Amount of Water Used in Mash

[lanev]

For my first brew, BeerSmith told me I should use just under 4 gallons in my mash. Then add additional sparge water to get the boil volume to where it should be.

My question is how important is doing that ~4 gallons at mash rather than mashing with 5 gallons and then needing less sparge water?

My guess would be I might not get enough of the residual sugars from the mashed grains if I don't use enough sparge water? Possibly resulting in my OG being low?

 

[McKnuckle]

Ultimately, you are in control of how much water to use for mashing and, optionally, sparging. You can do a full volume mash with no sparge, a small sparge, or a 50/50. Even though it seems paralyzing to have so many options, your choice is ultimately not a big deal. What's most important is that the process fits your equipment and capabilities.

Generally, a 50/50 mix is the most efficient, and a no-sparge the least. However, no-sparge has advantages in terms of less equipment, fewer steps, and less exposure to oxygen (important to some). It's the foundation of the original Brew in a Bag (BIAB) technique developed in Australia, now popular all over.

A finer crush and a longer mash will improve extraction, so you can perform those if you wish to sparge with less water. Don't feel trapped by what BeerSmith "tells" you. It's only software; it's taking its inputs from YOU in the equipment profile. So you are actually the boss.

 

[cubalz]

My recommendation is to make it easier on yourself and skip the sparge altogether and do a full volume mash as McKnuckle said. That way you have less steps and less to figure out during your first brew. To make up for the inherent efficiency loss that comes with the no-sparge method, just add 20% to your grain bill.

Good luck and have fun!

 

[lanev]

Thanks, @McKnuckle and @cubalz for the info. I tend to way over-analyze everything and have been reading about brewing for quite a while before feeling comfortable enough to have a go at it. I also tend to shy away from "easy" in favor of "right" and I've come to learn everyone's way can be right when it comes to brewing.

Last Thursday I did my first brew, all-grain and sparged, and I thought it went pretty well. My OG was a little lower than expected so I was curious if that was because I mashed with 5 gallons rather than the recommendation from BeerSmith.

Unfortunately, my carboy and mini fermentation fridge didn't get along well and on Friday night the carboy popped the fridge door open and shattered across my garage floor. I'm shooting for a re-do on Sunday and I'm going to try to sparge a little slower rather than pouring pitchers of sparge water over the grains to see if that helps me get closer to the target OG. Perhaps I'll let it mash a little longer too.

Again, I appreciate the feedback!

 

[SundayBrewer]

I like 1.8/2.0 qts per pound for mash and 1 or 2 gals as sparge. Too much sparge can mess flavors up with tannins. If you use a lot of hops add a extra .10/.15 qts per ounce. It all depends on your brewing system.

 

[McKnuckle]

I also tend to shy away from "easy" in favor of "right" and I've come to learn everyone's way can be right when it comes to brewing.

Excellent observation. And it's not always a dichotomy - i.e. one vs. the other. Often there truly are multiple ways to do something, and people are legitimately successful in all cases. There are pros and cons. The hobby is so cool because of how multi-faceted it is. It's up to you to be interested in whatever elements you think are fun and/or challenging.

Generally, if you read older brewing literature and early homebrew classics like Papazian and Palmer, they are biased toward a particular approach to things. It's all still valid! But... There are a lot of newer homebrew-focused gear offerings now, and these have opened up new processes and techniques that aren't directly covered in those references.

...the carboy popped the fridge door open and shattered across my garage floor.

Holy $%&, man, that is terrible!! But you have now cashed in all of your bad brewing karma in one single disaster. It's all smooth sailing from here!

 

[IslandLizard]

So sorry you lost your batch that way! Plus the mess it made. <ugh>

I can recommend using plastic fermenters. But make sure they'll fit in your ferm chamber/fridge before buying. Dimensions vary. Don't forget the airlock needs space too. I use regular 6.5 gallon brew buckets. They come with a built-in handle.
I heard good feedback from people using Fermonsters and the like. I saw one half full with Starsan bouncing through a parking lot when the Hulk impersonator lost his grip. Not a crack or leak!

Are you mashing in a bag in the kettle? If so you can dunk sparge in a large bucket, beverage cooler, or tub of the right size.
Batch sparging is the easiest. Dunking the bag should rinse the wort out better than pour-overs. You may use cold or tepid water to sparge.

If you don't know the mineral composition of your water, or if your water is known to be hard, sparge with RO or distilled water ($0.39-0.60 gallon).
When your (municipal) brewing water contains Chlorine or Chloramines treat with some Campden or K-meta.

 

[lanev]

Plus the mess it made. <ugh>

Let me tell ya, my garage has never been so clean! Many hours of moving everything and endless mopping. My finance is happy the garage no longer smells like a brewery; I kinda liked it.

If you don't know the mineral composition of your water, or if your water is known to be hard, sparge with RO or distilled water ($0.39-0.60 gallon).
When your (municipal) brewing water contains Chlorine or Chloramines treat with some Campden or K-meta.

I know my county water has chlorine/chloramines so I used bottled spring water from the grocery store for both the mash and sparge. Is there a benefit to RO or distilled over the spring water? My understanding was that the spring water would still have some necessary minerals whereas I would have needed to add calcium chloride and calcium sulfate to the RO or distilled water.

 

[IslandLizard]

Let me tell ya, my garage has never been so clean! Many hours of moving everything and endless mopping. My finance is happy the garage no longer smells like a brewery; I kinda liked it.

I know my county water has chlorine/chloramines so I used bottled spring water from the grocery store for both the mash and sparge. Is there a benefit to RO or distilled over the spring water? My understanding was that the spring water would still have some necessary minerals whereas I would have needed to add calcium chloride and calcium sulfate to the RO or distilled water.

That brewery smell would have changed with time, becoming harder to undo. Glad you cleaned it right away. 5 gallons makes a remarkably large puddle at 1/16-1/8" deep...

Most spring water doesn't have their minerals listed. It may vary with the Seasons or even batches. Not even sure it even has to be sourced from an actual spring.
If you have a TDS meter laying around, it will give you an indication of the total ions content in there, but not which or their ratios.

RO water is highly devoid of any minerals. A TDS reading of 10-20ppm is a soft maximum, but largely depends on the source water, the system, the quality and age of the membrane, as wells as servicing frequency.

RO water is pretty much a blank slate.

RO water is ideal as sparge water. It's the easiest way to keep the grain pH during sparging below 5.8. You would add minerals to the strike water for the mash, or elect to split them between mash and sparge.

 

[pvpeacock]

I use 5 gallons to mash a 5-6 gallon batch no matter how much grain I use. When I drain the mash tun, I figure out how much water I need for my batch sparge to equal my pre-boil volume. The more grain I am using, the more absorption during the mash and the more sparge water I need. I never really thought that water to grain ratios made much difference at our scale.

 

[McKnuckle]

^
I basically do that, too, when brewing in the Braumeister. I mash with 12L always, then calculate a sparge volume required to hit a standard pre-boil volume.

I also do no-sparge on occasion as well, and use the same math - only I combine the volumes into one. The total volume varies with the grain weight. I agree that the ratio is far less interesting than varying the mash time and temperature rests.

 

[Alex4mula]

My first three brews I used the common 1.25 ratio. Found it too dry for my M&B. Then tried 1.6 and have never changed unless the brew uses more than 13lbs when I go a bit lower to keep decent sparging water volume. After that and my own grain crusher I have been getting 92%++ conversion efficiency. But I attribute that more to the better crush than the LHBS.

 

[SEndorf]

For new all grain brewers using Beersmith, you will initially rarely hit the gravities estimated by that software. Beersmith is an excellent tool, but somewhat complicated to first set up. You need to know your volumes and determine your brewhouse efficiencies which all play a factor in how it estimates OG / FG. This typically takes several brew sessions to dial in. So when you say your OG was "lower than expected" don't immediately assume you did anything wrong. Take careful notes on your brew day. Then start to dial in your findings in Beersmith. Once properly set up unique to your system and processes, it's an easy, very valuable tool. There are tutorials for this and also a Beersmith forum if you're interested.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Too much sparge can mess flavors up with tannins.

This, for the most part, has been a bit exaggerated for our homebrew scale. The main way to avoid tannins from sparging is making sure the pH of the grainbed doesn't climb too much. To do this, paying attention to water chemistry and acidifying the sparge water is enough.