Beginner's question on following AG recipes

I am in the process of geting all my equipment ready for my first All-Grain batch. I found a recipe that I'm really interested in, it's an Orange Kolsch.

So I've taken an all-grain brewing class my local homebrew store and I'm familiar with the process of mashing and sparging. My question is that most of the recipes that I see don't explicitly specify how much volume to mash with and what to sparge with etc.

For the recipe I am interested in - I'm just going to paste it below. If the boil size is 13.54 Gallons, how much water should I use for mashing and sparging (assuming fly sparging). Maybe there's some standard percentage?

Any help would be greatly appreciated


Here's the recipe.......

10 – GALLONS AG

Batch Size: 11.00 gal
Boil Size: 13.54 gal
Estimated OG: 1.045 SG
Estimated Color: 4.9 SRM

Estimated IBU: 13.2 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 67.0 %
Boil Time: 70 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item
16.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM
2.00 lb Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Honey Malt (25.0 SRM)
1.00 lb Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM)
1.00 oz Hallertauer [3.00%] (60 min)
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.10%] (20 min)
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50%] (10 min)
0.75 oz Dried Orange Peel, Bitter (Boil 10.0 min)
0.75 oz Dried Orange Peel, Sweet (Boil 10.0 min)
1.00 oz Coriander Seed (Boil 10.0 min)
1 Pkgs SafAle American Ale (DCL Yeast #US-56)

I'd recommend getting some software like BeerSmith to calculate those things. The standard water to grist ratio for the mash is 1.25 qt/lb of grain, but that can vary. Sparging volumes will vary by recipe and equipment.

I would use what he said 1.25 or 1.5 qts per pound to mash with. Let that drain into the kettle then fill it up again and drain into the kettle until you are at your desired volume

I agree with the answer on volume of strike and sparge water from NordeastBrewer77 and thedude. If you now are looking for the software, check the brewing forum thread for software reviews here https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f84/
There are several free software pkgs reviewed. Beersmith is the best IMO but complex. Used brewpal on my Iphone for 3 years before that.

JerseyJoe said:

There are several free software pkgs reviewed. Beersmith is the best IMO but complex. Used brewpal on my Iphone for 3 years before that.

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Yep, software's really helpful. I started w/BrewPal, and it's great, but a little basic. Awesome for the ~$2 or something like that. I got BeerSmith 2 a little while ago, and can't say enough good things about it. You tune it to your personal equipment and process, it's really great for creating recipes or to input another recipe to your process. Makes brew day a lot smoother.

Ok - so I guess the software was the missing piece of the puzzle. That makes sense. I'll look into some of the software to see of that fills in what I'm missing

Thanks!

One thing I noticed in your recipe is that you are NOT using Kolsch yeast. A Kolsch isn't really a Kolsch without Kolsch yeast! The yeast is really the star of the show!!

I made almost that exact recipe two weekends ago that I just started lagering, but I did not use any flaked wheat, used 9 lbs of Pale Malt for a 5.5 gallon batch, and didn't have the Cascade addition, as Kolsch is technically supposed to be all noble hops as well. I used a Wyeast 2665 Kolsch yeast. This yeast is going to have the phenyol characters of an ale yeast, but clear like a lager yeast, which is the main characteristic that makes a Kolsch a Kolsch. Mash low (148-150F), Ferment at as close to 60F as you can, then after 2-3 weeks in primary do a pseudo-lager (don't have to do a D-rest or step down for a Kolsch yeast) at 32-34F for 2-3 more weeks.

Mine's not finished yet, but the post-fermentation sample was delicious!

TopherM - Thanks for the insight on the Kolsch. I found this recipe under the following link https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f71/orange-kolsch-ag-ex-30918/
and it looks like BierMuncher was purposely avoiding the Kolsch Yeast.

Since I'm looking for a relatively quick turnaround time on the beer - I'll probably use the ale yeast but will certainly consider your suggestions when I plan this out a little better and have a few more batches under my belt (they'll probably be hanging over my belt!)

ok....this newbie has to jump in...so figguring 1.25 qts per lb of grain...wouldent that mean 16 lbs pf grain for a 5 gallon batch??...as in 20 qts divided 1.25 comes to 16..hmmm that seems a bit much, or do you figgure sparging just as much as the mash amount, and would come to 8 lbs of grain....and yes ill have beersmith someday..

tnsen said:

ok....this newbie has to jump in...so figguring 1.25 qts per lb of grain...wouldent that mean 16 lbs pf grain for a 5 gallon batch??...as in 20 qts divided 1.25 comes to 16..hmmm that seems a bit much, or do you figgure sparging just as much as the mash amount, and would come to 8 lbs of grain....and yes ill have beersmith someday..

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No, it's 1.25 qt/lb of grain in your recipe. Not one lb of grain per 1.25 qts in your batch size.

1.25qts/lb. If the recipe is 20lbs. that is 25qts. Divided by 4 that is 6.25g of strike water to mash in. This is a 10g. batch. Around 3.8g. will be absorbed with the grains, leaving 2.45 of first runnings. You'd sparge with about 9 gallons to get up to 11.5, boil off a gallon and lose 0.5 to deadspace and trub/hops.

Well, if it scales by half to go from 10 gallons to 5 (there's a few factors that come into play here - your expected efficiency being the most important one, but let's assume it scales by half), then you're going from 20lbs of grain (don't forget the wheat malt, honey malt, and flaked wheat in the recipe!) down to 10.

So, doing the math: 10lbs of grain x 1.25 qts h20 per lb of grain = 12.5 qts h20 = 3.125 gallons h20 to mash with

Your mash is going to absorb a certain amount of the water, so when you lauter, you'll get something less than that 3.125 gallons. This is where software becomes really helpful, because it can do the math for you to project how much water will be absorbed. Let's assume (for the sake of the example) something like 1 gallon is going to be absorbed, so you'll lauter 2.125 gallons. Let's say you want your boil size to be 7 gallons; assume you boil off 1 gallon in an hour (your actual number may be different, adjust accordingly!), and you want to do a 6 gallon batch. Well, now you know that your sparge volume will be (7 gallons - 2.125 gallons), or 4.875 gallons, which should be enough to get your brew kettle up to the full 7 gallon volume you want.

Also, if you try to scale a recipe like this down, remember that hops do not necessarily scale linearily. This is another area where software is super useful!

Thank you....I learn a bit more every time I come here...Tom

tre9er said:

1.25qts/lb. If the recipe is 20lbs. that is 25qts. Divided by 4 that is 6.25g of strike water to mash in. This is a 10g. batch. Around 3.8g. will be absorbed with the grains, leaving 2.45 of first runnings. You'd sparge with about 9 gallons to get up to 11.5, boil off a gallon and lose 0.5 to deadspace and trub/hops.

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Yeah, unless you're ^this guy, software's a huge help. BTW, checked that w/ beer smith, you're pretty much spot on!

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Yeah, unless you're ^this guy, software's a huge help. BTW, checked that w/ beer smith, you're pretty much spot on!

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I still use a spreadsheet my neighbor gave me that does all of the math for me, but I check the formulas regularly. Sometimes it seems when my setup changes, I don't absorb as much or boil off as much, etc. So I am constantly trying to understand the numbers rather than just trust them at face value.

My other neighbor uses beer smith and had a recipe that was coming over volume a bunch. I told him his absorption was off because that's the only way he's getting more in the kettle. I don't think he'd adjusted it before in BeerSmith. I said, well that water isn't going somewhere BS thinks it should...the only place that can be pre-boil is in the grain.