Sparge Water Amounts, Partial Mash

I'm doing my first partial mash and need to know how much water to sparge with...

3# grain
3# dme
5 gallon batch doing partial boil

my plan is to mash with 1 gallon water(1.33*3#=1 gallon and losing .15*3=.45), steep/sparge in 1 gallon of water for ten minutes, then steep sparge with the rest of my water in the brew kettle(the rest of my water ~2 gallons (for a total of .55+1+2=~3.5 for the total boil). then topping off in the fermenter to 5 gallons.

Is this amount of water ok? Will this make to many tannins?Am i obsessing to much? I wanna get all the goodness out of the grains i can by 'two batch sparges'(what i was told this is), but i dont wanna use to much water and get tannins.....

1.5 quarts per pound of grain .. so in your case it would be 4.5 quarts or 1 gallon and 2 cups.


sparging takes 45 minutes to an hour. heat the water to 155F then soak the grain for half an hour. then reheat the water to 155F and soak again for another half hour. then take the grain and swirl it around in second pot with 2 gallons of water at 165F for 10 minutes. then combine the two pots for a total of 3 gallons.

are you mashing in a grain bag? based on your description, i would assume so.

1 gallon is fine for your mash....going thinner (to 1.5 qt/#) is fine, but not necesssary.

You can sparge with more than 1 gallon. I don't know if doing what you suggested above will end up extracting tannins on the seocnd sparge, but using 1.5-2 gallons for one sparge definitely will not. I would dunk it in 1.5-2 gallons of water that is slightly hotter than 170F. It is generally recommended to have your grain bed around 170F for the sparge. With 3# of grain and let's say 1.5 gallons of water, I'll bet 173F will get you there. Let the grain soak for 10-15 min, agitating occasionally.

You will get plenty of goodness out of the grains this way. If your crush is good, your efficiency will be pretty good considering the simplicity (i.e. somewhere in the 75-78% range)


Good luck.

at 170F you are no longer sparging your are steeping. sparging is using the natural enzymes of the grain to break down the starches into sugars and takes place in the 150's. at 170F the enzymes are no longer working and your just dissolving sugars.

TipsyDragon said:

at 170F you are no longer sparging your are steeping. sparging is using the natural enzymes of the grain to break down the starches into sugars and takes place in the 150's. at 170F the enzymes are no longer working and your just dissolving sugars.

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Enzymatic conversion indeed occurs in the 140s-150s, but is generally referred to as mashing.

Sparging is simply rinsing the sugars that have resulted from the enzymatic process and is conducted at 170F.

We don't need to go back and forth about it...just check any basic text on the subject.

sorry got my terms confused.