Help on my first all grain

[s2cmpugh]

Good day everyone. I'm ordering this http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-OatmealStout.pdf all grain kit for my first try at it, but I have some questions.

What water amount per pound of grain should I use, 1.5qt/lb or 1.25qt/lb, really not sure?

Second, how much sparge water am I going to need to achieve my correct boil amount?

Third, what should my final boil amount be, 6.5 gallons, 6 gallons, etc?

Thanks again for all the help!

Cris Cross

 

[Primevci]

I don't want to do all the math for ya but what saved my bacon for all grain brewing is beersmith two.. there are tons of tools for this search in google beersmith two come with a free 21 day trail

 

[Begin2Brew]

Good day everyone. I'm ordering this http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-OatmealStout.pdf all grain kit for my first try at it, but I have some questions.

What water amount per pound of grain should I use, 1.5qt/lb or 1.25qt/lb, really not sure?

Second, how much sparge water am I going to need to achieve my correct boil amount?

Third, what should my final boil amount be, 6.5 gallons, 6 gallons, etc?

Thanks again for all the help!

Cris Cross

There are a few more variables that go into this. I assume you are mashing out at 168F so, mash in with 2.75gal at 161F. Mash out with 2.25gal at 198F. Sparge with 3.33gal at 168. This gives roughly 7 gals, one gal for boil off and half a gal for trub loss. All complements of Beersmith.

 

[s2cmpugh]

There are a few more variables that go into this. I assume you are mashing out at 168F so, mash in with 2.75gal at 161F. Mash out with 2.25gal at 198F. Sparge with 3.33gal at 168. This gives roughly 7 gals, one gal for boil off and half a gal for trub loss. All complements of Beersmith.

Thanks! I still have some questions though...the recipe calls for a single infusion mash. My understanding is that I would heat my strike water to about 161-162, mash for an hour, vorlauf, drain into my kettle, THEN add my sparge water at 170, let it sit for 10 mins, then drain off.

Is this correct? What would mashing out accomplish? I'm mashing in a 10 gallon round cooler and will be batch sparging.

 

[Begin2Brew]

Thanks! I still have some questions though...the recipe calls for a single infusion mash. My understanding is that I would heat my strike water to about 161-162, mash for an hour, vorlauf, drain into my kettle, THEN add my sparge water at 170, let it sit for 10 mins, then drain off.

Is this correct? What would mashing out accomplish? I'm mashing in a 10 gallon round cooler and will be batch sparging.

Ok, you're not mashing out so, mash in with 2.81gal at 166F. Drain mash tun then sparge with 5.52 at 168F. I'd split it up into two sparges though, you'll rinse more sugars using two sparges than one.

Mash out will stop enzyme activity and liquify the sugars better to allow better extraction.

 

[wncbrewer]

I recommend skipping the mashout until you get familiar with your system. Once you get a feel for how much deadspace you have and how much boil off to expect, you can start to experiment with different strike ratios, mash steps etc...

Take half of your desired preboil volume...add .1 gal/lb of grain to account for grain absorbtion

Preheat your mash tun with a little boiling water, save some of this water in case you need to adjust the mash temp later.

Mash in at 10-15 degrees higher than your desired mash temp and stir thouroughly to break up dough balls and achieve a consistent temp throughout the mash. Adjust to the desired temp with the boiling water from earlier or ice cubes.

After an hour...vorlauf and drain first runnings.

Add the remaing half of your preboil volume less the compensation for absorption (the grain will be saturated at this point. 190 degree sparge water should raise the grain temp up to around 170 for the sparge.

Vorlauf and drain second runnings and boil as usual.

I did my first several batches following this simple formula with good results. Once you get a feel for your system, things will become easier. Also...recipe formulation software make this A LOT simpler, and there are several free ones online

 

[Pappers_]

Denny's easy peasy batch sparge primer dennybrew

 

[wncbrewer]

Denny's easy peasy batch sparge primer dennybrew

+1 this is a much better explanation of what I outlined above

 

[s2cmpugh]

Thanks for the help everyone. I know I am wwaaayyy over thinking this and being a slight perfectionist doesn't help.

I do plan on purchasing beersmith soon, but I need to wait a little while longer. Any recommendations for a beer formulator online?

 

[wncbrewer]

I use brewzor pro on my android phone, but before that I used "the beer recipator" I don't have a link handy but a google search should turn it up