Another New AG'er with to many questions

(I accidentally posted this in the extract section, so I am reposting it in here)

I know you guys get a lot of "it's my first attempt at AG how does this sound?" questions.

Well, I'm no diffrrent. I plan on doing AG since I have been reading on it for sometime. I have a 10 gal polarwar(from my extract boils) w/ spigot and plan on intalling a thermometer for my HLT. I have a 10 gal powerade cooler that I plan on installing a spigot and stainless screen from the outside of water hose. I have just aquired a keg that I plan on cutting the top off of, also installing a spigot and something for hops for the boil kettle.

I want to do step mashing eventually but will probably just do single to start with and do a batch sparge. Am I correct that if I do a single step mash I need to get the temperature of the mash around 152ish and let set for ~60 minutes. Then if I am going to do a batch sparge I just add the rest of my water to get final volume, pour in and stir let sit ~10 minutes, clear runoff and drain.

My hangups are how can I figure what temperature the water additions to the mash need to be based on my grain bill, is that what the brewing software can tell me? Can ProMash help me figure all this out as far as volumes and whatnot? Can I do step mashes with this setup by just adding a higher temperature water?

Thanks in advance, I just want to do it right

Most certainly, ProMash is the way to go. Problem is that ProMash does not directly deal with Batch sparges. There is a way to do it and it was not too hard. Here is what you do.... download the demo of ProMash and go to the help section where the Tutorial is. Learning the program is very hard if you dont know the tutorial is there. Here is the thread were we talked about Batch Sparges in Promash and there is a link to the Greenboard where someone goes through an example. I printed this out and just went through it a few times. It was no inicially straightforward to me on the first run. Just play with it and let us know if you have problems

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=10155

I am by no means a professional (yet!) but I just completed my 5th A.G. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing book has a handy chart in it that tells you how much water you need, the temp of water, etc. Typically, I have found that the grain (if 65-70 F) will cool the water down about 16-18F. So...I fill up my mash tun (10 gallon cooler) with near boiling mash water. The amount of water depends on the amount of grain (1- 1.5 quarts per pound of grain). I stir the water to cool it until it hits 172F and then I stir in the grain and it usually settles down to 154, occasionally I will add ice or boiling water to adjust slightly but only had to do that once. After 60 minutes the mash is still 152-153 so slowly add boiling water and stir to raise the mash to 170 (about a gallon). Then I recirculate about 15 growlers worth of wort and then after its clear I will let in slowly drain into the kettle. As the water drains through the grain bed I start adding sparge water
(170F) at the same rate. I always have 8 gallons of sparge water and I just let the water run onto a pie plate with hole in it. I continue sparging until the gravity is 1010. At that point I will either add water to top up or boil down if I have too much wort.
Hope this helps, and if anybody can help me improve the process I just described that would be awesome.

Promash FTW. I have been using promash for about 1.5 years and it has been great. Just use the tutorial and you will figure it out. I batch sparge and up till now I have figured out my batch sparging on paper and I would use the calculator to figure out my strike temps. I just saw that link Beer Snob put up and I will try it with Promash next time.

As for the batch sparging this is a rundown of what works with my 48 qt. Igloo cooler. I don't know much about the theory behind it but it works great.

I mash at the temp and H2o/grain ratio called for in the recipe.

I add boiling water to try to get to the mash out temp of 168.

I recirculate some wort then drain these runnings into the kettle.

I then add my sparge water and stir.

Recirculate then drain.

I have heard of people doing a second batch sparge in some cases but I have not done this.

I learned all my batch sparging from reading this guys webpage

http://hbd.org/clubs/cascade/public_html/dennybrew/

Thanks for the help guys.

Is it possible to also do step-mashes by starting with a thick mash and then adding hot water to get to the next temp step?

nomad said:

Thanks for the help guys.

Is it possible to also do step-mashes by starting with a thick mash and then adding hot water to get to the next temp step?

Click to expand...

Why certainly. ProMash will do that by the way. Palmer's book, How to brew, has a lot of nice and ... relativly easy formulas to do this. Do you have his book? I think it would get a lot of recommendations from people here as bing very helpful to you.

No I don't have his book, which is the newest. 3rd addition?

nomad said:

No I don't have his book, which is the newest. 3rd addition?

Click to expand...

you are thinking about Charlie Papazian's book "The Joy of Homebrewing" 3rd edition

Palmer's book is available online.

Here is an Amazon link to the book I was referring to. Incidently they have a deal with getting this book and Designing great beer.... another book you might like.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0937381888/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20