1: Do you mash out?

2: Do you do one or two sparges? (If so, do you just evenly split the sparge volume)

3: Can you recommend a good calculator for water temperatures and volumes?

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Kegged and serving - American Wheat, Daves Porter, Outkast Kolsch, Nectar of Nuggets
Bottled: French Canadian Breakfast Stout, Edworts Apfelwein, Westminster Wit, Put that in your stout and smoke it
Fermenting: Apfelwein, Flanders Red, Skeeter Pee, Heady Topper attempt #1, Kumquat Berliner Weiss, Sabraton Accident Stout, Nelson RyePA
Upcoming: Session IPA, Yeti eqsue stout, Dark English Mild, ESB, CDA, Row 2 Hill 56, Zombiedust, Hoppy Amber, Geuze, 100% Brett Golden Ale

Pilgarlic

Recipes 

rented_mule73

Recipes 

I had been struggling for consistency in my first three batches and decided to sit down and read until I felt comfortable and checked into many different opinions and techniques....... this is what I do now and it works very well......

Mash water volume mash at recommended temps ..... 149-156 for 80 minutes
Add 1 gallon of 190 degree water (which I subtract from my sparge volume) stir well and let sit for 10 min ....... drain all
Then take remaining sparge volume and cut in half with two sparges .....

this site is pretty basic and a good start..
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

Yooper

Recipes 

When I batch sparge, I do it in two additions. The first one is kinda a mash out, in that it's usually about 190-200 degrees and brings the grainbed up to 168 (although I've drained the MLT prior to the addition). The second addition is at 168 degrees.

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mccabedoug

Recipes 

1. No

2. One

3. http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml/

DonMagee

Recipes 

I've done both double and single batch sparges. I've had no noticeable change in efficiency from either. So now I add a small amount of water before I drain the tun (typically at 170), then I add the remaining sparge water and finish.

cyclogenesis

Recipes 

Mash
Drain first runnings
add 75C water
Stir top of bed being careful not do disturb close to manifold
wait ~3 mins
drain
add 75C water
Stir top of bed being careful not do disturb close to manifold
wait ~3 mins
drain


I could do it in one hit, but why rush?

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In planning: TEA for two, First Flakes American Brown.

TyTanium

Recipes 

Honestly, I wouldn't waste your time with a calculator for this. There are times in brewing to be precise; sparging isn't one of them.

Temp doesn't matter much, just use hot water.

For volume, just put in whatever you need to hit your pre-boil volume. Usually ~4 gallons.
Sparge Volume = Pre-boil Volume - Mash Runnoff If double-batch sparging, split water evenly

Xpertskir

Recipes 

well that's mind-blowingly simple. I will obviously be tweaking things as I progress as an AG brewer, this thread is more about a good "safe" place to start where I can steal someone else's basic process and get some hopefully repeatable results.

__________________
Kegged and serving - American Wheat, Daves Porter, Outkast Kolsch, Nectar of Nuggets
Bottled: French Canadian Breakfast Stout, Edworts Apfelwein, Westminster Wit, Put that in your stout and smoke it
Fermenting: Apfelwein, Flanders Red, Skeeter Pee, Heady Topper attempt #1, Kumquat Berliner Weiss, Sabraton Accident Stout, Nelson RyePA
Upcoming: Session IPA, Yeti eqsue stout, Dark English Mild, ESB, CDA, Row 2 Hill 56, Zombiedust, Hoppy Amber, Geuze, 100% Brett Golden Ale

diS

Recipes 

I used to do two batch sparges, but recently I do only one (I didn't noticed significant efficiency loss, except it lasts longer).
As for mashout, I don't see huge benefit of stopping enzyme activity with batch sparge since it only takes 5-10 mins to complete- stir, wait few minutes, vorlauf and drain. I may do it if I got a lot of wheat in my grain bill, just to make lauter easier and avoid stuck sparge.

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