Water Amounts for 2.5 Gallon Batch

I am doing a partial recipe with 4.8 pounds of lme and 3 lbs of grains with a mash of 45 min and a boil of 1 hour. It's an imperial IPA with a OG of 1.090 and tonnes of hops. I have a 12.3 liter stock pot. I have been searching and searching and i just cant find the amounts for the mash/steep, sparge and possibly any added water after the boil. so if you could help me out that'd be great!

I had planned on putting the grains in the water cold brining it up to 156 and holding it there for 45 min then sparging and then boil for 1 hour.

thanks!

Andrew

Go here and download the free trial. http://www.beersmith.com/ It's really easy to use and will tell all the amounts you need to make what ever beer you want.
Zac

i have beertools pro, but everything is variable and i dont know what my variable are which is the problem. And have a Mac so beersmith didnt work

It will be the same with BeerSmith. Infact, beersmith calculates boil off as a percentage, which dosen't make much sense to me.

If I were you, I'd probably start with 3+ gallons. If you're doing this on a stove top, is it possible to have another pot with boiling water readily available that you can add to your boil? Have some extra DME on hand to adjust your OG as needed. And of course keep good notes, so you don't have to do this the next time.

Hope this helps

Jay

Edited to add - I didn't see you were using grain when I first read this. That grain will soak up water. I've never done a partial mash, so you'll need more than 3+ I'd imagine.

As a general rule, you want to mash with about 1.25 to 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain. You don't want to add your grain, and then bring the water up to temperature since you want to convert the starches to fermentable sugars.

If you're using 5 pounds of grain, for example, take 7.5 quarts of water and heat it to 164ish. Turn off the heat and add your grain bag. Stir very well, making sure the grain is "loose" in the bag and the grain is thoroughly wetted. Check the temperature, and keep it in the 153 degree area. Wait 45-60 minutes, then lift out the grain bag. Put it in another pot, or in a colander over the current pot and pour 170 degree water over it to "rinse" it. You can use up to your boil volume, which will probably be around 3.5 gallons total.

If you post your recipe, I can write out complete instructions.

Edit- I just saw that you had a 12L pot. That's very small. You obviously won't be able to boil 3.5 gallons! I guess you could sparge the grains to get you to 2 gallons total. That's a very small boil, but I don't think you could go much bigger with such a small pot.

Bring the wort up to a boil, and then start hopping. You can add your extract at the end, to make more room in the pot, and to avoid carmelizing it. But you'll want to post the recipe or use some brewing software to ensure your hopping is correct.

Another little thing- I don't think you can hit 1.090 with less than 5 pounds of LME and 3 pounds of grains. Maybe, if you get good conversion of the grains in the partial mash.

Colman Garcia IPA
14-C Imperial IPA

Size: 2.5 gal
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Calories: 305.19 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.091 (1.070 - 1.090)
Terminal Gravity: 1.023 (1.010 - 1.020)
Color: 13.3 (8.0 - 15.0)
Alcohol: 9.03% (7.5% - 10.0%)
Bitterness: 106.0 (60.0 - 120.0)

Ingredients:
4.85 lb Liquid Light Extract
.5 lb Crystal Malt 10°L
.8 lb 2-Row Brewers Malt
.375 lb Carapils®/Carafoam®
.375 lb Melanoidin Malt
.25 lb Victory® Malt
.5 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
.5 oz Chinook (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 40 min
.5 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
.25 oz Cascade (5.5%) - added during boil, boiled 5.0 min

this is what beertools gave me. i am also looking at making a small mash tun with 2 smaller food grade buckets one with holes in the bottom as shown the papazian book. but for now i am just using a grain bag. will this make a difference?

thanks for the help!