A free way to prevent running off too much sparge water

CornyKegs 728
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sa1126

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I've had a few batches where I've had low OG from too much water and am not good enough at eye balling it. I took an extra spoon, filled up my kettle gallon by gallon and marked it on the spoon. I then took my trusty old angle grinder and cut out a few notches...

This should help prevent it. I marked it for each gallon and then at 6.25 :)

photo3_zpsf0b084d6.jpg
 
It's even more important to not use too much sparge water at all. You should be able to calculate (or find online) your grain absorption amount from the mash. You should also know your boil off rate. Once you know your Pre-boil volume and the volume of your first runnings, you can easily determine you sparge volume.

You can use the notched spoon to verify of course, but I trust my calculations. Also, brewing software like Beersmith calculates it for you based on your grain bill and mash thickness. Takes all the guess work right out of it.
 
forstmeister said:
It's even more important to not use too much sparge water at all. You should be able to calculate (or find online) your grain absorption amount from the mash. You should also know your boil off rate. Once you know your Pre-boil volume and the volume of your first runnings, you can easily determine you sparge volume.

You can use the notched spoon to verify of course, but I trust my calculations. Also, brewing software like Beersmith calculates it for you based on your grain bill and mash thickness. Takes all the guess work right out of it.
Click to expand...

I agree and plan to start doing better work calculating. I have been working off of recipe kits that have very high level directions.

How does beer smith work? Is it a web based app?
 
Also, as a side note boiling 212F water has4% more volume than 70F water. Anthing above 70F has a slightly higher volume to it. So your notches will be off a bit when your starting the boil and the wort is around 150-160, but shouldn't be by much.
 
sa1126 said:
I agree and plan to start doing better work calculating. I have been working off of recipe kits that have very high level directions.

How does beer smith work? Is it a web based app?
Click to expand...

Beersmith is not web based but it does have cloud storage applications. They just released a full scale mobile app that allows building and editing a recipe for around $10 I think. The computer program runs around $25 I think but it is worth every penny. I know pros who use it.
 
forstmeister said:
Beersmith is not web based but it does have cloud storage applications. They just released a full scale mobile app that allows building and editing a recipe for around $10 I think. The computer program runs around $25 I think but it is worth every penny. I know pros who use it.
Click to expand...

Cool. I might download it for my ipad if they have it...that would be a big help brewing this weekend.
 
forstmeister said:
It's even more important to not use too much sparge water at all. You should be able to calculate (or find online) your grain absorption amount from the mash. You should also know your boil off rate. Once you know your Pre-boil volume and the volume of your first runnings, you can easily determine you sparge volume.

You can use the notched spoon to verify of course, but I trust my calculations. Also, brewing software like Beersmith calculates it for you based on your grain bill and mash thickness. Takes all the guess work right out of it.
Click to expand...

This only applies to batch sparging. When you fly sparge, you just stop sparging when you reach your preboil volume. Certainly many people do rough calculations to determine how much water to heat up, but it doesn't play an important role (unless you run out of water).
 

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