Turbid mash and batch sparge

I'm interested in running a turbid mash for a lambic. So far, all my brewing has been with a rectangular cooler / batch sparge setup running two equal-volume runoffs to maximize efficiency. I'm wondering how I can make this fit in with a turbid mash schedule.

A description of a turbid mash schedule from Wild Brews:

Dough in with 1 gal at 113F for 15 min.
Add boiling water to reach 126F for 15 min.
Remove 1/3 of liquid; Heat to 190F in small kettle and hold.
Add boiling water to raise mash to 149F for 45 min.
Remove 1/2 of liquid (about 1 gallon). Add to small kettle at 190F.
Add 1.5 gal of boiling water to raise mash to 162F for 30 min.
Remove most of the mash liquid (about 2 gal) to boil kettle and heat.
Add small kettle back to MLT to raise grain to 172F for 20 min.
Vorlauf and sparge with 190F water until gravity hits 1008.

It's not clear to me how I would integrate this into a batch sparge. Normally I use a spreadsheet to tell me how much water to add for the mashing step - it will produce 1/2 the mash liquid. Then I add an equivalent amount of liquid (to the runoff) and do a 2nd runoff. I just can't figure out how to make that work for this turbid mash schedule.

Any suggestions?

Well if you are only adding 2.5 gallons of liquid and you know what your pre-boil volume is, the difference of those two numbers plus grain absorption is your sparge volume.

Thanks for the input. Based on what you said and rethinking things, I think I'm making this too hard. Is it as simple as going about the turbid mash as described, Vorlauf, then drawing off the liquid, then adding an equal volume of sparge water, then drawing that off? I think it's probably that simple, right?

i did it...once! I was succesful but hitting desired temps were always off. If I were to do this again i would use a keggle

Dennisj said:

Thanks for the input. Based on what you said and rethinking things, I think I'm making this too hard. Is it as simple as going about the turbid mash as described, Vorlauf, then drawing off the liquid, then adding an equal volume of sparge water, then drawing that off? I think it's probably that simple, right?

Click to expand...

Yes, except you will need more sparge water than mash water. If you are brewing five gallons with a 90 minute boil, you need a pre-boil volume of 6.5 gallons. You are putting in 2.5 gallons in the mash and you will lose some to grain absorption so you will probably get between 2-2.25 gallons from your mash. So your sparge volume needs to be around 4.5 gallons (2 from the mash plus 4.5 from the sparge gets your pre-boil volume of 6.5 gallons).