Help On First All-Grain at Big Brew Day

[zzgorch]

I finally got my system all put together and am taking a fellow member's spot at the local Big Brew Day event tomorrow. I'm using the ingredients provided by the event sponsor (below).

Style:
IPA
Batch Size (gallons): 12

Malt
Pilsner - 10lbs
Crystal 70-80L - 2lbs
Vienna - 20lbs

Hops
Calypso 12-14% - 8oz

Yeast
Wyeast 1272 American Ale II


A few questions:

-Is my MLT big enough for this? (52 qt igloo with BIAB bag for filter)
-What mash temp should I target with the given grain bill?
-Is that enough hops for this volume? (I have some Citra I could add)
-Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[McKnuckle]

Put your recipe though a brewing calculator so you can have an idea of the water volumes needed, and the IBU contribution of your hop bill.

You have 32 lbs of grain. If you drain and/or squeeze the bag after sparging, the grains will conservatively absorb about 0.08 gal/lb or 2.56 gallons. You'll boil off another gallon plus, so let's round that up to 3.6 gallons of water losses.

If you want 12 gallons in the fermenter, then, you need 15.6 gallons of water. If you want an extra bit to account for trub loss in the fermenter so you can actually package 12 gallons, then make it 16 gallons of water.

Now divide that in two for mash and sparge, or 8 gallons for each step.

You need to fit 8 gallons of water plus 32 lbs of grain in the tun. The grain will take up about 2.56 gallons of volume. So that's a total required mash capacity of 10.56 gallons. You have 13 gallons of space - you're good.

 

[zzgorch]

Excellent, thanks. So essentially, I'm just mashing thicker than I normally would with a full volume/no-sparge process and using the remaining water for sparge?

 

[McKnuckle]

I wrote it up assuming that you were doing a standard 50/50 mash/sparge. You can manipulate the math to accomodate any sparge regimen you like. The total volume of water does not change.

However by doing so, you'll see that 16 gallons of water even by itself won't fit into your tun.

So you can mash with as much as will fit and sparge with the rest, or split it up any way you like. The absolute maximum capacity of the tun is 13.25 gallons. If you take away 2.56 gallons for the grain, you have 10.69 gallons of water that is the absolute maximum you can put in the tun with all that grain. And I'd suggest maybe backing that down just a hair.

The choice is yours.

 

[Revvy]

You going to Rochester Mills?

 

[zzgorch]

Yessir! I'm with the KGB.