Getting ready for first AG batch - How much water?

[MrBJones]

Have quite a few extract batches under my belt, and am slowly getting ready for my first AG batch...reading up, getting additional equipment together, etc. Also looking at different recipes and I notice that rarely - if ever - do they tell how much water to use in the mash and for sparging. Is it just a given that one would typically use between 1.25 and 1.5 quarts per pound of grain for the mash, and an identical amount for sparging? And then to boil it down until reaching the specified wort volume (e.g., five gallons)?

 

[Limbrizik]

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

 

[kh54s10]

You can mash at the described 1.25 to 1.5 qts per pound of grain. There are some differences in outcome from the low to the high but negligible. What you really need to know is your boil off rate. It will be a little different for every different equipment set up.
My 10 gallon pot and SP10 burner boils off just about 2 gallons per hour. Some get as little as 3/4 gallons per hour. I ignore all the calculations for how much to sparge with and just measure the wort collected. I made a dip stick by pouring in one gallon at a time. For example, if I get 2.5 gallons from the mash and I know that I need just over 7 gallons to end up with just over 5 in the fermenter and 5 in bottles or the keg I then sparge with about 1/2 of what I need for preboil. So maybe 2.5 gallons which gets me to 5 gallons. I measure this and do a second sparge to be fairly accurate, So I need another 2.1 - 2.2 gallons for the last sparge and then the boil. This leave very little water (wort) in the mash tun which gives an accurate pre-boil, and a lighter grain bed to carry to the compost pile.

 

[Wiscohio_brewer]

brewersfriend.com

I've used it since I've started all grain brewing and it's helped a lot. The mash calculator and the recipe builder are very useful.

 

[adhomebrew10]

It depends. I mash from 1.25 to 1.75 quarts. I batch sparge and try to calculate to collect exactly the boil volume I need where I collect close to the same amount from the mash and sparge. Normally I get higher efficiency with the thinner mash as well.

It also has to do with how big your mash tun is. I only had 5g for a while so I had to mash with a lower ratio so I could sparge with enough water to rinse all the sugars and it would alm fit in the vessel in 1 sparge.

For my last batch I had 9lb of grain and mashed at 1.75 qt/lb yielding 12.15 qt. Because I wanted 7g to start the boil (end up with 5.25 in fermentor for 5g batch) I sparged with 15.45 qt. This made both volumes roughly equal. Yooper gave me that advice years ago and I have used it since with good results.

 

[Tribe Fan]

You can mash at the described 1.25 to 1.5 qts per pound of grain. There are some differences in outcome from the low to the high but negligible. What you really need to know is your boil off rate. It will be a little different for every different equipment set up.
My 10 gallon pot and SP10 burner boils off just about 2 gallons per hour. Some get as little as 3/4 gallons per hour. I ignore all the calculations for how much to sparge with and just measure the wort collected. I made a dip stick by pouring in one gallon at a time. For example, if I get 2.5 gallons from the mash and I know that I need just over 7 gallons to end up with just over 5 in the fermenter and 5 in bottles or the keg I then sparge with about 1/2 of what I need for preboil. So maybe 2.5 gallons which gets me to 5 gallons. I measure this and do a second sparge to be fairly accurate, So I need another 2.1 - 2.2 gallons for the last sparge and then the boil. This leave very little water (wort) in the mash tun which gives an accurate pre-boil, and a lighter grain bed to carry to the compost pile.

Winner!