Mash & Sparge question (Batch method)

Forgive me if the answer to this could be found in a sticky, but I thought I would ask while searching for some clarity, so here goes...

I have read that you want to use 1.5 - 2 quarts of water per lb of grain in the mash, (and then a similar amount for the sparge). I am preparing for a 5gal setup (6 - 6.5gal pre-boil) and am using 13.5lbs of grain, so that would come to be 5gal for the mash if I use the lower end of the spectrum (1.5 quarts per lb of grain). Assuming the grain will absorb about 1.7 quarts, that would mean that I would still need about 3 gal +/- of water to reach the pre-boil volume. So would I then sparge with 3gal of water? Or would I rather sparge with another 5 gal, but only draw the amount I need? The recipe is vague, the brew shop told me to use 4gal mash & 4gal sparge, the book I'm reading seems to say (at least) 5gal mash & 5gal sparge, and BeerSmith is telling me approx 4.2gal mash & 3.6gal sparge. What say you?

Next question is with regards to the sparge water temp. While all the sources pretty much say the same thing for the initial strike water, they all give a fairly wide swing on what temp to sparge with, (anything from 155F - 200F). Again, what say ye?

Oh, BTW, this will be for a strong IPA with an OG of about 1.072 if that helps.

I thank you in advance for your assistance!

 

The numbers you cite would result in a mash way too thin. It's best to keep the water vol fairly equal between mash and sparge.

Just for example, yesterday I mashed 17 lb using 4.5 gallons mash water, 4.5 gallons sparge. Just over 7 gallons pre-boil.

 

The sparge water temp is not critical unless you are doing a mash out, which may or may not be needed. There are calculators that someone could link to but I just use system knowledge to get the grain bed in some general area I'm shooting for.

 

Perhaps I misunderstood the 1.5 - 2 quarts per lb of grain...maybe that is TOTAL water. Perhaps I will just go with either what the brew shop says or BeerSmith then.

 

No you are correct - the average desired mash thickness is 1.25-1.5 qt/lb. I've never seen or heard of the concept of keeping the mash and sparge volumes equal - that doesn't make sense to me. There have been many experiments showing that a thinner mash actually produces a better conversion than a thicker mash, however you'll need to balance the thickness to still leave enough water to accommodate a meaningful sparge.

Another reason to keep the mash thicker or thinner is to keep the pH in check. Sometimes if you're using municipal water and have a thinner mash with a lighter beer (or thicker mash with a darker beer), it will drive the pH too high.

My rule of thumb is to stick to the often cited 1.25qt/lb number, perhaps straying a little thinner than this if the beer allows (maybe to say 1.5 qt/lb). However, I usually mash-out as well as fly-sparge, so you need to take all of these things into account.

I believe most of my beers that are roughly 12lbs would have a strike volume of ~15-16 quarts, a mash out of about 1.5-2 gallons, and a sparge of the remaining volume necessary to get me to my preboil volume (generally about 3-3.5 gallons).

If you want to mash thinner, go for it, and it should just reduce the amount needed to sparge.

I've used Beersmith from the beginning and have very little qualms with what it suggests.

Edit: Just noticed you mentioned batch sparge; most of what I said applies to fly sparging, though I'm sure it will still be applicable to batch sparging for the most part.

 

Good to know. It seems to use the 1.25 figure for the mash and then adjust the sparge for pre-boil volume, (which makes the most sense to me).

Thanks!

 

You can always keep it simple. After your first runnings, sparge with the water volume that will give the pre-boil volume that you want.

 

Use this calculator.

http://pricelessbrewing.github.io/BiabCalc/

It will allow you to adjust mash thickness so you can see the differing amounts needed for mash/sparge.

I routinely use 1.5qt/lb. You can make it really easy if you want and just dump 5 gallons in mash, 4 gallons in sparge. You'll likely get 3.5-4 gallons first runnings and have more than enough second runnings. With the left-over second runnings, you can jar some and use it as a yeast starter for your next batch.

The calculator shows a lot of info - let me know if you have questions. The guy that designed it is active on the reddit r/homebrewing

 

Thanks! I ended up starting brew day before checking back to this thread, so I ended up using 1.25qt/lb (4.25g mash) and sparged with an additional 3.75 gal, which gave me about 6.25g pre-boil volume, which is what I was shooting for.

 

I have been brewing batch sparge for a couple of years typically I calculate the total water needed via a website like the following,
brew 365
then cut that in half and round to the nearest quarter gallon per batch. I don't have issues with conversion and I find my results are usually well taken. I will sometimes complicate this by mashing in quite thick (.90-1.05 q/lb) then ramping temp up with boiling water. But the simplified version is exactly what I just mentioned. Hope this helps.

 

I'm here too

 

Welcome!