à Flannagáin
Well-Known Member
Hopefully, as I type this, I'll figure out what's going on. I've been doing my math like this:
Say I have 13lbs of grains (seems to be my average lately). I stick with the 1.33-1.5qt/lb ratio for my strike water. I'm brewing 5 to 5.5 gals hopefully. That's 17.29 qts or just over 4.25+ gals of water. I usually heat up 4.5 gals expecting a little to go off in steam. I drain that after my mash and get about 3.5+ gals... well, my boil off rate is a little less than 1gal an hour, so it seems, so I want to have about 6+ gals total pre-boil. That means for my sparge water I only need about 2+ to 3 more gals of water. That's significantly less than my strike water.
I've been using this method and getting 60-70% efficiency, usualy around 65-70 but has been lower. Seems to be working out ok for me, but I notice when most people talk about their mashing session they tend to have a significantly larger amount of sparging water than strike water.
What's going on? Why does it tend to be that way for everyone else? Am I calcuating something WAY off here?
Say I have 13lbs of grains (seems to be my average lately). I stick with the 1.33-1.5qt/lb ratio for my strike water. I'm brewing 5 to 5.5 gals hopefully. That's 17.29 qts or just over 4.25+ gals of water. I usually heat up 4.5 gals expecting a little to go off in steam. I drain that after my mash and get about 3.5+ gals... well, my boil off rate is a little less than 1gal an hour, so it seems, so I want to have about 6+ gals total pre-boil. That means for my sparge water I only need about 2+ to 3 more gals of water. That's significantly less than my strike water.
I've been using this method and getting 60-70% efficiency, usualy around 65-70 but has been lower. Seems to be working out ok for me, but I notice when most people talk about their mashing session they tend to have a significantly larger amount of sparging water than strike water.
What's going on? Why does it tend to be that way for everyone else? Am I calcuating something WAY off here?