First brew today on a Spike Trio

[tommy24a]

Will be doing my first brew today on a Spike trio system. We are doing a 10 gal batch. I have a question on how much water to add t o the MT. Do I add 10gal to the MT initially? Then bring that up to temp then add grain? IIalso see that 1.25 quarts per lb of grain formula being used. If I go that rout my MT vol would only be 5gal or so.

 

[VikeMan]

Ok, first, if you're doing a 10 gallon batch, you're going to need more than 10 gallons of water in total. How much of that goes into the mash initially depends somewhat on your equipment, and also on whether you'll be sparging or doing a full volume mash. 1.25 qts per pound or 1.5 qts per pound are fine for mashing, if your equipment/process will work ok with it. (I don't have a spike system, so I don't know.) What does Spike have to say about it? If I'm using words/concepts you haven't heard, you're not ready to brew your first batch. Sorry if that sounds harsh.

ETA: At a minimum, I would recommend reading "How to Brew" and whatever manual(s) came with your system.

 

[Jeff Kroosz]

Are you using any recipe creating software? Beersmith will help you with MT water, grain absorption, and sparge water quantities to reach your boil volume.
Take good notes for the brew day, noting brewing liquor demands and boil off rate.

 

[tommy24a]

Yes using a beersmith recipe..going over the recipe again to see what I might be missing.

 

[VikeMan]

Yes using a beersmith recipe..going over the recipe again to see what I might be missing.

If Beersmith is telling you that you only need 10 gallons total water for a 10 gallon batch, then things like hop absorption, grain absorption, boil off rate, mash tun dead space, and other losses must be set to 0. But I'm pretty sure 0 wouldn't be a default value for most losses.

 

[RufusBrewer]

I do not see where you mention the size of your grain bill.

If it were me, I would mash 7-8 gallons in the mash tun. Use a calculator to give the best guess for a strike water temp. Or You could go with strike temp = target mash + 5-10 degrees. If you guess low and your initial strike is low, use the power of your new Spike and bring it up to temp.

Mash for 60 minutes at your preferred mash temp. The raise the mash basket and let it drain. Prepare some sparge water. Heat the sparge water up to 168 deg if you can. How much sparge water do you need?Llook in your boil kettle. How much is missing there? Use that much sparge water.

Keep it simple and easy. It is your first batch on the new rig. Do not sweat every detail. My motto is "Take What The Beer Gives You."

Once you have your preferred volume in the boil kettle, Boil, add hops, and other stuff, cool, whirlpool all that jazz as you normally do. You will make beer.

 

[tommy24a]

Thanks guys...building the plane as we fly..lol. Things are becoming more clear. I was reading recipe wrong. I went with 1.25 quart per pound of grain..in this case 5.5gal strike water to start..then will sparge to get to 12.5gal of pre boil.

 

[tommy24a]

Well my son and I managed to get our first brew on the new system with just a few mishaps. But we got it in the conical. Now we wait.

 

[tommy24a]

Some pics from today