Im not confident in measuring the correct starter water volume for the Mash and for Sparge so can you please give me some advice? Also, when do you add the corn sugar, during the last part of the mash or boil?
I did the mash with a BIAB technique, and I also sparged that. I know some BIAB skip that step and just do one full mash volume. Perhaps that's a bad technique but its what im use to on the smaller batches ive done previously.
Mainly, how much water overall is what im trying to get down. The basics im learning are (mashing, boil times, temps, sanitation) next on my list is how to use original and final gravity as I haven’t don't that on any of my batches. This is my 4th batch. The first three batches were done with the 1 gallon kits that don't require gravity. Yes, im very new.
Info: Im doing the All Grain Pliny the Elder clone 2.5 gallon from MoreBeer (not the full 5gallon batch as I like doing smaller batches that fits my needs)
So yes, I divided everything by two in the recipe list that I was provided
What I ended up using for water vol:
Mash vol: 2.1 gallons
Sparged Vol: around 3 gallons ( probably more like 2.5 or less used as the next step came to…. 4.25 gallons for my total PRE BOIL.
So, Total pre boil: 4.25 gallons
POST boil: 3.4 gallons (that's around 0.6 gallons evaporation loss per hour, seems low as ive heard and read some lose 1 to 1.5 gallons per hour on the boil) It was about 60 degrees in my garage.
After cooling I had around 3.25 gallons and I placed about 2.9 gallons in the 3 gallon glass fermentor, thinking that I would probably bottle around 2.5 gallons after evaporation in fermentation process and trub loss.
From the directions on morebeer’s general instructions for All-Grains, they say to use the weight of the grains ___ x 1.1 qts divided by 4 = Starting mash vol. in gallons.
This came to 2.1 gallons for my 7.69lbs of starting grain which includes the 0.5lbs of corn sugar….(does that factor into the MASH weight?)
I could be wrong but I added the corn sugar in at the last 10 minutes of the mash and not the boil. The directions say to add the corn sugar to the last 10 mins of boil but when I read further on a different source, it said the last 10 minutes of the mash. Am I wrong? The all grain directions didn't mention that step but the extract version says the last 10mins of mash when you bring the temp up to boil. I digress…
For sparge: instructions say ½ gallon per pound which is more than they say will be needed. This is 7.69 lbs divided by 2 = 3.8 gallons. As mentioned above, I used less than 3 gallons of 165 degree sparge water. mainly because my kettle is a 5 gallon and i didnt want to risk overflow adding any more.
Summary: what water volume should I be using for this pliny all grain recipe? And im assuming that all recipes changes depending on grains as each has roughly their own absorption rates.
Side note: I did sparge using a BIAB process. bag of Mash was taken out of the kettle and placed in a bucket (presanitized of course) where I poured over the sparge water that was around 165 degrees. This was then combined and the bag was somewhat squeezed to produce that 4.25 pre boil vol mentioned above.
I did the mash with a BIAB technique, and I also sparged that. I know some BIAB skip that step and just do one full mash volume. Perhaps that's a bad technique but its what im use to on the smaller batches ive done previously.
Mainly, how much water overall is what im trying to get down. The basics im learning are (mashing, boil times, temps, sanitation) next on my list is how to use original and final gravity as I haven’t don't that on any of my batches. This is my 4th batch. The first three batches were done with the 1 gallon kits that don't require gravity. Yes, im very new.
Info: Im doing the All Grain Pliny the Elder clone 2.5 gallon from MoreBeer (not the full 5gallon batch as I like doing smaller batches that fits my needs)
So yes, I divided everything by two in the recipe list that I was provided
What I ended up using for water vol:
Mash vol: 2.1 gallons
Sparged Vol: around 3 gallons ( probably more like 2.5 or less used as the next step came to…. 4.25 gallons for my total PRE BOIL.
So, Total pre boil: 4.25 gallons
POST boil: 3.4 gallons (that's around 0.6 gallons evaporation loss per hour, seems low as ive heard and read some lose 1 to 1.5 gallons per hour on the boil) It was about 60 degrees in my garage.
After cooling I had around 3.25 gallons and I placed about 2.9 gallons in the 3 gallon glass fermentor, thinking that I would probably bottle around 2.5 gallons after evaporation in fermentation process and trub loss.
From the directions on morebeer’s general instructions for All-Grains, they say to use the weight of the grains ___ x 1.1 qts divided by 4 = Starting mash vol. in gallons.
This came to 2.1 gallons for my 7.69lbs of starting grain which includes the 0.5lbs of corn sugar….(does that factor into the MASH weight?)
I could be wrong but I added the corn sugar in at the last 10 minutes of the mash and not the boil. The directions say to add the corn sugar to the last 10 mins of boil but when I read further on a different source, it said the last 10 minutes of the mash. Am I wrong? The all grain directions didn't mention that step but the extract version says the last 10mins of mash when you bring the temp up to boil. I digress…
For sparge: instructions say ½ gallon per pound which is more than they say will be needed. This is 7.69 lbs divided by 2 = 3.8 gallons. As mentioned above, I used less than 3 gallons of 165 degree sparge water. mainly because my kettle is a 5 gallon and i didnt want to risk overflow adding any more.
Summary: what water volume should I be using for this pliny all grain recipe? And im assuming that all recipes changes depending on grains as each has roughly their own absorption rates.
Side note: I did sparge using a BIAB process. bag of Mash was taken out of the kettle and placed in a bucket (presanitized of course) where I poured over the sparge water that was around 165 degrees. This was then combined and the bag was somewhat squeezed to produce that 4.25 pre boil vol mentioned above.
