Fist time AG right now... Question?

[bobbo]

I'm doing Ed's Haus Pale Ale, the strike water's warming up as I'm writing this. I upped the grain weight to account for the low efficiency I'm expecting. So here's my question... I'm keeping the grain/water ratio the same - 1.3. So I'm going to dough in with 4.25 gallons instead of 3.5. Should I sparge with the same amount of water as Ed's recipe, or should I use more since I have more grain? If I use more sparge water, will I end up with a lot more in the kettle that I have to boil off? Thanks!

 

[sittingturbo]

I believe you would sparge with the same amount of water, because your grain is already completely saturated and will not soak up any more water. Wost case scenario, if you use more water, you need to boil longer to evaporate more water to get a finish of 5 gallons. Hope this helped.

 

[ohiodad]

I'm doing Ed's Haus Pale Ale, the strike water's warming up as I'm writing this. I upped the grain weight to account for the low efficiency I'm expecting. So here's my question... I'm keeping the grain/water ratio the same - 1.3. So I'm going to dough in with 4.25 gallons instead of 3.5. Should I sparge with the same amount of water as Ed's recipe, or should I use more since I have more grain? If I use more sparge water, will I end up with a lot more in the kettle that I have to boil off? Thanks!

You should sparge with what you need to collect. If you are planning to boil 7 gallons and you collected 3 from your first runnings then sparge with 4. You should get back out of your tun just what you put in it when you sparge. Absorbtion is already taken care of with your first runnings. So my answer is sparge the amount of water you need to meet your boil volume.

 

[RichBrewer]

You have modified the recipe to account for lower efficiency so you can use the same amount of sparge water. To achieve more efficiency you could sparge with more water to extract more sugars but this results in more wort in the boil kettle. You will then have to boil longer to get your final volume where you want it.

Use the same amount of sparge water and RDWHAHB.