First all grain sparge water question

[mattyp1214]

So looking to my first all grain soon. I downloaded beeralchemy since I run OSX and I am trying to make sense of batch sparging.

So I've read it takes about 1.3 qts per pound of grain in the mash. If the mash is 8.5 lbs then I will need about 11 qts. of water.

Alchemy says pre-boil is 6.5 gal of water to end up with 5.5 gal final. So do you sparge with the difference (6.5 gal minus 11 qts???) to get to your target preboil amount?

When batch sparging how long do sparge? Do you recirculate the sparge water in the tun too?

 

[Walker]

Alchemy says pre-boil is 6.5 gal of water to end up with 5.5 gal final. So do you sparge with the difference (6.5 gal minus 11 qts???) to get to your target preboil amount?

It'll take more water than that. The 11 quarts you put in for the mash will not all come back out. The grain will absorb some water.

For 8.5 lbs of grain, you will lost about 5 quarts of that 11.

After that initial absorption by the grain, you won't see anymore loss of liquid into the tun, so to end up with 6.5 gallons in the kettle, you'll need to sparge with about 5 gallons.

When batch sparging how long do sparge? Do you recirculate the sparge water in the tun too?

With batch sparging, it's generally sufficient to add the sparge water, stir a little, and then drain it. Just a few minutes of rest. But, yes you will need to ciruclate some of the wort to filter out the grain particles before you go to the tun.

 

[92greenyj]

First off great choice on Beer Alchemy. I bought this a few months ago and just love it.

Now these numbers are based off my brewing system and its losses, so yours may be a little different. I mash with 1.5qts per lb of grain. I recirculate for 60 seconds then pump the mash into my BK. Then I pump 1 gallon less than what I mashed with into my MT. Stir, cover and let it sit for 20 minutes. I again recirculate for 60 seconds (though many say it is not necessary to recirculate the sparge, I do anyway for consistency sake) then I pump this into my BK. I stir it up well, take my Pre Boil Gravity reading, and fire up the BK. For a 5 gallon batch I typically start with about 7.5 to 8 gallons in my BK. after 60 minutes I end up with about 5.5 gallons that goes into the fermenter. I lose about a half gallon in my BK below my drain pickup.

 

[mattyp1214]

Awesome that answered my question I think

 

[craigevo]

Not sure about the MAC version, but my iPhone BA has a setting for batch sparging which, when selected, causes the instructions to automatically calculate the water volumes for each batch sparge. And they work !

Check in the 'Profiles' section. You should see batch or fly sparging somewhere.

Strange there is no setting to say how much wort you loose in dead space - but for my settup it somehow gets everything spot on.

 

[mattyp1214]

That's awesome thanks for the headsup! I need to download BA for my iphone...