Can i sparge with all the remaining water that will go into the boiling pot?

For example if I am targeting 8 gallons of pre-boiled wort and I am mashing using 3 gallons. Can I just sparge with the remaining 5 gallons and rinse the grain bed completely? Are there any drawbacks to this? In other words why can't I use all the water to sparge with instead of adding it to the wort after sparging is complete?

the grain will absorb some water,so your 3 gal + 5gal wont = 8 gal.

and yes,sparge with the water to rinse the rest of the goodies out of the grain.

buzzkill said:

the grain will absorb some water,so your 3 gal + 5gal wont = 8 gal.

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Right. 1 pound of grain absorbs roughly 1 pint of water.

so, if you are mashing 8lbs of grain with 3 gallons of water, you will only get back 2 gallons of liquid.

buzzkill said:

and yes,sparge with the water to rinse the rest of the goodies out of the grain.

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From what I have seen discussed, it is possible to OVERsparge your grains, which can lead to flavor issues. I personally stick with using a total of 3 quarts of water per pound of grain when I brew. Some of that is for the mash, and the rest is for sparge.

If I need more pre-boil volume, I just put the water in the kettle rather than run it through the spent grain.

As an example. I'm brewing tomorrow with a 10lb grain bill, a 5.75 gallon batch, 8.21 gallons in the boil kettle. Total water used will be 9.38 gallons.

This is where brewing software is very handy.

I've never done anything else.

This one is free.

http://powersbrewery.home.comcast.net/~powersbrewery/mastercalculator.html

Yes brewing software is very helpful with this as it allows you to better hit your specific numbers. I batch sparge where roughly I mash with half the total water needed and then sparge with the other half. Depending on the grain bill, my lb/qt grains to water ratio varies from 1.25 to 1.8.

For example, I need 7.64 gallons in the kettle for the boil. I had 12# of grains, which absorbs about 1.44 gallons of water. I mashed with 18.16 qts of water and then sparged with 18.16 qts of water. (18.16 x 2 = 36.32 / 4 = 9.08 - 1.44 = 7.64)

There is a really good podcast on the Brewing Network's Sunday Session where homebrewer Denny Conn explains how he batch sparges (which is where I got my technique). Just go over to their site and search for batch sparging.

Just a quick note to mention that the powers brewery calculator above was forced to move from its comcast service space to GoDaddy. The new location for it is:

http://powersbrewery.com/beer-recipe-calculator/

There have been a lot of improvements, ingredient additions, bug fixes, etc... And... It is still free just as it has always been since 2005. Update your links and Enjoy!