Help with Mash Schedule

I am doing a Labor Day brew and have a ProMash recipe. I am a bit confused with the way ProMash presents things and needed some translation from you more experienced brewers.

Mash Type: Single Step

Grain Lbs: 15.60
Water Qts: 17.29 - Before Additional Infusions
Water Gal: 4.32 - Before Additional Infusions

Qts Water Per Lbs Grain: 1.11 - Before Additional Infusions

Saccharification Rest Temp : 151 Time: 90
Mash-out Rest Temp : 170 Time: 10
Sparge Temp : 168 Time: 0

Total Mash Volume Gal: 5.57 - Dough-In Infusion Only

I am used to doing my initial rest for 90 minutes and then one addition for sparging. I then vourlaf until clear and run into brew pot. Not sure how this one is doing it(Mash-out rest temp?) and how much sparge water I am adding.

I am converting to BrewSmith and added a Single Step Infusion step and it said 17.88 qts at 163 for a 151 target mash.........and then a 10 qt sparge at 196 for a target of 168.

EDIT: I did scale the recipe to 5.5 gal...not sure why this guy had it at 6 gal

My batch is set to 5.5 gal and it gives me a 7.89 gal boil volume. So after losses from grain absorption will I have to add some water into the brew pot to get to 7.89 gal before boiling? Or do I just add water at the end?

I used to know this and forgot since it has been a year. Seems like I would add it before....but, I do remember having way too much wort at the end of a batch last time and needing to boil it down and it taking forever! I live at 7,000 feet so water boils around 199 degrees. I am thinking I don't have as much evaporation and this time I do not want to have an extra wait time boiling.

Does my conversion seem appropriate for what was originally spec'd in the ProMash recipe? What do you think about the water addition before/after boil and anything about elevation?

Thanks,

Craig
Flagstaff, AZ

I believe that the 7.89 gallons you're getting is in regards to the total volume of water used in the mash. If you're going to be boiling for 90 minutes, you can expect to lose about .9-1 gallons of H20. Just shoot for right around 6.5 gallons in the boil kettle and you'll be just fine.

The water additions only add up to 28 quarts (7 gal) so where does the 0.89 gallons come in?

It looks as though your water additions are calculated to give you 5.5g into the kettle pre-boil rather than post boil, and that's assuming that you can drain ever last drop of wort from the MLT during the sparge. i.e. You have no dead space..
It also looks as though your strike temperature calculations are a bit off. For that to work, the MLT would have to be pre-heated, and your grain temp would have to be 80F. To account for dead space in the MLT and kettle, and for evaporation, you would need at least an extra 4 qts (and probably closer to 8 qts) mash water. You can measure how much mash water you need after draining the first runnings, assuming you know the required pre-boil volume. For a 5.5g batch, I need to start the 75 minute boil with 7.0g Your system will probably be a bit different.

-a.

Thanks for your reply. I would like to find out why B.S. is not giving me the correct numbers. I have attached my equipment settings.

I did not check "Adjust Temp for Equipment" in the Mash Profile area because I pre-heat my cooler tun with hot water.

My grain temps are set at 72 deg.

So, if I understand you correctly, I would do a second sparge after my first runnings....or, would I increase my sparge water?

Your mash schedule is for fly sparging, you just sparge until you hit your desired volume basically.

and then a 10 qt sparge at 196 for a target of 168.

Click to expand...

This isn't a sparge, it's your mash out. You don't start sparging until after you mash out.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/hybrid-fly-sparge-technique-75454/

Can you clarify the process of Mash Out vs Sparging. Sorry, I am a bit fuzzy. So do I use:

18 qt Mash in at 163 (get to 151)
10 qt Mash out at 202 for 10 min (get to 168)
Reminder to get volume to 6.5 gallons boil volume - So I add at 168 for Sparging What temp since already at 168?

I typically do not fly sparge....I just add sparge water, stir, vorlauf, drain

Thanks

cbird01 said:

I typically do not fly sparge....I just add sparge water, stir, vorlauf, drain

Thanks

Click to expand...

That's fine, then add enough sparge water to make up the rest of the volume in the kettle, stir, vorlauf, drain. It just doesn't tell you how much water you need for that second sparge, but you should be able to figure that out by just looking to see how much more you need in the kettle, the grian has already absorbed all the water it's going to. You may want to just skip the mash out step if you not fly sparging, it isn't that necessary, it's just for raising the temp to stop the enzymes which will happen in the boil kettle. Just make the sparge water for the second runnings around 180ish so it will raise the temp up a bit.

BarleyWater's explanation of the 10 qts just being mashout water is much better than what I said, and now you posted your equipment page, things make a lot more sense.

A mashout is simply adding hot water at the end of the mash to raise the temperature from mash temperature to sparge temperature. It makes a lot of sense if you are fly sparging, but is not necessary if you are batch sparging (but 10 qts at 196 wouldn't be enough to get you to 168F).

Rounding up the strike water to 18 qts should get you to 151 for the mash.
According to your equipment page, you need 7.24g pre-boil. This seems reasonable to me especially as your equipment page says you will lose 05g to trub and chiller. I think you will end up short if you start the boil with 6.5g.
If you mash with 18 qts, you should end up with about 2.25g in the kettle after draining your first runnings. (You will lose about 2g to grain absorption, and 0.25g to dead space.) This leaves a shortage of 5g which is the amount of sparge water you need to hit the 7.25 pre boil gallons. It would be better to measure the shortage after draining the first runnings, rather than relying on an estimate. I think 180 (as suggested by BarleyWater) should be about the right temperature for the sparge water, and you could add it in one batch, or two. Two batches will probably give you slightly higher efficiency, but will take a bit longer.

-a.



Rounding up the strike water to 18 qts should give you

I sparged with 2 batches of sparge water at 180....the first one got me no where near 168 grain bed temp, but the second one put me right at 169. I definitely used too much sparge water...got a little crazy and dumped some extra in on that last sparge. My pre-boil was 1.053 out of target 1.056...but my SG was low at 1.060 instead of 1.073. I did have about 6.5 gallons of wort and left a half gallon in the brew pot. Seems like I only evaporated 1.25 gallon in 90 minutes!

I really want to get my equipment setting locked in. I believe I need to lower all the losses and evaporation rate. I am at 7,000 ft and I believe that means more water evaporates, but I always seem to overshoot my volume and get lower gravities. I need to really monitor what is in the pot before that last sparge and see what is left.

Is it too late to add some DME to get my gravity up? What would the process be?