Today I prepare, Tomorrow my first AG

[BrewForMe]

I have finally gathered everything to start my first AG batch, I hope so today i will get my gravity feed system set up and ready to go for tomorrows big adventure. My biggest concern is my 5 gallon MT. I will be brewing Edworts Haus Pale Ale as my first AG. If I mash in with 3 gallons of water, there will not be enough room for a proper mashout as this will probably require 2-3 gallons of boiling water to get temps up to 170. I am planning on fly sparging, can i just drain some of my wort before mash out so I have enough room for to reach 170?

I do need to get a 10 gallon MT, but for now its not an option, i cant find any locally and $20 just for shipping stings too much. Does anyone else use a 5 gallon MT and how do you handle your mash out?

 

[MalFet]

You are better off just skipping the mash-out, in all likelihood. Hope the weather is better for brewing where you are than where I am!

 

[usfmikeb]

Sparging works best when you have an equal volume of wort exiting the MT as is entering the MT, so it might be possible. However, getting to that balance may result in your MT overflowing. How big is your kettle? Can you handle taking off the first runnings, adding a few gallons of 170 water to mash tun, and running that off as well?

 

[ajf]

If you mashed a bit thicker, you should have plenty of room for a mash out. I used to use a 5g cooler and fly sparge, and could get up to 12# grain and still have room for the mash out with a mash thickness of 1 qt per lb.
I've also used up to 13.5# grain, and filled the cooler to the brim with boiling water at the end of the sparge. This didn't bring the temperature up to 170, but it did raise it somewhat. I would stir well, and let it rest for a few minutes, vorlauf, and drain sufficient wort to make room for the rest of the mash out water, which is very similar to what you are proposing. It worked well. I needed to thin out the mash a bit before draining to avoid stuck sparges. If you are mashing thinner, you could probably just drain sufficient wort to make room for the mash out infusion.
Good luck.

-a.

 

[BrewForMe]

Isn't mash out necessary to stop the conversion?

My kettle is 42 qt, so yes i can take first running to give enough room, i just wasn't sure how that would effect efficiency since i will be fly sparging.

I have a grain bill of 12 pounds so that mean 3 gallon infusion for mash, I suspect my MT will be pretty close to full at this point, Brew target calls for almost 1.5 gallons of boiling water to reach mash out of 170*, so maybe i can just drain off a little over a gallon of wort before mash out and give myself a little over 1 gallon of space for mash out, though I am unsure how this will effect efficiency.

Thank you for your responses

 

[ajf]

If you get full conversion during the mash, then I don't think that using a mash out to stop conversion is going to make very much difference.
I do a mash out for two reasons:
1. The mash out water thins out the runnings and helps to prevent a stuck sparge.
2. I have found that by thoroughly stirring the mash out water before starting the sparge, I get an extra 10% efficiency.

According to Promash, 12# grain and 3g water should take up 3.96g. This would leave you just over 1g capacity for the mash out water. This may not get you to 170, but it should get you well over 160 which would be enough to denature the beta amylase and preserve the body of the beer.

-a.

 

[azscoob]

in a 5 gallon MLT, if you have 10.5 pounds of grain, and mash at 1.3:1 you should have enough room to add the 1.25 gallons of water that the grain absorbed, bring it to a boil and it should bring you almost to 168°. but that is going to be one super full MLT!

Add what you can, keep track of the water that you add so you dont short your total in the boil kettle.

I boil off a gallon and a half over an hour boil, add in the roughly 5 quarts lost to grain absorption, and that would mean I would need 8.25 gallons total.

dough in with 3.5 gallons, mash out with 1.25 gallons (or whatever you can fit), than sparge with the remaining 3.5 gallons plus whatever you couldnt add from the mashout.

on my system that would get me 7 gallons into the kettle, and boil it down to 5.5 gallons.

 

[BrewForMe]

Thanks guys, sounds like maybe i am worried over nothing, you remember how it was your first time...right?