All Grain Help

[Kokopuff829]

Ok so I'm brewing a Irish Ale Wednesday and I'm a little confused. I'm supposed to mash with 1.25 quarts per pound of grain and I have 11.75lbs so it's 3 2/3 gallons of water. But I'm confused on sparging. Am I suppose to sparge with with 1/2 a gallon per pound of grain? And how do I sparge do I take all my runnings for the mash and then sparge.

 

[Kokopuff829]

Sorry I finally got it.

 

[BendBrewer]

Congratulations

 

[Sean0301]

I think I understand your question, let me know if Im off. first go ahead and mash then take all of your first runnings out to your brew pot. Then if batch sparge add your sparge water and stir. Then let it sit for about 10 minutes and collect the runnings once again. What I typically do is calculate how much mor wort I need after the first runnings to get to my boil volume and then add that much sparge water. It has worked for me and I generally hit my OG target.

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Sorry I finally got it.

you sure? want to try explaining back to us to ensure you're good to go? we'll be gentle, I promise!

 

[Kokopuff829]

I think I understand your question, let me know if Im off. first go ahead and mash then take all of your first runnings out to your brew pot. Then if batch sparge add your sparge water and stir. Then let it sit for about 10 minutes and collect the runnings once again. What I typically do is calculate how much mor wort I need after the first runnings to get to my boil volume and then add that much sparge water. It has worked for me and I generally hit my OG target.

Yes that I what I figured out so like if I get 3 gallons of runnings and I want to get 6 gallons I use 3 gallons of sparge water? And if I'm making a 5 gal batch I want at least 6g gallons because of boil off?

 

[BendBrewer]

For a 5 gallon batch I would shoot for at least 6.5 gallons in the kettle.

Yeah, that is the idea. The grains are saturated so they won't absorb any more water. Pretty much what you put in you get out during the sparge.

But calculators work for me. I use Brewzor on my phone and it hasn't done me wrong yet. A lot of constants in determining this so the calculators get it right.

 

[Kokopuff829]

Ok so basically if I get 3 gal runnings I want 3.5 gal of sparge water?

 

[ThePearsonFam]

ok... so,

1.25 ratio w/ 11.75# of grain does = 3.67 gallons of water for mashing (called strike water). The strike water is heated to the proper temperature to result in your desired mash temperature when added to your grain.

You'll need to get the sugars off the grain when conversion is complete. The process is sparging. You can batch sparge or fly sparge. Which do you plan to do?
- Batch sparging (no experience, so someone else can chime in). Vorlauf and drain your first runnings. Add more spage water and drain again. Continue to do this until you've collected the required amount of wort for your intended boil.
- Fly sparging (what I do). Get your sparge water to temperature (I use 168). Vorlauf and then continuously pump (or drain) the sparge water into the top of your mash tun as you slowly drain the wort out the bottom. Continue the process until you've collected the required amount for your boil.

Now, you'll need to know how much sparge water you'll need...
- I assume a 20% loss to grain absorption. In your case, that would mean that .75 gallons would be lost to absorption off the top.
- My system requires a boil volume of ~ 6.3 gallons for a 5 gal batch. Yours will be different than mine. Using mine as an example, 6.3 gallons for boil minus 3.67 added for strike water = 2.63 gallons. Don't forget to add the lost water to absorption, 2.63+.75=3.4 gallons of sparge water needed.

That's JUST what you'll need for water to reach your boil volume. The information does NOT consider efficiencies and such...

 

[ThePearsonFam]

help or make it worse?

 

[Kokopuff829]

It helped I think I get what I'm doing.

 

[BendBrewer]

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

I used that one before downloading an app to my phone. Pretty sure you can trust it.

 

[Kokopuff829]

I got spargepal on my iPod mash 3.7 gallons 166F and sparge with 4.7 gallons at 170F Does it seem right?

 

[BendBrewer]

Yeah that seems about right. I would sparge with 180 - 185 ish water though. You want to get the mash close to 170ish but not over. Using 170 degree water won't raise the grain to 169.

 

[Kokopuff829]

Ok thanks

 

[ThePearsonFam]

Another option (stress OPTION) is to conduct a 'mash out'. That's simply another infusion of water to raise the bed temperature to mash out temps (167-170). Once the bed is at 168, then you can simply sparge with 168F water.