A Couple noob water volume ?

[Dustinj]

Ok. My second all grain is coming up. Cut up keg HLT , 70 qt Coleman mash tun keggle bk. I used way to much water on my first batch and efficiency was terrible. My next beer is an IPA. It calls for mashing in with 6 gallons then batch sparging with 4 gallons. This is a 5 gal recipe btw. My boil off is only 1 gal an hour. Grain absorption was maybe 1/2 gallon last time. Very little tun loss.
Could I 1: use less water to come to 6-6.5 Pre boil or
2: boil for 1-1/2 hours then start my hop additions after 30 minutes of boil.


Thanks

 

[coolharry]

You can just measure your first runnings and then sparge with whatever is needed to bring you up to your boil volume.

 

[Dustinj]

That's what I was thinking but my mash volume is damn near what my boil volume should be. I'm thinking mash with 4 gallons and batch sparge with 2 gallons OR build a fly sparge manifold and go that route with 2 gallons.

 

[acidrain]

Mash at 1 gal per 3 lbs, or somewhere between 1.25 and 1.5 qts per Lb.
Drain and measure volume.
Make up whatever pre-boil volume is needed with two equal sparges.
Don't sparge to less than 1.010 SG.

 

[chickypad]

Are you sure your grain absorption was only 1/2 gallon? Typical (with a mash tun not BIAB) is about 1/2 qt per lb or 1 gallon for every 8 lbs of grain. What do you have, about 12-13 lb grain for an IPA? I'd expect about 1.5 gallon loss. 6 gallons does sound like a fairly thin mash.

 

[Dustinj]

It sure didn't seem like much. Ill make sure this time. The recipe per beer smith calls for 25 qts water with a 13 lb grain bill. I get 19 qts at 1.5 per lb.

 

[duboman]

Absorption should calculate to .12 gallons per pound of grain.

 

[Dustinj]

Ok. Ill go on that this time and see what happens. It'll be beer either way! Thanks guys. I know this stuff gets beat to death.