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You guys are the best. Thanks a lot for everyone's help.

Oops, I just realized that the idea is to minimize head space as much as possible when mashing. So if I'm doing 4.75 lbs. @ 1.5 qts/lb., that will take up 2.16 gallons of space. If I use a 5 gallon pot, that's a lot of headspace and I imagine it will be harder to maintain at 150. The problem...

Thanks, Palefire. So it sounds like you recommend using a little less water for the mash than I was planning to. With 4.75 lbs. of grain @ 1.5 qts/lb. it would be 1.8 gallons. What about the sparge water volume? Is it also a good idea to use less, rather than more, water in that step? How...

My biggest pot is 5 gallons so I will be mashing with 2.5 gallons (4.75 lbs. of grain), which is in line with Bobby's recommendation for not exceeding 2.5 qts. per pound of grain. I'll use perhaps another 2 gallons for sparge to end up with 4 gallons or so of wort pre-boil.

Thanks for the reminder. So I guess if I mash with 2.5 gallons and sparge with 2 gallons I could expect to end up with maybe 4 gallons of wort pre-boil? After boiling I might expect to end up with 3 gallons, which means I'd be adding another 2.25 of water to the fermenter to top it off to 5.25.

Which method are you referring to? The one in bigjoe's post?

Ah, another Tom Robbins fan!

I looked at the DeathBrewer thread and that seems like a good approach for me. If I use 2.25 gallons for the mash and 1.5 gallons for the sparge, then I can easily boil the full 3.75 gallons of wort with the extract in the 5 gallon pot and just add 1.5 gallons of sterilized water to the primary...

I'm about to brew my first batch, and it's a partial mash. After buying all of the equipment, I only had enough $$ left for one 5-gallon stainless steel pot. I'm wondering if it's possible to mash, sparge and boil in that single pot. The instructions for my Oatmeal Stout from Seven Bridges...

Thanks for the tips, RunBikeBrew. That's very helpful. The last step actually does apply somewhat because I'm doing a partial mash. Good things to think about.

Approximately how long would it take for the starter to complete? Mr. Malty says it will reach maximum cell density within 12-18 hours. Is that how long you're thinking?

Thanks, Zen_Brew. I did read a bit about stepping up starters, and it's likely I won't make the beer until next weekend because I don't have all of the equipment yet (I will hopefully pick it up today if the LHBS has everything I need). So, using the method you suggest, I would use 1 pack of...

Thanks a lot for sticking with me on this! I went back to the Mr. Malty calculator and noticed the drop-down menu for the type of starter. When I switched to "Intermittent Shaking" instead of "Simple Starter", and raised the growth factor, I am now getting 1 pack of yeast with 2.74 liters for...

I guess less water and less DME is needed with a 2 quart starter because we're using 2 packs of yeast?

So one option is to make a 2 quart starter and the other is to do a 5 liter starter? Why such a large discrepancy? I can accept that there is more than one way to get a good result, but it sure is confusing for a newbie trying to figure out WHY things are done the way they are. In any case...

That's what I thought, but if you look at the screenshot I posted above, Mr. Malty says to use 2 packs of the liquid yeast in a 2 liter solution if I am making a starter. Most of the other directions I've read suggest 2 quarts of water, 1 yeast package and something like 2/3 cup of DME.

I'm preparing to brew my first batch. It's an Oatmeal Stout with an OG of 1.064-1.070 using Wyeast #1084 Irish Ale Liquid yeast with a production date of 8/19/09. Here's the full recipe (partial mash): 6 lbs. Pale malt extract 1.5 lbs Gambrinus pale ale malt .5 lbs Gambrinus white wheat malt...

Thanks ajf for your reply. So would I be better off with a 6.5 gallon carboy? Or perhaps a 6.5 gallon primary bucket and a 5 gallon secondary carboy? The place I'm ordering this stuff from (Seven Bridges) doesn't have them, that's why I went with a 6. I appreciate all of your other...

Thanks. I did look at the bench capper but it's significantly more expensive and I figured that would fall into the "nice future upgrade" category.

Accidental double post.