HopHog87
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- Aug 29, 2013
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Am thinking of building a round cooler MLT and going to conventional all grain method from my brew in a bag method. I have been doing 2.5 gallons batches but would like to step that to at least 2.75 or 3 gallons to account for trub loss which was greater than expected. Anyway, I bought the Beersmith Iphone app and downloaded a simple recipe and scaled to my equipment (hypothetical, of course) of a 5 gallon cooler MLT and a 5 gallon brew pot. My question is twofold:
On the app, it says to mash in 11.81 quarts at 168.2 and then add the total grain (9lbs 7.2 oz) to hit 156 for 45 minutes. Then it just shows the next step at 47 minutes as Mash Complete and to "batch sparge (which it the method I intend to use initially) with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, 7.24qt of 168 degree water."
1- Am I missing a mash out there? It seems guys talk a lot about raising the temp for a few minutes to mash out normally. Where is that water volume accounted for?
2- The app, with my input as to my boil-off rate, etc, shows I need a pre-boil volume of 3.62 gallons to get a 3 gallon batch (possibly needs to be revised but for now). I assume that involves two runnings of equal volume (first runoff and then one batch sparge). Is that correct?
I just want to know where the numbers come from instead of trusting them blindly. The way i figure is that the recipe of 9.5 lbs would absorb roughly 1.19 gallons (4.76 quarts) of water and so the first runnings (if I mashed 11.81 qts) would produce something like 7 quarts of wort and then, adding the batch sparge water of 7.24 quarts kinda makes sense that the two volumes would be roughly equal and come out to approximately my pre-boil volume (about 3.6 gal).
Now I understand that real world will differ (I will get an accurate boil-off using just water as a trial) and I will have to adjust the first brew to make the following brews more accurate, but does the above make sense? And look like something I should just give a try? Thanks. I know it is probably a confusing post.
On the app, it says to mash in 11.81 quarts at 168.2 and then add the total grain (9lbs 7.2 oz) to hit 156 for 45 minutes. Then it just shows the next step at 47 minutes as Mash Complete and to "batch sparge (which it the method I intend to use initially) with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, 7.24qt of 168 degree water."
1- Am I missing a mash out there? It seems guys talk a lot about raising the temp for a few minutes to mash out normally. Where is that water volume accounted for?
2- The app, with my input as to my boil-off rate, etc, shows I need a pre-boil volume of 3.62 gallons to get a 3 gallon batch (possibly needs to be revised but for now). I assume that involves two runnings of equal volume (first runoff and then one batch sparge). Is that correct?
I just want to know where the numbers come from instead of trusting them blindly. The way i figure is that the recipe of 9.5 lbs would absorb roughly 1.19 gallons (4.76 quarts) of water and so the first runnings (if I mashed 11.81 qts) would produce something like 7 quarts of wort and then, adding the batch sparge water of 7.24 quarts kinda makes sense that the two volumes would be roughly equal and come out to approximately my pre-boil volume (about 3.6 gal).
Now I understand that real world will differ (I will get an accurate boil-off using just water as a trial) and I will have to adjust the first brew to make the following brews more accurate, but does the above make sense? And look like something I should just give a try? Thanks. I know it is probably a confusing post.
