Doing my 2nd PM, few questions...

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

comj49

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
112
Reaction score
2
Location
Lambertville, MI
I am using the BYO method with a 2 gallon cooler, and a large grain bag. My first PM was a stout, and i believe I calculated my Sparge water correctly, but i had to do 4 seperate batch sparges to use up all the water. I filled the cooler all the way to the top (after taking my first runnings), poked around at my grain bag to mix, then let it sit for 5 minutes, then took the runnings. Is this normal, was it necessary to use all of the sparge water or should a few runnings be enough. I was thinking this time i would keep topping off the sparge water until it is all used up instead of draining, filling, waiting, 4 seperate times. I know there is a time when it is too much, but wasn't sure when. The beer actually is the best tasting beer i have made, but since it is stout, i might not be able to detect any small taste difference. Any advice would be appreciated.
 
If I read this correctly it seems that you're asking, "Do I need to collect my full boil volume from the sparging?" Are you doing full boil or topping up after the boil and cooling? If doing a full boil you wouldn't need to collect the full 6-7 gallons from sparging. I believe you sparge ( I only have 2 Ag's under my belt) untill your runnings gravity is less than 10 points. Do you use any brewing software? Maybe try a Brewsmith Trial for this batch. it will calculate how much sparge water and everything you need.
 
I am doing a 3 gallon boil w/top off. My question is: as long as i am using the correct total amount of sparge water volume (1.25qt/lb), should it matter that I have to add it to my smaller cooler in 4 increments. In the article it isn't clear, and it makes it seem as if I should take my first and second runnings, and be done, yet after those 2 runnings, i had alot of sparge water waiting to be used, so i repeated the process until it was all used up. I assume the problem is the size of the cooler, since a 5 gallon would hold much more water.

Now that you mention it, i have another question, how do you take a gravity reading when the temp of the water is so high, is there a conversion or do you let it cool?
 
When I do a PM, I sparge until I get my boil volume - 3 gallons right now. It usually takes me about three sparges to get my initial boil volume.

To measure gravity, I take my sample, then chill it down to about 100 degrees before measuring.
 
Back
Top