beginer all grain question

[hawdawg]

yesterday we tried to brew a ten gallon batch of a beer we got the reciept off this site and i found that it dosn't seem the mash ton wich is a conveted half barrel so its 15.5 gal is big enough to hold as much water and grain that is needed if we used 1.1gal of water per pound of grain as the guy at the brew store recomended we got it done but not correct im sure so what do guys do make smaller batches get bigger kettles or is there a trick to this that i just dont know any help would be appreciated thanks

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

i mash at 1.5ish quarts per pound.

 

[Setesh]

The problem here was communication. The guy at the brew shop probably meant to say quarts, not gallons. Normal mashing uses quarts of water per pound of grain. The exception to this would be no sparge brewing where the total volume of water is added to the MT. I usually aim for 1.25-1.5 quarts per pound of grain, but may have to reduce it on larger grain bills so that I have room in the MT for all the grain/water.

 

[hawdawg]

sorry guys i got confused u are correct its quarts but another questionis on a tem gallon batch how much water do u sparge with

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

It's not as easy as just throwing a number out there.

We would have to know the total amount of grain, the amount of water per pound the grain retains in your system, your boil off rate, your boil time, your method of sparging etc etc etc.

The generic answer is this. @ ten gallons assume a boil off rate of 2.5 gallons an hour. Assume grain retention of .1 gallons per pound of grain.

With this info you can figure out sparge volume...

Example. You used 20lbs of grain, and mashed in at 1.5 quarts/pound. That would be 30 quarts of water. Or 7.5 gallons. If you are boiling for an hour, you will lose 2.5 gallons of water. Your grain will retain 2 gallons of water, and you want a post boil volume of 10.5 gallons, to have a finish ferment of 10 gallons.

So, 10.5 gallons (into fermenter) + 2.5 gallons (boil off) = 13 gallons

You mashed with 7.5 gallons - 2 gallons (water retention) = 5.5 gallons

13 gallons - 5.5 gallons = 7.5 gallons sparge water.

Easy right?

 

[Davefox15]

Honestly the easiest way to answer that is to be lazy and let a brew software like beer smith2 tell you.. you add everything into it and it tells you how much to use and the temps and the times...easy easy

 

[Yooper]

sorry guys i got confused u are correct its quarts but another questionis on a tem gallon batch how much water do u sparge with

The simple answer is to sparge up to your boil volume.

Are you fly (continuous) sparging or batch sparging? That is, are you going to mash, and then drain, and then stir in your sparge water (batch sparging) or are you going to sprinkle fresh hot water over the mash while you simultaneously drain the mashtun at the same speed (continuous/fly sparging)?

 

[hawdawg]

i am continuis sparging i just seem to keep coming up short in the end and not having ten gallons of beer when its all said and done i supose u need 13+ gallons of wort when u begin ur boil or itsgoing to come up short im just not using enought water so after the boil i dont have enough wort left to produce 10 gal of beer

 

[Yooper]

i am continuis sparging i just seem to keep coming up short in the end and not having ten gallons of beer when its all said and done i supose u need 13+ gallons of wort when u begin ur boil or itsgoing to come up short im just not using enought water so after the boil i dont have enough wort left to produce 10 gal of beer

I start with 12 gallons of wort to end up with 10.5 gallons of wort in the fermenter. If your boil off is more than that, then yes, you'd need to start with more wort.

Can you try boiling some water for an hour in your pot with your burner, and see how much you boil off in you system? Then you will know how much wort to start with.

If you know you need to start with 12 gallons, for example, you simply sparge up to your boil volume.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

boil off is relative to altitude and humidity. also if you're up in the frozen north and boiling outside, you can (not will) have problems keeping a decent boil when it's cold (negative temps). as Yooper said, test your boil off with water for an hour to give you an idea your boil off rate. I'd also suggest getting BeerSmith 2. numbers flocc my head up and it helps me keep everything straightened out.

 

[hawdawg]

thanks guys i will try boiling some water and see what happens