Volume Issues

[panicbuttonguy]

So I'm 5 batches in and I keep getting too much pre boil volume. I use the calculator and it says to use x amount of gallons of strike and x amount of gallons of sparge water. Every time I get too much in the kettle. Last time it told me to use 6 gallons of sparge water so I used 4 and still got too much. Let's just say I'm entering all of the information into the calculator correctly. My question is.

Which is better to do, stop my 2nd running when I get my desired pre boil vol or put as much in the kettle as possible and only put 5 gallons in the primary.

Also what's a good calculator to use for this?

 

[Yooper]

So I'm 5 batches in and I keep getting too much pre boil volume. I use the calculator and it says to use x amount of gallons of strike and x amount of gallons of sparge water. Every time I get too much in the kettle. Last time it told me to use 6 gallons of sparge water so I used 4 and still got too much. Let's just say I'm entering all of the information into the calculator correctly. My question is.

Which is better to do, stop my 2nd running when I get my desired pre boil vol or put as much in the kettle as possible and only put 5 gallons in the primary.

Also what's a good calculator to use for this?

I like Beersmith, but you still have to set it up for your own system.

You can easily calculate the needed volume yourself, to double check any software (which you should do anyway).

You will stop sparging when you reach your boil volume. If you're batch sparging, you want to measure your runnings so you know how much you will need in the sparge.

As an example, say you're using 10 pounds of grain. If you mash in with 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain, that's 11.25 quarts of water for the mash (you can call it 3 gallons to make life easier, though!). The grain should absorb about .125 gallons per pound, so you can expect to lose 1.25 gallons to absorption. That means you'd get out about 1.75 gallons out of the first runnings. If you want to have a boil volume of 6.5 gallons, then you'd need 4.75 gallons for the sparge. If you're batch sparging, it's usually more efficient to divide the sparge water into two additions (half at a time).

 

[wilserbrewer]

You can easily do without a calculator for batch sparging...conduct two batch sparges, after the first sparge, simply measure the quantity of runnings lacking to achieve proper preboil volume and make that amount the final sparge amount. easy peasy!

Sparge to reach a certain volume, do NOT sparge a certain amount because someone told you so...j/k.