My process and a few questions

On saturday, me and a buddy brewed a scottish ale, and here is how we did it:

• heat up 7 gallons of water to 164 degrees F
• pour this water in the mash ton and then add 12.5 lbs of grains (do you guys have a method of getting the lumps out?)
• stir and let this sit for an hour at 155 degrees F
• once an hour is up, we added 3 gallons of 170 degree F sparge water, then did a batch sparge, since the grain bed was disturbed, until the wort was clean
• took all of this and boiled for 90 minute etc...just like usual

so that was my process, feel free to let me know if i am not doing the sparging right, that is where i am sort of confused.

• Can anyone explain 2nd and 3rd runnings?
• is my sparge process how most of you do it?
• does anyone have a calculation for absorption?

this is my 2nd all grain brew, i know there are some things i didnt do like take gravity readings and such...next brew is going to be calculated better

thanks in advance for the responses!

I'm a bit unclear on your "sparge". Did you add the 3 gallons to the tun before you drained any wort off? If so, that isn't really a "sparge".

For batch sparging, the general process is to add about 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per lb of grain. Stir like mad and then let sit of an hour or so. Drain the tun completely. (Those are your first runnings) Then, add sparge water and stir like crazy. Let it sit for a couple minutes and then drain completely. (Those are your second runnings) Some people do that step twice using half of their sparge water each time. (That last sparge would be the 3rd runnings.)

For lumps, you basically just need to stir, stir, stir. If you've got a buddy helping, one of you can stir while the other pours. If you are doing it yourself, you can add some grain, stir, add some more grain, stir, and then add the rest, and stir.

thanks billl! yeah we didnt drain any wort before adding the 3 gallons...i didnt think that step was correct...will this affect our final product?

silentmike said:

thanks billl! yeah we didnt drain any wort before adding the 3 gallons...i didnt think that step was correct...will this affect our final product?

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You'll still get a good beer doing it the way you did. It'll hurt your efficiency, though. Another thing to keep in mind is to stir a lot when you add your sparge water as well, so you pull as much sugar as you can from the grain.