First AG Plan

So I'm planning my first AG this weekend and I'm gonna do a stout for the upcoming winter months. Here's what I'm thinking:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: S-04
Yeast Starter: no
Batch Size (Gallons): 3.3
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.018
IBU: 36
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 35
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14days @ 65F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): no

I have a 7.5 lbs grain bill, and shooting for a 4.3 pre-boil volume. Now I am trying to figure out my water volume calculations:

Srike water Vol: 1.3 qts x 7.5 lbs = 9.75 qts or, ~2.5 gallons
Sparge Water: (now this is where I get ify) Rich Brewer here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/attention-new-all-grain-brewers-30466/ says to use .5 Gallons x Grain Weight = sparge water vol.

So .5 Gallons x 7.5 = 3.75 gallons?

Total water vol. = 2.5 + 3.75 = 6.25 G???

That number seems high for a 4.25 Gallon pre-boil... can some one help me out?

6.25 G - 1.25 (boil off) - 1G (grain absorption) - .5 Gallon dead space = 4.25 final gallons? way too high... Argh

My brew kettle is a 13" diameter, aluminum pot, if that matters.

Interested in what more experienced brewers have to say, here.... I'm also planning a dark ale (porter, in my case) for my first all-grain.

I have a ballpark guess of my efficiency from doing partial mashes; my plan was to put that efficiency number into a recipe builder to design the grain bill, then just keep sparging until I hit my pre-boil volume (or until the gravity of the runnings drop below 1.010... tannin extraction and whatnot). How hard and fast have folks found the "about half a gallon" to be? As long as I'm keeping an eye on the gravity of the runnings, and am not on like my seventh round of sparging or something, I'm guessing it's cool if it ends up more like 2/3 gallon or 3/4 gallon per pound?

OK, don't worry about that particular figure for sparge water volume there.

To figure out your sparge water volume is much more simple than that. Figure out what you're going to get from your first runnings. Figure out what you need in your kettle, pre-boil. Subtract the two. And, by the magic of simple math, you have your sparge volume! There's no special chemistry that's going on during the sparge - all the chemistry happens during the mash. The sparge is just serving to rinse out the sugars left behind that didn't get drained out with your first runnings.

Strats nailed it. For my first few AG I did the 1.3Xlbs and then used .5 gallons per lb for sparge. I was always over post boil so did just that....calculated first runnings and then sparged with the amount I needed for Pre-Boil. Works like magic now.

I'm with these guys. The "correct" answer is that you sparge until you collect enough wort at the proper gravity to hit your OG at the proper batch size. However, that's a real pain. It's way easier to just figure out how much wort you want in the kettle and then adjust the final volume based off of your pre-boil reading.

Also, keep in mind that if you're using crushed grains from your LHBS, they're likely to be too coarse to get decent efficiency. If that applies to you, I'd plan on about 65%. If you're using your own mill and have it properly set up, 75-80% is a safe bet.

Finally, if you haven't read it yet, you might want to take a look at Bobby M's primer. It really helped me understand what to expect the first time around.

http://www.suebob.com/brew/Bobby_Mallgrainprimer.pdf

It's best to work backwards.

I want 10 gallons of beer as the final product.
I lose a half gallon of beer per carboy from testing and trub, so that means I need 11 gallons of cooled wort, post-boil.
I seem to lose about a half gallon of beer from kettle trub loss and chiller and hoses and what not, so I need 11.5 gallons of cooled wort, post-boil.
Water expands 4% from room temp to boiling, so I need about 12 (measured) gallons of boiling-hot wort, post-boil.
My burner evaporates water at about 1.5 gallons per hour, so I need 13.5 gallons of wort, pre-boil if the recipe calls for a 60 minute boil.
BUT...water expansion is not at 4% post-sparge. The temp is around 150° F, and water expansion at that temperate is closer to 2%, so I knock off .25 gallons.
That brings me to my magic volume of 13.25 gallons of post-sparge pre-boil wort that's around 150° F.

As for the strike and sparge water calcs...I use 1.5 quarts per pound of grain for the strike if I can get away with it. I just keep sparging until I get to 13.25 gallons.

LandoLincoln is correct working backwards makes it easy. Here's how I would calculate the water required if I were you.

Batch size (into fermenter) 3.3 gallons
Kettle trub and transfer loses = .5 gallons
Post-Boil Volume =3.3+.5 = 3.8 gallons
Evaporation per 60 minutes = .73 gallons (Change this to reflect your kettle)
Pre-Boil Volume = 3.8+.73 = 4.53
Lauter tun deadspace = .26 gallons (Change this to reflect your MLT)
Grain absorption (@ 0.12 gallons per pound of grain w/7.5 lbs of grain) = 0.9 gallons
Total Water = 4.53+.26+.9=5.69
Strike Water = 1.35 quarts * 7.5 lbs = 10.125 quarts = 2.53 gallons
Sparge Water = 5.69-2.53=3.16 gallons

I typically do 3 gallon batch sizes with 3 gallon better bottle and a 3 gallon glass fermenters. I try to keep my volume into fermenter around 2.65 - 2.75 gallons. Just curious what fermenter you are planning on using.

Thanks guys, big help!

Well, dang, this almost sounds easy! Thanks for the info, all.

jwalk4, Don't they still use metric up there?

I use metric for my recipes so here are some conversions that might be helpful for you.
Gain absorption 1.04 liters per kilogram
l/kg of grain ratio 2.82 ~ equivalent to around 1.35 quarts/pound.

normnmiles said:

jwalk4, Don't they still use metric up there?

I use metric for my recipes so here are some conversions that might be helpful for you.
Gain absorption 1.04 liters per kilogram
l/kg of grain ratio 2.82 ~ equivalent to around 1.35 quarts/pound.

Click to expand...

Yes and no, lol.

I use imperial for brewing mostly because that's how I have to order things eg. 5 gal = 18.9 L; or, for another instance paper 8.5" x 11 instead of 21.59cm x 27.94cm.

I'm a machinist, and most of the stuff we did in the shop was imperial too, instead of metric.

But when I drive my car, you can be damn sure I'm driving 100 km/ h instead of miles/ h !!!


But thanks a ton for the conversions! Maybe I'll start being more patriotic!