Brewing first batch Saturday

[jakis]

Hey all,
I don't really understand the boil and sparge runoff volume. For a 5 gallon batch of pumpkin ale it says to have a 3 gallon sparge runoff and 5 4 gallon boil volume. Does that mean I mash with 4 gallons then after I drain it in the pot sparge with 3 gallons and drain that into the pot aswell?

 

[bottlebomber]

What kind of a setup do you have? 7 gallons total sounds right, you should mash with 1.5 quarts per pound of grain, and sparge with whatevers left

 

[jakis]

I was thinking about following this recipe.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=54&item=3888

 

[KevinW]

Yeah that does sound pretty close.

1.25 -1.50 qts per pound of grain for mash
.25 to .30 qts per pound of grain for sparge

Example:
12lbs of grain x 1.25qts = 15 divided by 4 = 3.75gal for mash.
12lbs of grain x .30qts = 3.5gal for sparge

this will put you in the 7-7.5 gallon range but of course that all depends on if you are doing all-grain and using about 12lbs of grain!

 

[jakis]

ignore this sorry for multiple posts

 

[jakis]

Thinking about doing this recipe.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator?group=54&item=3888

Why did you divide by 4?

Also,
For 1 gallon test batches do you still boil the hops for 1 hr?

 

[GoldMiner]

Why did you divide by 4?

4 quarts in a gallon.

 

[jakis]

Yeah that makes sense lol. Why didn't you divide by 4 for the sparge.

 

[GoldMiner]

Yeah that makes sense lol. Why didn't you divide by 4 for the sparge.

I'm not sure where KevinW came up with his formula for the sparge water.

I know in my system the grains in the mash will absorb a lot of the water so you will not get the full mash volume into the kettle.

The way I get my sparge total is to subtract the first running from the total I need to start the boil.

In my case I start with 8 gallons so I subtract the volume of my first runnings , usually around 2 gallons , which leaves around 6 gallons sparge water.

I divide the sparge water in half and 2 two equal sparges. I do this because my pot for heating water is only 4 gallons.

Everyone's system is different so your numbers may be a little different.