I've only done a few all grain batches with batch sparging. My question is has anyone had a problem with reaching target gravity with this method? I was making a tripel and it seemed the water to grain ratio got pretty thick because of a pretty large grain bill. I ended up 10 pts short of my 1.078 target. Any thoughts as to getting more out of the grain? I tried for 50% of boil amount in the 1st run and did 1 sparge.
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Grain bill?
Strike amount?
Sparge amount?
Grain bill?
Strike amount?
Sparge amount?
masskrug
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1.078 should be reachable. Are you grinding your grains, or the LBS? How are you sparging (with a cooler? If so, what does the manifold look like?)?
If all else fails, you might consider LME, DME, honey or some sugar to bring up your numbers.
If all else fails, you might consider LME, DME, honey or some sugar to bring up your numbers.
I've missed my first two AG batches by 10 pts as well. 70 qt Coleman mash tun keggle BK. The first time I mashed in with way to much water and didn't sparge much. The second time I mashed in just right then didn't sparge enough again (didn't heat up enought sparge water) I've learned that going by how much water recipes call for is tough. Figure out your tun losses (dead space,grain absorption) then figure your boil off rate. Last time I made a big IIPA my grain loss was about 1.25 gallons. Dead space is about .25 gallon. My boil off is 1 gal an hour. So I go with a 1.2 gallons per pound of grain. I want 4 gallons of first runnings and sparge 2.75-3 gallons into the BK to get to 4.5-5.75 post boil. Gonna lose .25 gal in the bk to cold break. So I think batch sparging works fine it's just a matter of dialing it in.
