Amount of water to put into mash and sparge?

BrewRI · Nov 5, 2009

This is my first partial so I'm righting out steps and checklists to guide me on the first one. I just have a few questions about how this information translates into the certain actions.

Hop Head Double IPA Partial - BrewMaze644
June 12, 2007

gal.
Category India Pale Ale (IPA)
Subcategory American IPA
Recipe Type Partial Mash
Batch Size 5 gal.
Volume Boiled 3 gal.
Mash Efficiency 72 %
Total Grain/Extract 11.06 lbs.
Total Hops 5.0 oz.
Calories (12 fl. oz.) 307.6
Cost to Brew $63.39 (USD)
Cost per Bottle (12 fl. oz.) $1.19 (USD)

.25 lbs. Belgian Aromatic info
.75 lbs. American Caramel 20°L info
.5 lbs. American Victory info
3.5 lbs. American 2-row info
.0625 lbs. Peat Smoked Malt info
6 lbs. Dry Extra Light info
1 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 12 %AA) boiled 60 min. info
1 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 30 min. info
2 oz. Simcoe (Pellets, 12 %AA) boiled 15 min. info
1 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 5.50 %AA) boiled 5 min. info
2 oz. Cascade (Whole, 5.50 %AA) used as dry hop. info
Yeast : White Labs WLP001 California Ale info

Review: Excellent. Loved the Simcoe hops. Very "craft Brew" taste. Need to let rest for at least 4wks after kegging (I force carbonated). Could add a touch more of the smoked malt to give more of the cask flavor. Drops clear after a month. May try Dry hop with Simcoe rather than Cascade on next batch.

Mash Notes: 20 Min @ 140F
70 min @ 155F

Actual: O.G. - 1.079
Actual: F.G. - 1.019

So for the second step. I saw partial mash pictorial so I know that first I mash the grains in the bag in one pot, I just don't know how much water to put into the mashing pot and the sparging pot. It says volume boiled is three gallons. So that has to be split up somehow between the pots, is it a 2 gal/1gal or should they be even?

I was also unsure about what to do for dry hopping. Do I put the whole hops in a sanitized grain bag and toss it in the primary or do I wait for my FG to reach ~1.019 and then transfer to a secondary, throw some hops in and let it sit for a while?

SporkD2 · Nov 5, 2009

I'm not sure about a mashing pot and sparging pot, unless you need to use two different pots. Put all the water your going to boil (6-6.5) into a pot and bring the water to 140. Use your grain bag and let them steep for 20 mins, then bring the water up to 155. You can use a half gallon of water or so if you want, but I never did with partial mash.

Do a search for dry hopping, there is a lot of information about ti

JuanMoore · Nov 5, 2009

I'm a newbie too, but I'll try to help. You'll need more than 3 gal, as the grains will soak up a surprising amount of liquid. If it were me, I'd use just enough water to completely cover the grains for the mash, and then sparge until you reach the desired pre-boil volume. I'm not really familiar with partial mashes though.

As far as dry-hopping, you want to wait a few days for the vigorous primary fermentation to end, and then add the hops. If you're doing two stage fermentation, you can add the hops to the secondary fermenter prior to transfer. If you're doing a single stage fermentation you can just drop them in after 4-5 days.

Hops can be added directly to the fermenter, but pellets will sink to the bottom, and whole or plug hops will float on top, which some believe doesn't result in full aroma/flavor extraction. You can put the hops in a sanitized bag, add a few sanitized marbles, and then hang the bag by a string so it stays suspended.

Bobby_M · Nov 5, 2009

How big is your "big" pot? At 5lbs of malt, you'll want to start with about 2.5 gallons. Combined, that requires at least a 3 gallon pot. When you pull the grain bag out and let it drip, it's going to leave about 2 gallons in the pot. How much you prepare as a sparge dunk will depend on how much mroe than 2 gallons you can boil in your big pot. If it's a 3 gallon pot, you can't sparge with more than 1/2 gallon or so.

coeceo · Nov 13, 2009

Taken from the sticky in the partial/AG forum:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/attention-new-all-grain-brewers-30466/

You need to use 1 to 1.25 qt. per pound of grain in your mash, then about 1/2 gallon per pound when you sparge it.

I tried the same method you are gonna do, it worked pretty good. I found that the mash held its temp pretty well in my stainless steel pot, I only had to give it the slightest heat while it was resting. I am also noticing a weird PVC/plasticy off flavor or something from my batch, I think its from the new grain bag. If you just picked one up for this recipe, I'd boil that in tap water before you use it

Amount of water to put into mash and sparge?

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Amount of water to put into mash and sparge?

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