I am trying my first batch sparge this weekend. I am going off some of the assumptions made in Denny's article at http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/.
My main assumption is his .1 gallon per pound absorption rate. Since I have never batch sparged, I gotta start somewhere.
Here's my grainbill -
4 lbs. - 2 row
1.5 lbs. - pilsner
3 lbs. - wheat malt
3.75 lbs. - rye
1 lb. - rice hulls (in mash)
I'm going for 1.3-ish quarts per pound of grain in my mash. Rough numbers only (since I have no brewing software) would put me at 4.5 gallons of strike water.
If I assume the .1 gallon/pound of absorption, that should leave my first running producing about 3.1 gallons of wort. With the grain already saturated, that would mean I am looking at another 3.9 gallons to produce 7 gallons in the brew kettle.
So a coupld of questions:
1. Do these numbers look right?
2. If I am looking to bring this volume of mash to about 168F for mashout, what should the temperature of the 3.9 gallons (I'm going to do 4 to be safe) sparge water?
3. I assume it is better to be safe than sorry. That being said, how much additional sparge water should I prepare?
3a. If I have to use the additional water in reserve, do I just do a 3rd running using the same method? (add water, stir mash, recirculate until clear and then drain quickly)?
4. I assumed 65% efficiency and came up with around a 1.050 starting gravity for this batch. Should I add any additional 2-row to account for loss of efficiency due to the batch sparging? I regularly get around 70% or better when fly sparging with this setup (10-gal round igloo cooler).
5. Are there any other tips? Is the "let it rip" sparge method what most of you batch spargers use?
My main assumption is his .1 gallon per pound absorption rate. Since I have never batch sparged, I gotta start somewhere.
Here's my grainbill -
4 lbs. - 2 row
1.5 lbs. - pilsner
3 lbs. - wheat malt
3.75 lbs. - rye
1 lb. - rice hulls (in mash)
I'm going for 1.3-ish quarts per pound of grain in my mash. Rough numbers only (since I have no brewing software) would put me at 4.5 gallons of strike water.
If I assume the .1 gallon/pound of absorption, that should leave my first running producing about 3.1 gallons of wort. With the grain already saturated, that would mean I am looking at another 3.9 gallons to produce 7 gallons in the brew kettle.
So a coupld of questions:
1. Do these numbers look right?
2. If I am looking to bring this volume of mash to about 168F for mashout, what should the temperature of the 3.9 gallons (I'm going to do 4 to be safe) sparge water?
3. I assume it is better to be safe than sorry. That being said, how much additional sparge water should I prepare?
3a. If I have to use the additional water in reserve, do I just do a 3rd running using the same method? (add water, stir mash, recirculate until clear and then drain quickly)?
4. I assumed 65% efficiency and came up with around a 1.050 starting gravity for this batch. Should I add any additional 2-row to account for loss of efficiency due to the batch sparging? I regularly get around 70% or better when fly sparging with this setup (10-gal round igloo cooler).
5. Are there any other tips? Is the "let it rip" sparge method what most of you batch spargers use?