Amount of water to start with/sparge water

[thomas_marbach]

I've brewed 4 all grain batches to date and every single time, no matter how much water I start with I can never get more than 4 gallons. (Trying to do 5 gallon batches.) I know how much water I need for my mash, depending on how much my grain bill is. But after that I have absolutely not idea how much water to use for sparging to get enough wort into my boil kettle. Usually I end up with 6 gallons of wort into my boil kettle but that's just by winging it. I can never get more than 4 gallons into my fermenting bucket due to too much damn sediment clogging the lines. It's getting extremely frustrating and everyone I've asked hasn't been able to give me an answer on how to fix this. Please help.

 

[duboman]

So you start by figuring out your losses. Fill your tun with a fixed amount of water and drain, see what's left and measure it, note it. Boil a fixed amount of water over an hour and then measure what you have left, note your boil off rate. Then drain your kettle, if you don't simply dump, note and measure the quantity left in your kettle. These are your basic losses. If you brew really hoppy beers you need to account for loss due to hop debris and that's a bit more difficult-trial and error.

Then select your mash in, I use 1.5 qts/lb for most recipes. Grain will absorb .21 gallons/lb (Another loss), mash in minus absorption minus tun loss will give you your first runnings. Once you know your pre-boil volume you simply sparge with the remaining amount of water you need to meet that volume, there is no further absorption (Again keep in mind your tun loss volume)

If you do all this and take your rates and losses into account you should hit your fermenter volume every time. Also keep in mind trub loss in the primary so if you want 5 finished gallons of beer you really need at least 5.25-5.5 gallons of wort into primary as you will lose .25-.5 gallons to trub in a typical 5 gallon batch.

 

[thomas_marbach]

I brewed a batch today and started out with 11 gallons of water in my hot liquor tank. I used 4 gallons of water in my mash (1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain) of which I had 11 pounds. After the mash rest I had just under 8 gallons of water left to sparge with. I ended up with 6 gallons of wort going into my boil kettle. Should I just have used all 8 gallons to sparge with to ultimately end up with more wort in my boil kettle?

 

[Yooper]

I brewed a batch today and started out with 11 gallons of water in my hot liquor tank. I used 4 gallons of water in my mash (1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain) of which I had 11 pounds. After the mash rest I had just under 8 gallons of water left to sparge with. I ended up with 6 gallons of wort going into my boil kettle. Should I just have used all 8 gallons to sparge with to ultimately end up with more wort in my boil kettle?

How much did you "lose" to boil off evaporation, and trub? In other words, use as much wort in the boil kettle as you need to hit your desired amount in the fermenter.

For my system, I need to start with 7 gallons in the boil kettle pre-boil to end up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter.

 

[thomas_marbach]

I lost not even half a gallon to evaporation. By the end of the boil I had close to 6 gallons. I could only transfer close to 4 to my fermenting bucket because there was so much sediment that I couldn't get the liquid through the connectors I use. I could maybe ditch the quick connectors and go with a straight connector.

 

[kh54s10]

How much did you "lose" to boil off evaporation, and trub? In other words, use as much wort in the boil kettle as you need to hit your desired amount in the fermenter.

For my system, I need to start with 7 gallons in the boil kettle pre-boil to end up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter.

About the same for me. I use about 1.25 qts per pound of grain for the mash. I then drain it to the BK and measure how much I have. I batch sparge in 2 steps. I take the amount I need to get about 7.3 gallons and sparge with a bit over half. I then measure what is in the BK and add just over that amount for the 2nd sparge. Then I do the boil. I am always very close to 5.25 gallons which, after leaving a bit in the trub, kegs 5 gallons.

 

[thomas_marbach]

About the same for me. I use about 1.25 qts per pound of grain for the mash. I then drain it to the BK and measure how much I have. I batch sparge in 2 steps. I take the amount I need to get about 7.3 gallons and sparge with a bit over half. I then measure what is in the BK and add just over that amount for the 2nd sparge. Then I do the boil. I am always very close to 5.25 gallons which, after leaving a bit in the trub, kegs 5 gallons.

So when you transfer into your fermenter you just transfer everything from your boil kettle and just let the sediment settle and just take all that into account?

 

[thomas_marbach]

About the same for me. I use about 1.25 qts per pound of grain for the mash. I then drain it to the BK and measure how much I have. I batch sparge in 2 steps. I take the amount I need to get about 7.3 gallons and sparge with a bit over half. I then measure what is in the BK and add just over that amount for the 2nd sparge. Then I do the boil. I am always very close to 5.25 gallons which, after leaving a bit in the trub, kegs 5 gallons.

So you just transfer everything from your boil kettle into your fermenter and take the trub and sediment into account?

 

[USAFSooner]

I've gotten to the point where I fill up my HLT with five gallons regardless. I'll look at what beer smith calls for and throttle down the HLT to a trickle when I get close to that number. If it looks like I'm going to come up short I have more hot water on tap. In a pinch you can always heat up a gallon on your stove and do a batch sparge to get the last bit.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kh54s10]

So when you transfer into your fermenter you just transfer everything from your boil kettle and just let the sediment settle and just take all that into account?

I chill the wort in the BK with my IC. DIY = 20 ft in the wort and 20 ft in a pre chill. (bucket with cold water and ice.)

I have a valve in my kettle and pour off enough to get at least 5 gallons to 5.5 gallons. I do not pay much attention to what goes though. Usually there is -only 1/2 to 1 inch left in the BK.

Given 2-4 weeks primary, no secondary, my beers clear acceptably.

 

[thomas_marbach]

I chill the wort in the BK with my IC. DIY = 20 ft in the wort and 20 ft in a pre chill. (bucket with cold water and ice.)



I have a valve in my kettle and pour off enough to get at least 5 gallons to 5.5 gallons. I do not pay much attention to what goes though. Usually there is -only 1/2 to 1 inch left in the BK.



Given 2-4 weeks primary, no secondary, my beers clear acceptably.

I chill my wort with my therminator and its a pretty steady flow up until the end when I get to the bottom of the kettle. But now that I think about it, the connectors I use seem to be causing most of the problem. I'll just take that into account next week and get new connectors and should be good to go.

 

[Yooper]

I lost not even half a gallon to evaporation. By the end of the boil I had close to 6 gallons. I could only transfer close to 4 to my fermenting bucket because there was so much sediment that I couldn't get the liquid through the connectors I use. I could maybe ditch the quick connectors and go with a straight connector.

Something is very wrong. If you had close to 6 gallons at the end of the boil, and threw away 2 gallons of wort, there is a big problem! I'd guess that most brewers lose a quart or so to trub.

Your connectors must be the issue- what are they? I don't have any thing that would qualify as a "connector", so I'm trying to picture what you've got and what you're doing. This is no way you should throw away 1/3 of your finished wort, and it'd be very rare to only boil off .5 gallons unless you live in a very humid environment. Something isn't adding up here, from the boil off amount (1 gallon per hour boiloff would be more reasonable) to throwing away 1/3 of the wort.

 

[thomas_marbach]

Something is very wrong. If you had close to 6 gallons at the end of the boil, and threw away 2 gallons of wort, there is a big problem! I'd guess that most brewers lose a quart or so to trub.



Your connectors must be the issue- what are they? I don't have any thing that would qualify as a "connector", so I'm trying to picture what you've got and what you're doing. This is no way you should throw away 1/3 of your finished wort, and it'd be very rare to only boil off .5 gallons unless you live in a very humid environment. Something isn't adding up here, from the boil off amount (1 gallon per hour boiloff would be more reasonable) to throwing away 1/3 of the wort.

Oh I definitely had to throw away almost a gallon and a half of wort because I couldn't send it through the lines. I'm 100% sure that my connects are the issue here. The inside of them is so small that they're just getting clogged as j get closer to the bottom of the tank.

 

[duboman]

I don't use quick connectors at and I have heard that they tend to restrict flow a lot! That could very well be your issue in transferring. They are plugging up.

 

[TexasWine]

Oh I definitely had to throw away almost a gallon and a half of wort because I couldn't send it through the lines.

Ever considered just dumping it all into the fermenter? I use a 2 quart plastic pitcher to transfer the wort until the volume gets low enough. Then I just pick up the kettle and dump it all in, trub and all. But I do use a bag for my hops during the boil and remove it prior to dumping.

Just a thought. Maybe it'll help simplify things for ya.

 

[Yooper]

What are those connectors hooked up to? Your chiller? If not to a counterflow chiller or a plate chiller, then I don't "get it".