All Grain Questions

I've made a 10gallon Rubbermaid cooler mash tun and have a few questions about all grain. I've seen some tutorials that do the mash in two stages I believe but I thought I could or should just do it all in one with my mash tun.

I went to brew365 calculator only inputing my batch size, grain bill, boil time and target mash temp leaving the rest as default. It says I need 8.88 gal total but 3.41 mash water, 5.47 sparge water. This is the part I'm confused about the sparge/strike difference. Can I not just add 8.88 gallons to my mash tun to get my wort? Or do I need to do 3.41gallons for the mash time then 5.47gallons after? And how long for each? And do I vollaourf? (sp?) both?

Thanks in advance for my newbie questions

Yes u need the 3.41 gal mash water to have the right water to grist ratio for the mash. When the mash is over then u vorlauf (recirculate) the wort til the runnings are clear, then rinse with the remaining water by either batch or continuous sparging or whatever sparging method u choose.

Sorry, one more question. I'm currently using the braided hose in my mash tun. Would it be better to replace it with a false bottom?

that depends. Some people have actually done "No-Sparge" brews and have done it well. That is a topic i suggest you leave alone and maybe try down the road. I'd day about 99% of brewers sparge (rinse the grains) using a fly (continuous) sparge or a batch (instant) sparge.

I batch sparge myself and there is a debate on that as well, but do what you want. Mashing in 3.41 gallons for 60 or 90 minutes gets you your initial wort (a higher concentration) where most of the sugars are converted. After your mash schedule is completed, you transfer the liquid runnings over to your boil kettle. This where you then immediately transfer the remaining 5.47 gallons of water into your mash tun to "rinse" the grains of the remaining sugars. It will be lighter in color and lighter in concentration, but is vital for you to achieve your desire original gravity. Rinse the grains by then transferring the runnings from the mash tun again into the boil kettle until you reach the desired boil volume.

Make sense?

watch youtube videos on batch sparging....and fly sparging for that matter

I use a copper manifold in a rectangular cooler. A false bottom would probably be more efficient.

dec said:

i've made a 10gallon rubbermaid cooler mash tun and have a few questions about all grain. I've seen some tutorials that do the mash in two stages i believe but i thought i could or should just do it all in one with my mash tun.

depends on whether you want to do step mashing or not (i think that's what it's called. I walked in blind with mine and did one-step, sparged then moved on to the boil

i went to brew365 calculator only inputing my batch size, grain bill, boil time and target mash temp leaving the rest as default. It says i need 8.88 gal total but 3.41 mash water, 5.47 sparge water. This is the part i'm confused about the sparge/strike difference. Can i not just add 8.88 gallons to my mash tun to get my wort? Or do i need to do 3.41gallons for the mash time then 5.47gallons after? And how long for each? And do i vollaourf? (sp?) both?

think of doing laundry. Wash the clothes and the water is dirty. Drain that water out then put in new water and you'll get the clothes cleaner (grains rinsed more in this case). Compare that to washing the clothes in all of the water at one time and draining it off. Likely the clothes will not be as clean.

Yes, you can vorlauf both in order especially if you mix the grains and sparge water in order to try to extract as much sugar as possible.

thanks in advance for my newbie questions

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b

dec said:

Sorry, one more question. I'm currently using the braided hose in my mash tun. Would it be better to replace it with a false bottom?

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I use a CPVC manifold and not a FB, but I think the latter would work best.

B

I have a SS false bottom and it works great. I've never had a problem with and I consistently get 75% efficiency.

I can only give you insight from my own experience with the filter. I started with a braided filter when I first went all grain, and it clogged a lot more than I would have liked it to, even when using rice hulls. The false bottom fixed that immensely. It drains faster, is super easy to clean, and it gives me a lot less headache than the braid did.

If you're doing a batch sparge (I do) then I doubt a false bottom really makes much of a difference. I batch sparge and stir like mad, then let it sit, then stir like mad, and then drain SLOW. I use a CPVC manifold and I can't see where a FB would do much for my efficiency. I'm at about 70-75% without flexing for more. I'm happy with that and think many if the options for increasing it wound be counter productive for me.

Is grist to water ratio important on the second runnings when batch sparging?i used beersmith to figure out my recipe, and couldn't really understand how much water to add after the initial sparge

ericbreen said:

Is grist to water ratio important on the second runnings when batch sparging?i used beersmith to figure out my recipe, and couldn't really understand how much water to add after the initial sparge

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No, not at all. You can just batch sparge up to your boil volume. What I mean is this- if you get 3 gallons of first runnings, and you need 6.5 gallons for your boil volume, simply sparging with 3.5 gallons if the way to do it.

Some people break that into two additions, some don't. It doesn't really matter, as long as you can thoroughly stir the grainbed/water addition and drain it well.

You may also want to account for the water that will stay soaked in your grains. Maybe it's because I only do BIAB (Does mashing in a cooler with a manifold/braid/FB make this less of an issue? If so, it's one more reason on my list to build a cooler conversion MT), but I find that I wait around forever to get that last bit of wort, unless I bump my sparge volume up a couple quarts. I'd rather have slightly too much than not quite enough.