2nd all grain in progress advise

My total water used will be 45.2 qts

I'm mahing 12.73 lbs grain at 150 degrees with 19.1 qts.

I batch sparge and am not sure if I should use an equal amount of water as the mash (19.1 qts) and just top of the boil kettle with the remaining.

Or should I batch sparge with the remaining 26 qts.

Ideally with batch sparging, you want to try to target an equal volume between first and second runnings. I normally do 5g batches. With my system, I know that if I mash initially with 4.5g of strike water (usually around 11-12 lbs of grain), and mash-out with a half gallon, I'll get about 3.5g first runnings, and then I sparge with 3.5g, which I get back almost entirely, for an initial boil volume of 7g. YMMV - I don't know what your setup is (i.e. how much dead space in the tun).

Tim

You should sparge with the remaining water- you shouldn't top off with water for your boil. You'd want to extract all of the sugars out of the grain that you can.

Unless your sparging with more than .5 gallons per pound of grain, you don't have to worry about oversparging. In all of my batches, I use 1.25 quarts per pound for the mash, and then sparge for the remaining boil volume.

Thanks.

That being said, I will sparge with the remaining 26 qts, 6.5 gallons.

Can I do that in two equal sparges 3.25 and 3.25.

I really don't have the ability to heat up 6.5 gallons at one time unless I use my boil pot and thats too heavy to move arounf with that much water in it.

You'll get better efficiency splitting it in two anyway. Go for it.

Wild Duk said:

Thanks.

That being said, I will sparge with the remaining 26 qts, 6.5 gallons.

Can I do that in two equal sparges 3.25 and 3.25.

I really don't have the ability to heat up 6.5 gallons at one time unless I use my boil pot and thats too heavy to move arounf with that much water in it.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's how you should do it, in two equal batches.