Batch sparging for 11 gallons question

I am adjusting my 5.5 gallon recipe in Beersmith to a 11 gallon recipe.

It is calling for about 11 gallons for Mash In. For the batch sparge it is calling for 2 sparges, 3.6 gallons each. Is there a benefit to this, or should I just do 1 with 7.2 gallons?

Also, will I be pushing my luck with a 52 quart cooler with this size for a Stout beer?

check rackers.org calculators "Can I mash it?" to see if your cooler is big enough for your grain bill and water/grist ratio.

Yes, you can do a single batch sparge. Again, check to see if you can fit 7.2g plus your grain in that cooler.

There is little-to-no benefit of a multiple batch sparge. I've sparged every which way and stay at 80% efficiency every single time.

There isn't any benefit to splitting up the sparge water- unless it doesn't fit in the MLT.

There is a cool "can I mash it" calculator on the rackers.org website, and I'd use that to see how much grain/water you can put in that cooler. It's here:
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

LOL, I may be pushing it, it says it will take up 12.95 gallons of space. I probably need to knock this recipe down to a 10 gallon to knock the grain bill down a hair. Thanks. If I take the grain bill from 33lbs down to 30lbs, then it says under 12 gallons.

I need to look into getting a larger fermenter, so that I can ferment 7 - 8 gallons, instead of splitting it into 2 maybe. Keg 5 gallons, and bottle the rest.

According to Kiaser http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis there seems to be a 5 % difference (depending on the weight of the grist) between 1 and 2 sparges. After that the difference gets a lot smaller.

My initial recipe is using 33lb I may dial this back down to putting 6 gallons in a fermenter for now. My HLT is only 7.5 gallons anyhow right now, so doing 11 gallons of strike water is out, until I get another Keggle. If I can get my hands on a larger fermenter than a 7 gallon buckets I use now, then I'll up it slightly.

For my blonde ale, I'm pretty sure I can handle a 10 gallon recipe. That only uses a little over 17lbs of grain. My stout and IPA, I probably will have to stick with 6 gallons for now, until I get the larger HLT.

jflongo,
You can always mash at about 1.1:1 ratio and fit the full 33 lbs in under 12 gallon capacity MLT. I mash 15 lbs at 1:1 in 5 gallons. It fills it to the top but it works out fine.

Also, when batch sparging you can even use cold water if needed. There have been several posts where folks used cold water for sparging with minimal to no efficiency hit - just takes longer to get back to a boil. If I wanted to maximize my containers, I would mash thick, sparge with whatever hot water I could heat and use cold water for the remainder. Or heat a separate pot of water on the stove for the remainder that won't fit in the HLT.

That's a couple ideas anyway.

stpug said:

jflongo,
You can always mash at about 1.1:1 ratio and fit the full 33 lbs in under 12 gallon capacity MLT. I mash 15 lbs at 1:1 in 5 gallons. It fills it to the top but it works out fine.

Also, when batch sparging you can even use cold water if needed. There have been several posts where folks used cold water for sparging with minimal to no efficiency hit - just takes longer to get back to a boil. If I wanted to maximize my containers, I would mash thick, sparge with whatever hot water I could heat and use cold water for the remainder. Or heat a separate pot of water on the stove for the remainder that won't fit in the HLT.

That's a couple ideas anyway.

Click to expand...

True I didn't think of that, I have always been doing 1.25:1. I'll adjust my recipe to 1.2:1, 1.1:1, and 1:1 and see where that puts me.

Even at 1:1 that exceeds my HLT for my stout recipe. Time for me to start looking for a larger HLT Maybe I'll be patient though, and just keep doing 6 gallons for this one and my IPA. And do 10 gallons for my Blonde Ale for now. Maybe that will be a good Christmas present

Hmm, I just had an interesting idea for doing the 11 gallon batch. Fill my boil kettle(keggle) up, to about 12 gallons, mash in with around 10 gallons of strike water and do my 90 minute mash. While that is happening add more water, get to about 10 gallons, to my boil kettle, heat that up to sparge temp.

When the mash is done, vorlauf, and then drain into my 7.5 gallon kettle. Add all of the sparge water, let it rest for 15 minutes, meanwhile, dumping the water out of my keggle, dump the 1st runnings into my keggle, then vorlauf and drain the 2nd runnings into the keggle.

I know that is more of a pain than having a big enough HLT, but this method may get me by.

That would totally work. So simple it was elusive

I did this, this past weekend. It worked just fine, however, wants me to get a HLT even more now