A water/mash question for you guys ..........

So I have done several all grain batches and they have all turned out great so far. I got the process down, hitting efficiencies, and final volumes and all that goodness.

So my question is simple ............ I think.

How does everyone prepare their water?

Previously, I have always started with enough water for strike and sparge. I bring all this water to a boil (this takes a long time) and let it boil for a few minutes. Then i let the water drop to desired strike temp (this takes some more time). I then add the required volume of strike water to my mash tun. I turn of the gas and put the lid on my pot and let the sparge water sit for about 35-40 mintues. About 20 minutes prior to sparging, I crank up the gas to get the water thats left in my pot up to desired sparge temperature so that it will be at the appropriate temp when it is time to sparge.

Am I wasting a ton of propane and time by bringing 9 to 11 gallons (Depending on the recipe) to a boil? then waiting for it to drop to temp and then reheating sparge water?

Is there any reason to boil the strike and sparge water at all? The wort is going to boil for an hour anyways.

Anyways, I just wondered what everyone else does and if it makes any difference in the mashing process.

Thanks

I usually am heating 14 gallons to 165F or so and then mashing with about 9 gallons. The other 4-5 gallons get topped off to about 8-9 gallons for sparging and is slowly brought up to 185-195F as the mash is going on. It never gets boiled. I am using adjusted RO water.

The only thing I add is some 5.2 ph stabilizer. I think I will probably cut out the boiling before mashing part as it adds a lot of time to the process. Extra time to bring it up to boil and then even more to wait for it to drop back down.

I think it might have been a little overkill.

yeast_infection said:

The only thing I add is some 5.2 ph stabilizer. I think I will probably cut out the boiling before mashing part as it adds a lot of time to the process. Extra time to bring it up to boil and then even more to wait for it to drop back down.

I think it might have been a little overkill.

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Yeah, this would be my reading ... you're going to boil it anyway, so why waste the time and energy to boil it beforehand? I just bring my water to temps (about 10 degrees over strike temp in order to preheat the cooler), starting with hot water from the stove, which takes about 20 minutes. If you use 5.2, or if your water is generally good (as mine is here; or so they say, at least), I can't see how bringing it to a boil before the mash would help at all.

I'm nowhere near an expert (nowhere near!) on these things, though, so someone with more expertise might weigh in differently.

If the only reason you're doing that is sanitation, it's completely unnecessary.

Not only will the boil take care of cleanliness, but people forget that mashing temps and times are practically pasteurizing your wort as well.

I Boil mine also to get rid of any chlorine or minerals. I just do it the night/day before and let it cool down over night. Then I start fresh in AM. (and add 5.2)

Boiling the water can be used to precipitate out carbonate and calcium but doing it deliberately for that reason without knowing your current levels is wasteful. You might need them depending on your recipe. If you have chlorine, you can let it sit uncovered overnight to dissipate and just heating it will help it along. If it's chloramine, boiling doesn't do anything. Campden added to the cold water will fix both in minutes.

Bobby_M said:

Campden added to the cold water will fix both in minutes.

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My process will be changing, but I used to do this:
Heat strike water in keggle with half a campden tablet added (only amount of water needed for 1st runnings).
Add 5.2, transfer to MLT, dough in.
Near end of mash, start heating sparge water with half campden tablet added.
Drain MLT to buckets, transfer sparge water to MLT, transfer buckets to keggle, flame on.
After sparge, just add it to keggle.

My water treatment depends on the beer I'm making. My water is pretty soft, but high in sulfates (Denver water, Marston Reservoir). If I'm brewing something pale, below about 7 SRM, I simply heat my dough-in water to strike temperature +10 degrees with a quarter of a campden tablet. The mash gets pH 5.2 buffer and canning salt to adjust the Chloride / Sulfate ratio.

During the mash, sparge water gets heated with another quarter of a campden tablet, unless I'm brewing a no-sparge batch, in which case there is no sparge water.

The procedure for darker beers is similar, except that I will add other minerals to the mash as necessary, using Palmer's spreadsheet to guide the additions.