How do I determine the amount of sparse water to use

[Reggiegentry123]

Just as the title says, I'm trying to determine how much spare water I should use.

The grain bill is as follows:
15lbs 2 row
1lb caramel 20l

The OG of this brew is supposed to be 1.089 and I had added 6.25 gallons of water for my mash.

Thanks!

 

[chickypad]

You're going to lose about 2 gals to grain absorption (if a regular tun, less if BIAB), leaving you with 4.25 gal of first runnings. Sparge with whatever you need to get to your boil volume.

Edit: be sure to account for any deadspace as well, that will decrease your first runnings.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Use my mash calculator. Link in sig

If you know your mash thickness already, you measure your first runnings and sparge until you hit preboil

 

[dzlater]

You're going to lose about 2 gals to grain absorption (if a regular tun, less if BIAB), leaving you with 4.25 gal of first runnings. Sparge with whatever you need to get to your boil volume.

Edit: be sure to account for any deadspace as well, that will decrease your first runnings.

I've been thinking of trying BIAB, and am wondering why would the grain in BIAB absorb less water then grain in a mash tun?

 

[doug293cz]

I've been thinking of trying BIAB, and am wondering why would the grain in BIAB absorb less water then grain in a mash tun?

Gravity helps squeeze more wort out of a bag than the same about of grain in an MLT. Squeezing the bag can get out even more wort.

Brew on

 

[dzlater]

Gravity helps squeeze more wort out of a bag than the same about of grain in an MLT. Squeezing the bag can get out even more wort.

Brew on

OK make sense.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Is your water sparse, or spare? I'm getting a conflicting message here.

 

[BrewinSoldier]

I fly sparge and usually mash in with 1.5q/lb of grain. Then I usually fill up my HLT with 5 gallons(depending on if I'm doing a 60 or 90min boil) and fly sparge with about an inch or so of water above the grain. I let it go slowly until I reach my desired preboil amount of wort in the kettle and shut it off. I usually end up with a bunch left in the mash tun but it doesn't matter to me once I get what I'm looking for in the kettle.