Help with mash and sparge water volume

[jimbohlia]

Sorry for the rookie questions but I have done several all grain batches and I thought I would have figured this out by now but I still keep screwing it up.. I have used the mash and sparge calculator on brew365.com and it always seems like too much water to me. Tomorrow I am brewing a 5 gallon batch with a 12.85 grain bill and a 1 hr boil. It says I should use 4.27 gallons for mash and 4.76 for sparge for a total of 9.04 gallons. I know there are a number of variables in play but I am using a common set up with a 20 gallon round igloo and a false bottom. Does 9 gallons seem high or is it in the ball park? Thanks in advance!

 

[Sbarnard80]

That does seem a bit high. I guess it may also depend on if they including all the trub when you dump it into the fermenter. I use .125 gallons per lb of grain soak up and I usually lose about a half a gallon during the boil. Which would yield less than 9 gal in this instance.

 

[kh54s10]

I suggest that you skip the calculator. Go with 1.25 to 1.5 quarts per pound of grain. Drain the tun and measure the amount you have in the boil kettle. I use a stick measured off in gallons and dip it.

Then subtract that amount from the total you need for your preboil volume. I batch sparge in two additions and measure after the first so I am more accurate on the second half.

I need a little over 7 gallons preboil to end up with just over 5 gallons to the fermenter.

 

[acidrain]

First off, you need to know your boil off rate. Do you know that?
Then you can do your mash and sparge as kh54s10 described. You'll need your batch size plus the boil off rate as your target pre-boil volume.

 

[olotti]

I suggest that you skip the calculator. Go with 1.25 to 1.5 quarts per pound of grain. Drain the tun and measure the amount you have in the boil kettle. I use a stick measured off in gallons and dip it.

Then subtract that amount from the total you need for your preboil volume. I batch sparge in two additions and measure after the first so I am more accurate on the second half.

I need a little over 7 gallons preboil to end up with just over 5 gallons to the fermenter.

This as above is exactly where I'm at. Being new also I used the 6.5 Gal preboil some recipes suggested and boiled off to much but also lost alot to hop trub. I've since made a hop spider and on that batch lost maybe between .25-.5 gal but that was with a 6.5 gal boil. This last batch I did 7 gal pre boil and came alot closer to the 5.5 I want into fermenter. Tomm Im going just over 7 gal and that should get me exactly 5.5 gal batch size hopefully. 9 gal for a 5 gal batch is way to high your beer will be very watered down and real low efficiency wise. Use the 1.25-1.5qts per lb of grain dough in, get your first runnings and see where your at. I lose 1 gallon from a 4 Gal dough in then mash out with 1 gallon and sparge with 3.5 and I get 7. As like you I'm still learning my equipment. GL

 

[jimbohlia]

Thank you for the info!! I will go with the 1.25qt per grain pound and do the sparge in 2 additions (never knew you could do that). Hopefully I'll hit 5 gallons tomorrow!

 

[olotti]

Thank you for the info!! I will go with the 1.25qt per grain pound and do the sparge in 2 additions (never knew you could do that). Hopefully I'll hit 5 gallons tomorrow!

If you do that you'll def get 5 Gal. but don't forget your going to lose volume to hop gunk in the BK and also to the yeast cake and dry hop in the fermenter also, so like me I'm shooting for 5.5 gallons into fermenter figure lose atleast .5 gal to yeast and I dry hop no bag in primary. Still trying to find the sweet spot but Beersmith says for me to achieve that I need 7.25 Gal pre boil volume, but I calculate 1.25 gal loss to boil also. Some things to think about but everybodys system even the same acts just a little different.

 

[shaggyman07]

I am having a problem moving to a 10 gl batch. I was mashing 5 gl water at 170 strike getting around 156 mash. I have a 10 gl mash tun and when I went 7 gl strike at 170 I got a 149 mash. Do I need a hotter strike or bigger mash tun. I spent a lot making the move from 6 gl mash tun to 10. Do I need a larger mash tun or hotter water




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[Natdavis777]

Find out what your dead space is in the mash tun. 9.3gal is about spot on for my old system. It was a rectangle cooler so it had a decent amount of dead space.
With your false bottom and dip tube, you should have inherently less dead space so you might get away around 8 gal.

If you need to figure your volumes on the fly for whatever reason, take your grain bill multiplied by your water ratio (usually 1.3). Divide that number by 4 and there is your mash volume in gallons. Multiply that again by 0.45 and that should roughly be your first running volume. Then subtract that from your total boil volume and you then have your sparge volume.

Again, that's on the fly and with minimal dead space/ or factoring in dead space compensation


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[jimbohlia]

If you do that you'll def get 5 Gal. but don't forget your going to lose volume to hop gunk in the BK and also to the yeast cake and dry hop in the fermenter also, so like me I'm shooting for 5.5 gallons into fermenter figure lose atleast .5 gal to yeast and I dry hop no bag in primary. Still trying to find the sweet spot but Beersmith says for me to achieve that I need 7.25 Gal pre boil volume, but I calculate 1.25 gal loss to boil also. Some things to think about but everybodys system even the same acts just a little different.

Glad you mentioned that because I was FINALLY going to account for trub loss on this batch and I almost forgot. I guess I've always been worried that I am going to lose gravity with all that extra wort.

 

[jimbohlia]

Well I brewed my batch and hit my target amount of 5.5 gallons and gravity dead on- I wish the story ended there.. I live in a n old log cabin I just bought 6 months ago and was brewing on the side deck that has aging planks that I am planning on replacing this summer. After 6 hours of brewing I had my 5.5 gallons in the fermenter and was walking across the deck and walked across a soft spot in the wood...me with the added weight of the fermenter was too much... I fell through, the fermenter bucket hit the ground and the lid exploded off and I watched my batch sink into the ground. All I had left was my sample I pulled out. Tragic and now that I've had some time to lick my wounds, kinda funny.

 

[Natdavis777]

Wow... That is wild. Sorry to hear,but hey, at least you got the system dialed in, right?!


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[MrSpaz]

Oh wow. No good! RIP best batch of beer you've brewed! Now you just gotta replicate!

I'm brewing my first all grain on my new equipment tomorrow. I hope it goes smooth likes yours but ends better!