Help needed on 1st all grain brew

[BonzoAPD]

Hi guys. I have made the jump to all grain. I ordered this kit from NB but don't know how much water to use for the mash and at what temp to hear the water to. Any advice you can give me will be greatly appreciated!

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/john-q-adams-marblehead-lager-all-grain-kit.html


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[j1n]

There are a few online calculators for you to figure it out.

heres the one i use http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

adjust the numbers for your recipe and system.

 

[BonzoAPD]

There are a few online calculators for you to figure it out.

heres the one i use http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

adjust the numbers for your recipe and system.

Thanks! I don't know my system numbers since I have never all grain brewed before only extract


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[jabba11]

the instructions tell you the temps 152 for mash in, then 170 for mashout (or sparge). You'll need to adjsut your temp to hit that based on temp of the grain and equipment and such though as well, im sure one of the calculators that are free will tell you that too.. I use beersmith whcih is not free but worth the money IMHO.

 

[Tutsbrew]

I hope the best to you and all your brewing efforts! That said, honestly, here's some online software that I use, it rocks!

http://www.brewersfriend.com/

Also, you can read threads here and read various publications on that and every brewing issue. Read everything posted here from Revvy and Yooper!

Cheers!

 

[DurtyChemist]

Typically people use 1.25 quarts of water for each lb of grain to mash. This would be 12.5 quarts or about 3 gallons. If you used 1.5 quarts you'd be closer to 15 quarts (4 gallons is also easy to measure).

You want your mash water around 160 before adding grains because you will be stirring and pouring grains and both of those will reduce temperature. After you add grains you want the temp to be 152 for a hour. You can check it every 15 minutes to see how it is star
Ting. If you have a cooler setup you can't do TOO much except add more HOT water. For a first batch I'd be happy if it was 150-155 with a cooler setup.

You will also want to get your strike water temps around 180 I believe as this will raise the temperature of your mash to 170 which most people consider the correct mash out temperature.

 

[jabba11]

for my sparge I just preheat the HLT with a kettle of boiling water prior to transferring my sparge water to the tank..

 

[DJDBrew]

the instructions tell you the temps 152 for mash in, then 170 for mashout (or sparge). You'll need to adjsut your temp to hit that based on temp of the grain and equipment and such though as well, im sure one of the calculators that are free will tell you that too.. I use beersmith whcih is not free but worth the money IMHO.

+1 for Beersmith. I recently went AG as well and decided to spend the money on Beersmith as my brewing software tool and so far can't be happier. It is great to be able to make notes and tweak recipes so you can continue to improve on them.

Also as you learn your equipment, you can enter in the values such as boil off rate so that you know just about exactly the water volumes and temps you need to hit for YOUR setup.

Plus the timer helps remind you when the next step needs to happen after one to many homebrews

Oh and one more thing, I see you are doing a lager as your first AG. Do you have a fermentation chamnber or something of the sorts to keep fermentation temps down? S-23 recommends 50-57F for its optimal fermentation temps.