Better understanding of an all-grain recipe

[gary_s]

If nobody minds I have some questions about a specific all-grain recipe.

I'm fairly new to all-grain recipes so my questions are intended to bridge my knowledge. My apologies if the answers are implied by the recipe or known to experienced all grain brewers.

Other all-grain recipes I've looked at so far fit into the knowledge I have, but this recipe seems to break the 'rules' I know, so I wanted to see what I could learn by asking some questions and learning more.

The recipe is: http://imgur.com/n9pxsL4

This recipe has a large amount of grain (14.5lb) , so I'm wondering how much water to use in the mash and for the sparging.

- How much water should be used for the mash? I've read both 1-1.25 quarts per pound (sticky on All-Grain forum on this site) and 1.5-2 quarts per pound (John Palmer, How to brew). Seeing as this recipe has a large amount of grain, about 14.5lbs, would you use the lower end of the guidelines (1q/lb, resulting in a ~3.6 gal mash volume)?

- How much water to sparge with? I've read around 2 quarts per pound, which for this recipe would be 7.25 gal and above the boil volume listed (6.5 gal), especially when you add it to the initial drainings from the mash. Would someone use less sparge water and get a lower utilization? Or would you still use 2q/lb and then the larger volume of wort is boiled down to 6.5 gal before starting hop additions, which seems like a lot of boiling? Maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle where you use less sparge water (how much?) but still get a volume greater than the boil volume, but less so?

- What yeast would be used in the recipe?

I appreciate any information anyone is willing to provide.

Thanks,

Gary

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

14.5 pounds of malt will absorb and hold onto 7 quarts of water. That is 1.75 gallons. So for 6.5 gallons at the start of the boil your combined mash and sparge water will need to be 6.5 + 1.75 + equipment losses = gallons of overall water.

How you divide these gallons into mash and sparge water is pretty much up to you and your mash tuns capacity. If your equipment will hold the grains and the water, then go for 1.5 quarts of strike water per pound of grain. If not, use less strike water. Efficiency will most likely be somewhat better at 1.5 than 1.33 or 1.25, etc....

I like Nottingham yeast, but some of that may be because I'm old school. Keep it at no higher than 65 degrees F. during fermentation. I find that 62 degrees works really well.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I just got done listening to a podcast where Denny Conn was saying that the amount of sparge water he uses is exactly his target volume minus what he got out of the mash. In other words, pick one of your formulas listed and sparge with however much you need to hit your boil volume after that. Since the grains are saturated at that point, you're going to get the same amount of water out of the mash tun that you put into it.

As someone looking to get into AG in the near future, I love explanations like that. Simple, dumbed down to my level of understanding, and from a reputable source.

 

[Puddlethumper]

I generally figure on 1.25 qts Strike water per pound of grain. This gets it close to right most of the time. Add a little more hot liquor if needed to bring the temperature up.

I made a dipstick to measure how much I got from the first runnings. Then it's just arithmetic to figure how much sparge water i needed to get my desired boil volume.

 

[beergolf]

There is no need to complicate it. Somewhere in the 1.25 Q per pound will work. A little higher or a little lower will work. No need t get super stressed about it. Then after the mash, just measure how much run off you got. I do like puddlethumper does, using a measured stick to measure the volume. Then just subtract that from the pre boil volume you want , and add that amount of sparge water. The grain is already saturated so it will not absorb any more liquid. The dead space in your mash tun is already full so anything you add will come out. Very simple.

 

[bajaedition]

There is no need to complicate it. Somewhere in the 1.25 Q per pound will work. A little higher or a little lower will work. No need t get super stressed about it. Then after the mash, just measure how much run off you got. I do like puddlethumper does, using a measured stick to measure the volume. Then just subtract that from the pre boil volume you want , and add that amount of sparge water. The grain is already saturated so it will not absorb any more liquid. The dead space in your mash tun is already full so anything you add will come out. Very simple.

Simplicity is where it is at sometimes, one of my friends just fills the tun until he gets the amount of water over his grain bed he wants. He hits his dough in temp every time. then he heats about 4 gallons of water to 170degrees and sparges till his brew kettle hits his mark he has set for preboil amount. anything left in the mash tun gets dumped with the grain.

 

[pvpeacock]

I use 5 gallons of water to mash every time and then batch sparge with however much water I need to reach my preboil volume. As noted above, you should get 100% of your sparge water out because the grains are already saturated from the mash. This makes mashing and sparging very simple.