How to work out total amount of water

[NoobyBrewer]

Hi All,

I'm going to be brewing this:

Blue Moon Final.

===========================
Makes 22.5 Liters // 5.9 Gallons:

Water:
Standard tap, carbon filtered, nothing fancy.

Grain:
6.0475 lbs. NZ Pale Malt(2-row).
4.8675 lbs. NZ White Wheat Malt.
1.18 lbs. NZ Flaked Oats.


Hops:
0.7375 oz. Hallertauer Mittle Whole 19.3 IBU 76 min (Put in at 76 Min into the 90 min boil)


Spices:
0.5 Oz. Crushed Corriander Seed (boil @ 10 remaining)
1.20 Oz. Crushed Dried Valencia Orange Peel 5 (boil @ 5 remaining)

Yeast:
Prefered * 1056 Chico Or 1187 Ringwood * Prefered.

Other Yeasts if can't get the above:
Wyeast 1187 or White Labs WLP005
Safale S-05 or Nottingham

Boil:
90 mins at 150-151F / 65.5-66.1C

Gravity:
Try to hit around 1.050-1.055 OG
Final 1.014 - 1.015

IBUs:
IBU should run between 16-17.5.
However my target is 9.

4 weeks primary at 68F/20C.
Bottle condition for a month.
============================


As this is my first all-grain please bear with me.


Just so I'm understanding this for the above recipe.

1: Get Grain.
2: Mash Grain at 151F with 5.9 Gal or 22.5 L of water for however long it takes. (Hour?)
3: Take sample and check gravity after 90 minutes, confirm its between 1.050 - 1.055
4: Transfer to boiling pot. (slowly as this can get stuck easily)
5: Boil for 90 Minutes, putting hops and spices in at the times mentioned.
6: Cool quickly to target temp.
7: Pitch yeast.
8: Wait impatiently.
9: Bottle with carb drops or sugar of some description. (I don't have a keg)
10: Wait some more.
11: Enjoy.

How do I work out how much water to use, can I sparge some hot water over the grain once I've run the original wort out of the mash to get my final volume? (5.9 Gal)

Apologies for the simple questions, I'm not wanting to dick this up

Thank you,

Kind regards,

~Cam.

 

[brewbama]

Not having a reference point is gonna be tough. You need to know how much the grain will absorb, how much unrecoverable wort will be remaining after lauter, how much loss to pump(s) and plumbing, how much boil off, how much loss to boil kettle trub, etc. Having brewed a few batches I know all those for my system. This first batch will be a bit of trial and error for you but I can tell you what I do:

I would build 8.5 gal brewing liquor: strike with 5 gal and reserve 3.5 for sparge. I would lauter 3.5 gal 1st run sweet wort, and get another 3.5 gal from 2nd run (sparge). I would boil off about a half gal maybe a bit more, whirlpool and drain 5.5 gal into my fermenter leaving some bitter wort behind with the trub. YMMV

 

[tektonjp]

brewbama is right. There are some blanks to fill in. And you need to think backwards to calculate all this.

Amount you want to bottle
+ trub left in fermenter
+tub left in kettle
+boil off amount
+amount absorbed by grain

equals how much water your brew day needs.

for example
Amount you want to bottle 22.5 liters (odd amount?)
+ trub left in fermenter 1 liter
+tub left in kettle 1 liter
+boil off amount 4 liters
+amount absorbed by grain 5 liters
total- 33.5 liters
mash with 25 liters, sparge with 8.5 (this all just hypothetical example)

 

[IslandLizard]

0: Make a starter a few days ahead when using liquid yeast. It's important to know it's viable while ramping up cell count.
1: Get milled Grain.
2: Mash Grain at 151F with 5.9 Gal or 22.5 L of water for however long it takes. (Hour?) - 60 minutes mash is fine, stir well at the beginning; holding the temps at around 151 is important: Insulate!
3: Take sample and check gravity after 90 60 minutes, confirm its between 1.050 - 1.055 - There shouldn't be any need for taking a sample, just stir well again, let rest for 5', vorlauf and lauter. You can take a sample from the clear runnings.
4: Transfer to boiling pot. (slowly as this can get stuck easily)
5: Boil for 90 60 Minutes, putting hops and spices in at the times mentioned.
6: Cool quickly to target temp.
7: Pitch yeast. - Aerate well when using liquid yeast
8: Wait impatiently. - Control your fermentation temps
9: Bottle with carb drops or sugar of some description. (I don't have a keg)
10: Wait some more.
11: Enjoy.

Mashing with 5.9 gallons of water is not enough to get 6.5-7 gallons of pre-boil wort. Did you forget to mention a sparge?
What kind of mash tun do you use?
How are you sparging?

 

[Dland]

Maybe try using a brew program like beer smith or brewer's friend. I Have beersmith 2.0, and I don't rely on it for every thing it could do, but the brew water calculator is pretty accurate and is a good guideline until you get more familiar with brewing process.

Otherwise get a homebrew book or search on line for tables and favored ratios, etc.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1 on Brewer's Friend! ^
Here's a quick water calculator: Brew365

 

[Redpappy]

Suggest doing a dry run..... using an app will help figure out how much water is needed for mashing.. but for kettle. I would do a dry run. put 6G of water in kettle, Boil for 1 hour, see how much is left. To be on the safe side, add 1 gal for true lost. If you are wanting to be exact on amount on trub lost, measure it out after your first batch. Dialing in your equipment will take a few times.

 

[IslandLizard]

Suggest doing a dry run.....

Sorry, I disagree.^ There's absolutely no need for a "dry run," waste of time and resources, and you end up with... no beer!

Brew, boil, estimate 1/2 gallon of boil off, if it's more, live with the higher gravity (won't hurt) or add some water. Make note for next time.

 

[Jag75]

A 90 min boil would be at least 1.5 gallons. I think his kettle will also play a factor . I'm not seeing if hes using propane or electric. If electric is it 110 or 240 . I use Gf 110 and I boil off 1 gallon for 60 min boil. If my system boiled more aggressively it be safe to say it be more .

I'm with Islandlizard on the dry run . A basic calculator will get you darn close

 

[NoobyBrewer]

Thank you all very much

Sorry, I disagree.^ There's absolutely no need for a "dry run," waste of time and resources, and you end up with... no beer!

Brew, boil, estimate 1/2 gallon of boil off, if it's more, live with the higher gravity (won't hurt) or add some water. Make note for next time.

So having a higher gravity before fermenting, won't hurt the beer?

 

[IslandLizard]

Thank you all very much

So having a higher gravity before fermenting, won't hurt the beer?

10% (~5 points) difference is hardly noticeable. If it comes up a bit high, you could add water to bring it down, giving you a little more volume.

As @Jag75 said, a gallon an hour is a very average boil off. With low powered heaters, kitchen stoves, etc. it may be 1/2 that.
You don't need a rolling boil, a good simmer (good surface rippling) is plenty.

 

[myndflyte]

One thing people haven't mentioned is that your starting gravity target is 1.05 - 1.055. Just so you aren't surprised, after you mash, your gravity is going to be lower than that. That's because you still have a 90 min boil that will concentrate your wort to 1.050 - 1.055. So if you do check the gravity after mashing, you will be in the 1.04's range.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Most important: TAKE NOTES! This is what allows you to figure out your system for the next go-around. Notes throughout the process helps troubleshoot, too, to determine at which points in your brewday you're losing efficiency and can be improved.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I built my own spreadsheet using calculated values from my system (water lost to dead space, pH samples, etc), average absorption loss from both grain and hops, expected evaporation loss, 4% for "shrinkage", etc...
Took a while to perfect it.

 

[kh54s10]

Nailing down your boil off is going to be the biggest variable in how much water you will need. As stated 1 gallon per hour is average. But on my rig it is very close to 2 gallons per hour.

I would go with a couple of very simple recipes to "dial things in". Get a decent feel for the procedures. If you miss your targets on gravity or volume, you still get beer. You can then make adjustments before you do your desired recipe.

I agree that you don't need 90 minute mash or boil. 60 minutes is standard with the possible exception of mashing Pilsner malts for 90 to drive of DMS, which with today's malts doesn't seem to be critical.

Fermentation temperature control is the easiest area to make beers better. Look up swamp cooler if you don't have other ways to control temperature. (Of the wort not the air around the fermenter)