Water calculations for first all grain mash...

i have a recipe fom a friend that im going to mash tomorrow and i need a little help understanding the water calculations...

The grain bill is 13.3 pounds and I need to do a double infusion of 122* and 155*. My mashtun will hold about 50 quarts and my boil pot will hold about 5.5-6 gallons.

What I dont clearly understand is the calculations of water needed. I used http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/ calculator and I come up with a 1st strike volume of 16.25 quarts of water and 11.3 uarts of water for the second... this adds up to 27.55 quarts or 6.9 gallons....

Will this be too much water for a 5 gallon batch? I know the grains will absorb some but I have no idea how much they will absorb. With this how much sparrage water should I use to end up with a 5 gallon batch after the boil? His instructions say to boil 60 minutes total.

Any suggestions or help is appreciated!

In my short time doing all grain I've encountered losses of about 1 gallon of water to absorption using 10-15 lbs of grain, and boil off of maybe just under .75 gallons to 60 minutes of boil off. So adding that to 5 gallons would be a target of 6.75 gallons to start with, I'd go with the 6.9 just to be safe and account for any loss to hop absorption or anything else. Cheers!

I am attempting my first all grain batch tomorrow and I have a few noob questions.

I am doing a 2.5 gal batch and have downloaded the trial version of promash and am trying to wrap my head around all the data. my grain bill is 6.77 lbs and my main concern is nailing the water amounts for the mash, mashout, and sparge. As of now I am planning on mashing with about 2.11 gallons and batch sparging with about 3 gallons. Is this anywhere close to what is needed? It seems like alot seeing as my end goal is 2.5 gallons.

I am sure the needed information is somewhere on the database and I have been searching nonstop but things are starting to run together and get confusing so I just wanted to get my head straight. Thanks!

phull said:

I am attempting my first all grain batch tomorrow and I have a few noob questions.

I am doing a 2.5 gal batch and have downloaded the trial version of promash and am trying to wrap my head around all the data. my grain bill is 6.77 lbs and my main concern is nailing the water amounts for the mash, mashout, and sparge. As of now I am planning on mashing with about 2.11 gallons and batch sparging with about 3 gallons. Is this anywhere close to what is needed? It seems like alot seeing as my end goal is 2.5 gallons.

I am sure the needed information is somewhere on the database and I have been searching nonstop but things are starting to run together and get confusing so I just wanted to get my head straight. Thanks!

Click to expand...

I suggest using 1.25 quarts per pound for a small grain bill like that for mashing. So, 6.77 pounds x 1.25 quarts = 8.46 quarts (Call it 8.5). You can expect the grain to absorb about .125 gallons per pound, so you'll lose about .85 gallon in the first runnings.

That will leave you with (2.125 gallon - .85 gallon) 1.27 gallons out of the mash. You can then sparge up to your boil volume.

You will probably boil off a gallon or a 1.25 gallons in an hour boil so for a 2.5 gallon batch you'll probably want to start with 3.75 gallons for the boil. That means you'd want to sparge with approxmately 2.5 gallons or so.

I do a lot of all grain batches around the 2.125 gallon size, using Mr. Beer fermenters and my 5 gallon mash tun.

I used a Mash Water Volume Calculator to determine that the total volume of strike water and grains will take up 2.66 gallons of volume in the mash tun. (Enter 6.77 lbs. grain and 1.25 for mash thickness)

I calculate 6.77 pounds of grain with a 1.25 quart per pound mash thickness will 2.11 gallons of strike water. (6.77 * 1.25 = 8.46 quarts strike water)

I calculate 6.77 pounds of grain with a .13 pound grain absorption will absorb .88 gallon of strike water. (6.77 * .13 = 3.5 quarts water absorbed)

8.46 qts strike water
3.50 qts absorbed
-----------
11.96 qts. total strike water for mashing

I just heat up another pot of water, about a gallon or so, to 168F and fill my 12 quart boil pot up nearly to the top. But then I lauter an extra .5 gallon of wort into another small pot, bring it to a boil and add to my boil pot as needed to make up for evaporation and hop absorption.

Doing it this way allows me to do full wort boils and have enough wort to put in the fermenter without having to use filtered water to make up the losses. Not to say this is the best or only way of doing it but it works for my brewing equipment.

ScrewyBrewer said:

8.46 qts strike water
3.50 qts absorbed
-----------
11.96 qts. total strike water for mashing

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I've never seen it done that way! So, you add more water into the mash to account for grainbed absorption? So you're really mashing with 12 quarts of water in a 6.77 pound grain bill? That's nearly 2 quarts a pound. It's ok, but a bit thin. You're not mashing with 1.25 quarts a pound, though!