First AG Brew Today

[Darwin18]

Hi all,

I'm a relatively new brewer and I'd like to make my first AG brew today. I'm going to making Biermuncher's Centenial Blonde and my question is this: What is the quart/lb ratio for water that I'm going to be initially adding to the mash, and the sparge?

I'm going to be doing a 5G batch.

Thanks!

 

[Revvy]

1.25 quarts/pound is pretty much the middle of the road standard for most beers...that's what I use when I brew it....Actually I use beersmith and it tells me how much water I need for mash and sparging.

 

[Revvy]

Oh, fyi last time I brewed it I kicked the IBU' up 4 points to 25.6 Ibus....niiice!

Just a bit hoppier, without throwing the recipe out of balance...

 

[aaronwillen]

although I was an extract brewer for like 6 years...i just recently started doing all grain....can I make a suggestion? spend the 19.99 and buy beersmith. it will make everything SO much easier. it is essentially plug and play....enter your recipe....pick your mash profile....out comes the volumes of strike water, sparge water....it even compensates for boil off..

 

[AnonyBrew]

If you don't have beersmith or other software, one way to figure out your sparge would be to calculate starting from your pre-boil target.

Say you want 5.5g into fermenter & plan to boiloff 1g over an hour...your pre-boil target would be 6.5g.

Take your 1.25qt/lb. For example, if you have 10lb. grains You'll mash with 12.5 qt. (3.125g). The grain will absorb some of that water...I use 12% as a rule of thumb. 12% of 3.125g = 0.375g. So that leaves you 3.125g - 0.375g = 2.75g.

Now you have to account for deadspace in your MLT. Mine is about a quart or 0.25g. That leaves you with 2.75g - 0.25g = 2.5g total runoff from your mash.

If your pre-boil target volume is 6.5g then subtract the 2.5g and you'll need 4g of sparge water.

I usually add a little bit more sparge water in case I was off in the calcs. So if I figured I needed 4g, I'll use maybe 0.5g more.

Then if I'm double batch sparging, I'll simply split this into 2 equal size sparge amounts. I'll heat the whole thing & just use approximately half (by eyeball) for the first batch sparge, then the rest for the 2nd. So 4.5 / 2 = 2.25g per batch sparge.

There are many other methods, but that's how I've done batch sparges.

 

[Revvy]

If you don't have beersmith or other software, one way to figure out your sparge would be to calculate starting from your pre-boil target.

Say you want 5.5g into fermenter & plan to boiloff 1g over an hour...your pre-boil target would be 6.5g.

Take your 1.25qt/lb. For example, if you have 10lb. grains You'll mash with 12.5 qt. (3.125g). The grain will absorb some of that water...I use 12% as a rule of thumb. 12% of 3.125g = 0.375g. So that leaves you 3.125g - 0.375g = 2.75g.

Now you have to account for deadspace in your MLT. Mine is about a quart or 0.25g. That leaves you with 2.75g - 0.25g = 2.5g total runoff from your mash.

If your pre-boil target volume is 6.5g then subtract the 2.5g and you'll need 4g of sparge water.

I usually add a little bit more sparge water in case I was off in the calcs. So if I figured I needed 4g, I'll use maybe 0.5g more.

Then if I'm double batch sparging, I'll simply split this into 2 equal size sparge amounts. I'll heat the whole thing & just use approximately half (by eyeball) for the first batch sparge, then the rest for the 2nd. So 4.5 / 2 = 2.25g per batch sparge.

There are many other methods, but that's how I've done batch sparges.

Tis the clearest explanation I have ever seen!

One thing that I found the really helps is to rig up a measuring stick for your kettle...actually I just notched my brewspoon in one gallon incrememnts...That way if I've calculated a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons, I just stick the spoon the kettle, drain the mash tun, and sparge til I reach that volume on my spoon...

It's really helpfull, especially if you are doing what Sop said and splitting your sparge water in half....

 

[Darwin18]

Thanks guys,

Brew day went really well thanks to your help. I even got my SWMBO involved, although she remains skeptical that this will taste good. The only low point of the day came when I was attempting to cool the wort before transfer. I didn't cool it enough, and as it came into my 5G plastic carboy I heard a "crinkling-like" noise. Fortunately, it doesn't look like it did any serious structural damage. I had to use this damaged carboy for the rest of the wort to ferment in since I don't have an extra laying around and by now the LHBS is closed. Hopefully, this won't become an issue....

 

[Revvy]

It will be fine, I'm sure...if it ain't leaking then you're golden....and in a few weeks you will be rewarded with this..

Centennial Blonde, 3 weeks bottle conditioning and 48 hours in the fridge (photographed 5 minutes ago)...1t would actually be clearer if I left it for a week in the fridge, BUT I couldn't wait to taste it on it's drinking day...(Plus I didn't have anything else that would go as perfectly with pizza.)

 

[Darwin18]

That sure does look delicious! Nothing quite like homebrew and pizza. I'll be sure to let you all know how it turns out.