Doubling batch size - Amount of sparge water

[hlmbrwng]

I have two sour starters going right now and figured it would make sense to just brew 10 gallons and split the batch, instead of having two brew days to make 2 x 5 gal of the same wort. So, I took my base sour recipe and doubled it in Beersmith. So I don't have to use a ton of grain, I substituted some of the german pilsner with dried malt extract. (I reduced the grain bill by about 6 lb.)

The issue is that Beersmith is saying to sparge with over 9 gallons of water!
I believe that it isn't accounting for less grain and is instead just going by the water needed for pre-boil. I understand that passing all of this water through the grain is not necessarily a bad thing, I just think it's unnecessary. I would have to heat 9 gal to 170 F! Waste of time and energy IMO.

Has anyone decreased a recommended amount of sparge water, and just added water to the boil kettle instead of through the grain?

 

[jurgenph]

adjust the recipe in beersmith, and reduce the grain amount, and add DME, it should calculate properly when you do that.


J.

 

[doug293cz]

I have two sour starters going right now and figured it would make sense to just brew 10 gallons and split the batch, instead of having two brew days to make 2 x 5 gal of the same wort. So, I took my base sour recipe and doubled it in Beersmith. So I don't have to use a ton of grain, I substituted some of the german pilsner with dried malt extract. (I reduced the grain bill by about 6 lb.)

The issue is that Beersmith is saying to sparge with over 9 gallons of water!
I believe that it isn't accounting for less grain and is instead just going by the water needed for pre-boil. I understand that passing all of this water through the grain is not necessarily a bad thing, I just think it's unnecessary. I would have to heat 9 gal to 170 F! Waste of time and energy IMO.

Has anyone decreased a recommended amount of sparge water, and just added water to the boil kettle instead of through the grain?

You're going to have to heat the water to a boil anyway, so what's that big deal about pre-heating it and running it through the grain bed?

Are you batch sparging or fly sparging? For batch sparge water temp doesn't make any difference to efficiency. So, you can heat it or not. If fly sparging, hot water is marginally better, at least early in the sparge process. You could heat about half your sparge water, and then switch to unheated water for the end of the sparge. Either way, more sparge water will increase your lauter efficiency.

Brew on