Bigsnake

Recipes 

Just got a Belgian Ale kit partial mash from Austin and was looking at the instructions. Plan on brewing this Saturday and have a couple questions.

Kit instructions are doing 2 1/2 gallons of water for the mash.
The a partial sparge w/ 1 qt of water per 1lb of grain coming to about 1 Gallon of water.

Now, my question is, I have an 8 gallon pot and like to boil the full 5 gallons with all extract. If I want to boil the entire wort with this kit, would I add more mash water or more sparge water to make the final amount 5 gallons? Or should I just top up the pot at the end of the sparge?

Kit has a 3.75 lbs grain mix with 10lbs of extract and 1 lb of candi sugar.

Also, by brew time I should have a cooler MLT w/ false bottom and can build a HLT in an afternoon. Is 3.75 lbs enough to use with a false bottom and do the mini-sparge in there?

quickerNu

Recipes 

I like to add the wort from my mini mash to already boiling water to make up the difference, and to act as a mash-out. Say you end up with 2 gallons wort, add it to 4 gallons boiling water if you boil off 1 gallon per hour, = 5 finished gallons.

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Grinder12000

Recipes 

Just for general info

3.75lb of grain will suck up about .825 gallons of water (if that is any help)

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quickerNu

Recipes 

Oh- here is the linky to PM perfection:
BYO - Countertop Partial Mashing

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carl spakler

Recipes 

I was under the impression you generally use ~1.25quarts/lb of grain for a mash. A 3.75 lb minimash should use just over a gallon of water, not the 2.5 as listed in the above comment. Is that a typo, or does this recipe for some reason user a very thin mash?

Grinder12000

Recipes 

AHS kits all have you use 2.5g water for a mini mash - then 1 qt water for each 2lbs of grain for "sparging".

It's a default recipe - just like it ALWAYS have you use 4.5oz of corn sugar for priming.

This is a mini mash remember, where you are basically steeping.

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Grinders Island Brewery - Pipeline (Batch #)

Secondary Kentucky Common(83)
Primary #1 Scottish Ale 70(84)
Primary #2 The Black Pearl Porter(85)

Bigsnake

Recipes 

So should I keep it at 2.5 gallons of water like the kit instructs?

Bobby_M

Recipes 

I wouldn't change the all grain "rules" just because it's called a mini mash. Stick to 1.25 or 1.5 quarts per pound. Then you can sparge with 1qt/lb.

3.75lbs of grain, 5 quarts of water is close enough. You'll get about 3 quarts of wort out, then sparge with a gallon

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Bigsnake

Recipes 

Think I'll do it this way then. So, after the sparge I'll be topping the pot up to the volume I want before the boil and before I add the extract and bittering hops.

What are the negatives for too large of a water volume during mashing? Too much sparging can pull tannins out, correct?

Parva

Recipes 

I don't think too large a mash volume would cause problems provided it was at the correct temperature and it was subtracted from the sparge volume. And yes, you're aiming to get as much out of the grains as possible but there's only so far you can go before you ruin it.

In my own experience I am doing AG's and I know I'm using more grain than I need to as I'm ending up with final runnings from the mash tun at 1.018 currently but I'd rather be inefficient and maybe cost me slightly more than be too efficient and cost me an entire brew.