Quick help please - brewing now

CornyKegs 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
D

DD2000GT

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2008
Messages
426
Reaction score
4
Location
Garland, TX
Use beersmith software and recently upgraded to the 2.0 version. Mashing 10 lbs of grain with 13 qts of mash water. Doing a 5 gallon batch and looking for sparge water volume. Beersmith shows 5 gallons or so of sparge water after the 3 gallons of mash with grain absorbtion using a total of 8.14 gallons, not sounding right, I opened the old 1.0 version that I have used for over a year prior and it showed 3.5 gallons of sparge water needed on the same calculation. That is a 1 1/2 gallon difference - WTF? Not wanting to mess up my efficiency calculations, so looking for some quick experts that don't "rely" on software as I do to tell me what should be the total water needed (mash and sparge) for a 5 gallon all grain batch using 10 lbs of grain.

Much thanks!
 
All depends on your brewing system and recipe.

Assuming a "typical" 1.5 qt/lb mash, you need to dough in with 3.75 gal. The grain will absorb about .12 gal/lb so you should see around 2.55 gallons from 1st runnings. If your boil-off is 1 gal/hr and you're doing an hour boil, you'll want 6 gallons pre-boil. That means you need to sparge 3.45 gallons.
 
DD2000GT said:
Use beersmith software and recently upgraded to the 2.0 version. Mashing 10 lbs of grain with 13 qts of mash water. Doing a 5 gallon batch and looking for sparge water volume. Beersmith shows 5 gallons or so of sparge water after the 3 gallons of mash with grain absorbtion using a total of 8.14 gallons, not sounding right, I opened the old 1.0 version that I have used for over a year prior and it showed 3.5 gallons of sparge water needed on the same calculation. That is a 1 1/2 gallon difference - WTF? Not wanting to mess up my efficiency calculations, so looking for some quick experts that don't "rely" on software as I do to tell me what should be the total water needed (mash and sparge) for a 5 gallon all grain batch using 10 lbs of grain.

Much thanks!
Click to expand...

5 sounds right to me...3.5 + 3 doesn't even get you to your preboil vol.
 
The number from Beersimith 2.0 sound right. In your mash the grains absorb some water, then you have some dead space and so forth. For reference yesterday I had a 13 pound grain bill for a 5.5 gallon batch yesterday. Mashed with 4.06 gallons, and sparged with 4.58 gallons, total boil volume of 6.74 gallons. It was a 90 minute boil so the boil volume needed to be a little higher. So overall the numbers from 2.0 seem close to this which makes sense
 
rule of thumb is.. for every 10 pounds of grain, your water absorbtion will be 1 gallon.. you need to dial that in, but that will put you very close. then equipment loss and evaporation rate

so if you put in 4 gals. of water into 10 pounds of grain you should get close to 3 gals wort back depending on loss due to mashtun(equipment)
 
Wow - thanks for the quick replys - mash isn't even halfway done! I am using a 10 gallon round igloo cooler with a stainless screen loop at the bottom for my mash tun. I put in 13 qts of water for my mash - so according to your replys I should get about 2.25 gallons from my mash. I plan on loosing about a gallon on boil, so for a 5 gallon fermentor I need 4 gallons of sparge - right?
 
Yup. Depending on absorption, you should see 2 - 2.25 from the 1st runnings. 4 should be about right for a 6 gallon pre-boil.
 
Thanks again for bailing me out. I really should learn how to calculate this manually and not rely so blindly on a software.

Just odd how the same program can differ so wildly between releases. Wonder now if my efficiency calculations have ever been correct.
 
DD2000GT said:
Thanks again for bailing me out. I really should learn how to calculate this manually and not rely so blindly on a software.

Just odd how the same program can differ so wildly between releases. Wonder now if my efficiency calculations have ever been correct.
Click to expand...

I always run the numbers from software through my "common sense filter," to make sure they sound right.
 
DD2000GT said:
Wow - thanks for the quick replys - mash isn't even halfway done! I am using a 10 gallon round igloo cooler with a stainless screen loop at the bottom for my mash tun. I put in 13 qts of water for my mash - so according to your replys I should get about 2.25 gallons from my mash. I plan on loosing about a gallon on boil, so for a 5 gallon fermentor I need 4 gallons of sparge - right?
Click to expand...

Oh, and don't forget about water loss from hops and shrinkage.

Even if you only lose 1 gal in a hour boil, 6 gal preboil for 5 gal seems tight to me..but thats based off my system and experience.
 
Ok - decided to go long on the sparge - I used 3.25 gallons for the mash and 5 gallons for the sparge. Ended up with right at 6.5 gallons pre-boil. Ended up with a pre-boil gravity of 1.042. Looks like based on this I got 76.30% efficiency from my mash. Something tells me I am glad I added the extra gallon of sparge even if I end up 1/2 gallon over (don't have to drain the brew pot all the way down to the hop/protien dregs).

Amazing how for the past year since I went all grain and started using the first version of beersmith it appears I have been off on my water needed by about a gallon... Always did seem like I was leaving a lot of headspace in my fermentor.

I will post again with how it ends up into my 5 gallon glass carboy.
 
DD2000GT said:
Ok - decided to go long on the sparge - I used 3.25 gallons for the mash and 5 gallons for the sparge. Ended up with right at 6.5 gallons pre-boil. Ended up with a pre-boil gravity of 1.042. Looks like based on this I got 76.30% efficiency from my mash. Something tells me I am glad I added the extra gallon of sparge even if I end up 1/2 gallon over (don't have to drain the brew pot all the way down to the hop/protien dregs).

Amazing how for the past year since I went all grain and started using the first version of beersmith it appears I have been off on my water needed by about a gallon... Always did seem like I was leaving a lot of headspace in my fermentor.

I will post again with how it ends up into my 5 gallon glass carboy.
Click to expand...

:)
 
Alright - final results. I ended up with right as 5 gallons, pretty much right up to the neck of the carboy - I am sure I will be cleaning out my blowoff tube on this batch :D . Left about a quart or so of liquid in the brew pot with the dregs. Overall - about right where I wanted to be. Looks like I was leaving about a gallon or so on the table with my previous volumes using the old beersmith instructions...

OG ended up at 1.052 (72% overall efficiency) - so the extra sparge did not dilute it much.

Really appreciate the help on this one - I guess you are always learning with this hobby.
 
Horseshoot said:
What size is your carboy? in mine, 5 gallons doesn't come up to the neck. Just wondering. Mike
Click to expand...

To be honest I have never done an acuracy check on my carboy. It is a very old glass version I got about 20 years ago from a garage sale when I first got into home brewing. Always just assumed it was 5 gallons. After I keg this batch I think I will measure out 5 gallons and see where it comes up to.
 

Similar threads

F
another water calculation question
Replies
3
Views
400
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Elmo Peach
Using DME in partial mash
Replies
6
Views
509
BrewnWKopperKat
BrewnWKopperKat
A
Alkalinity/pH and salts again!
Replies
5
Views
404
doug293cz
doug293cz
G
Beersmith 2 Water profil salts
Replies
4
Views
458
MIWI
M
A
RO Water - starting with lower pH
Replies
30
Views
1K
jerrylotto
jerrylotto
InkBird 300

Latest posts

Back
Top