help with mash - sparge water pls!

[Konstantinos]

Hi,
I'm new to All Grain so I could really appreciate some help here!
I'm trying to do the following recipe:

Batch Size: 22.5 Liter(s) (5.9 gal)
Boil Size: 25.5 Liter(s) (6.7 gal)
Boil Time: 60 min
Efficiency: 70%

1.047OG
1.007FG

Wheat Malt kg 1.8 (4pounds)
Greece-Vergina Blonde kg 2.5 (5.5pounds)
Melanoidin kg 0.5 (1.1pounds)

The recipe doesn't provide Water Volumes.

Grainfather site gives me the following:
Mash 18.08 L (4.8 g)
Sparge 13.74 L (3.6 g)
Total Water 31.82 L (8.4 g)

are they accurate? they are not close to the 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain people suggest in the forum..

I would appreciate any help! /confused

 

[McKnuckle]

Water volumes are based on your system. You need to take your desired volume in the fermenter, which in this case is 22.5 liters, and add back all of the water losses that your process will incur.

From start to finish, they are:

• Water permanently absorbed into grain (0.1 gal/lb)
• Volume of wort left behind in the mash tun (ideally, NONE)
• Volume evaporated during boil - depends on your kettle diameter, boil vigor, and ambient humidity. Estimate between 0.5 and 1 gal/hour, which is a wide difference... hence you should do a boil test with plain water and find out what applies to you.
• Volume left behind in the kettle, either absorbed into hops (0.09 gal/ounce) or otherwise not recovered (ideally, NONE)

If you are using a Grainfather, then it's likely that their site has these volumes figured out for you, so you will be very close if you use their numbers. But this is the general principle.

Once you have a total volume of water needed, you can either mash with full volume, or break it into a mash volume and a sparge volume. How you divide it between those two is entirely up to you, and doesn't really make a big difference to the end product.

 

[brownni5]

Looks like a mash of about 1.8 qts/lb. Not anything wrong with that. Some prefer a thin mash, others a thick mash.

 

[Konstantinos]

thanks!!

about mashing, the recipe quotes:

Mash in temp °C 72 time 0 min
Saccharification Rest temp °C 65 time 60 min

Do i get it right: I heat the water to 72C then add the grains and leave it fall to 65C for 60 mins, then sparge and boil?

 

[McKnuckle]

72C is your strike temperature. When the grain mixes with that water, and you will stir it to mix it well, the temp should quickly drop to 65C which is your first actual rest target. You then allow it to sit for 60 minutes at 65C.

 

[Konstantinos]

thanks!

 

[jschein]

I have found the Grainfather water calculation to be very accurate

 

[wilserbrewer]

A worthwhile water volume check during the mash is to measure your first runnings volume, then subtract that from your pre boil volume and you will have your sparge volume.