First All-grain brew this week, need a little clarity.

[stevewix]

First brew I'm going big. I'm making a (double batch) 10-12 gallon Pliny the Elder clone. I have two 16 gallon keggles and one 8 gallon brewpot. Please look over my procedure and offer thoughts or comments.

Scenario #1

8 gallon brewpot will be my 'water heater'. Water will be ready to be transferred to Keggle #1 which is the MLT. Mash and sparge water will need to be in the low-160's to hit a 151-152 mash rest.

After 30 minutes of mashing (3-4 gallons?), I'll pour off one quart of wort two times and pour back on top of the mash repeating until wort runs clear.

I will sparge with an additional 3 to 4 gallons repeating the process and stirring occasionally.

Question: How do I know how much water to mash and sparge with, and when I am finished sparging?

Keggle #2 will be the brewpot, and I thoroughly understand the hop schedule so no issue there.

Thanks!

1.070 OG assuming 75% efficiency - 6 gallons

Grain Bill:
13.25 lb (6.01 kg) two-row pale malt
0.6 lb (272 g) Crystal 45 malt
0.6 lb (272 g) Carapils (Dextrin) malt
0.75 lb (340 g) dextrose (corn) sugar

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

I will sparge with an additional 3 to 4 gallons repeating the process and stirring occasionally.

This jumped out at me. Stir your sparge water in, then leave it alone.No need to continue to stir occasionally. Once it has rested your required time, vorlauf again. Then collect runnings.

Also I would mash for at least 60 min before your first vorlauf.

 

[stevewix]

This jumped out at me. Stir your sparge water in, then leave it alone.No need to continue to stir occasionally. Once it has rested your required time, vorlauf again. Then collect runnings.

Also I would mash for at least 60 min before your first vorlauf.

And 'Vorlauf' is the process of recycling until the runnings are mostly clear, correct?

 

[emetcalf]

You have around 15 lbs of grain, and you want to shoot for 1.25-1.5 quarts of water per pound for the mash. I would go with 5 gallons (20 quarts) for the mash, then sparge until you get to your pre-boil volume.

The only other major thing I notice is you said mash for 30 minutes, but you will want to go longer, more like 60-90 minutes.

 

[WildGingerBrewing]

Yes. Vorlaufing is the process of slowly draining a small amount of the runnings and adding them back to the mash until they run clear. My system take 4 qts and I do 2 vorlaufs of 2 qts each.