Grain to water ratio

[BrewingChip]

Hey all,

I know this is something that comes up often, but wanted to still post here. Will be brewing a summer shandy style beer BIAB and am going to try to make a five gallon batch of beer with a goal of 8% - 8.5% Abv and then will add five gallons of lemonade from Costco in the keg. I want to make sure I have five gallons of wort in my fermentor but am worried the grain will absorb lots of the water. Here’s my recipe..

10 pounds Pilsner
10 pounds White Wheat

Mash at 152 for an hour

2 oz. Willamette at 60 min
2 oz. Cascade at 30 min

Pitch S-05 at 75 degrees

So, with that much info, how much water should I start with for my mash?

 

[IslandLizard]

Brewer's Friend has a recipe designer, as well as a plethora of calculators.

Is it your intention to end up with 5 gallons of (unfermented) wort or (fermented) beer? At what target gravity?
Then after fermenting that, you're going to add 5 gallons of lemonade to it, that's not going to be fermented, correct?

A typical (corny) keg is 5 gallons, so I guess you're going to be splitting this over 2 kegs?

 

[mashpaddled]

You need to account for all liquid losses along the way.

In the mash you can lose up to a pint per pound to grain absorption. With BIAB you might squeeze the bag which will get some of that liquid back out.

You also need to account for any deadspace in your system from mash to getting wort in the fermentation vessel. With BIAB you probably don't have any meaningful losses unless you use pumps to move wort to the kettle. If you pour from kettle to FV you probably don't have losses.

You'll lose some wort to hops in the kettle but unless you're brewing a super hoppy beer--which it doesn't sound like it--I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[BrewingChip]

Brewer's Friend has a recipe designer, as well as a plethora of calculators.

Is it your intention to end up with 5 gallons of (unfermented) wort or (fermented) beer? At what target gravity?
Then after fermenting that, you're going to add 5 gallons of lemonade to it, that's not going to be fermented, correct?

A typical (corny) keg is 5 gallons, so I guess you're going to be splitting this over 2 kegs?

My intention is to end up with 5 gallons of unfermented beer. I will be splitting the beer between two five gallon kegs, and adding equal parts unfermented lemonade.

 

[IslandLizard]

My intention is to end up with 5 gallons of unfermented beer. I will be splitting the beer between two five gallon kegs, and adding equal parts unfermented lemonade.

Of course you cannot ferment 5 gallons of beer/lemonade mix in a 5 gallon keg. You'll need to leave enough headspace for the krausen/foam, I'd say at least a gallon worth.

So, I would not fill those kegs beyond 4 gallons. Even then, you'd still need some sort of temp control during fermentation to prevent large amounts of blow-off, and unwanted off-flavors due to high fermentation temps. and part due to lemonade containing large amounts of (simple) sugars (such as sucrose, dextrose, fructose, etc.).

Make sure the lemonade doesn't contain any ingredients that hamper yeast growth, such as sorbates.

 

[BrewingChip]

Of course you cannot ferment 5 gallons of beer/lemonade mix in a 5 gallon keg. You'll need to leave enough headspace for the krausen/foam, I'd say at least a gallon worth.

So, I would not fill those kegs beyond 4 gallons. Even then, you'd still need some sort of temp control during fermentation to prevent large amounts of blow-off, and unwanted off-flavors due to high fermentation temps. and part due to lemonade containing large amounts of (simple) sugars (such as sucrose, dextrose, fructose, etc.).

Make sure the lemonade doesn't contain any ingredients that hamper yeast growth, such as sorbates.

My plan is to ferment the beer, and transfer into a keg with equal parts lemonade, then chill/serve immediately. Would the beer continue to ferment with the lemonade while it’s in the keg in my cold kegerator?

 

[VikeMan]

Would the beer continue to ferment with the lemonade while it’s in the keg in my cold kegerator?

Possibly. But very slowly.

 

[BrewingChip]

Ok, good. My assumption was that I wouldn’t have many issues with this. Especially if it’s a crushable of a beverage as I’m going for.

Possibly. But very slowly.

 

[DuncB]

Why not just add the lemonade to the beer once brewed? That's the traditional way and leaves room for other options such as adding ginger beer instead.

 

[doug293cz]

Would the beer continue to ferment with the lemonade while it’s in the keg in my cold kegerator?

Possibly. But very slowly.

If the beer were fully fermented, there is no more fermentable sugar. However, the sugar from the lemonade can ferment, although slowly because of the low temp.

Brew on