help with first time AG

[steber]

Hi, Im making the jump to AG and want to start with Edwort's haus pale ale. Just some clarifications if possible, for confidence.

Mash
Single Infusion mash for 60 minutes at 152 degrees.
I batch sparge in a 10 gallon water cooler with a stainless braid manifold. Click here for great info on Batch Sparging.
Dough-in with 3.5 gallons of water. After 60 minutes, add 5 quarts of 175 degree water and begin vorlauf. My system only takes about 2 quarts before it clears up, then it's wide open to drain in the kettle. Have another 3.25 gallons of 175 degree water ready for the next batch sparge. You should then get 6.5 gallons to your kettle for the boil.

So, what I interupt is "dough-in" means 3.5 gallons boiled to 160ish (to counter the drop of temp from grains), shoot for a mash temp of 152. add this to my MLT. wait 60 mins at a steady temp. add 5 quarts of 175 degree water and begin my runnings.. run off until clear, dump this back in MLT and then do a full drain to my BK.

Now add to my grain bed 3.25 gallons of 175 degree water (with valve closed), No wait time here? Just do runnings until clear and then drain this into BK for a total of ~6.5 gallons?

any clarifications would be greatly appreciated. Thanks ahead of time for any help!

P.S. My set up is a coleman cooler 48qt, with a copper manifold. 12 gallon BK..

 

[snap1042]

That's close I think but here are my thoughts . . . I would consider batch sparing unless you are very confident in your efficiency. This would make the first rubbings high in gravity and will taper off as you go along.

As well, I would be careful lautering a pre-determined amount of wort. If you do that, and your efficiency is off, then you may get a batch that is off in OG. This problem is potentially un-fixable. Instead, I would lauter and, as you get close, measure the OG. Once you get to your desired OG, take what you get.

If you have your OG, then you have your desired beer. Now you can assess your efficiency later based on how much wort you produced (more beer than designed at OG = better efficiency than planned; less wort than designed at desired OG = less efficiency)..

 

[steber]

That's close I think but here are my thoughts . . . I would consider batch sparing unless you are very confident in your efficiency. This would make the first rubbings high in gravity and will taper off as you go along.

As well, I would be careful lautering a pre-determined amount of wort. If you do that, and your efficiency is off, then you may get a batch that is off in OG. This problem is potentially un-fixable. Instead, I would lauter and, as you get close, measure the OG. Once you get to your desired OG, take what you get.

If you have your OG, then you have your desired beer. Now you can assess your efficiency later based on how much wort you produced (more beer than designed at OG = better efficiency than planned; less wort than designed at desired OG = less efficiency)..

This method is a batch sparge unless I'm reading it wrong??

 

[brewski08]

This method is a batch sparge unless I'm reading it wrong??

you are not reading it wrong.

to answer your question, it seems to me like you're interpreting everything correctly.

to answer your other question about wait time, the only wait time i would consider here is the time it takes to stir up your grains and vorlauf (dumping initial runnings back into MLT). so basically, dump your 3.25 gallons of 175 degree water into your MLT, stir it like crazy to free up the sugars, collect about a quart of runnings or until it's clear, and then dump this non-clear wort back into MLT and then drain into kettle.

although it's excellent to have such a precise plan going into brew day like you have here, i've learned that the rule of thumb with sparging is simply to sparge until you've collected the amount of wort you want to boil with. i do a hybrid fly sparge (described here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/hybrid-fly-sparge-technique-75454/) that is much less stressful than batch sparging and yields high efficiencies.

for example, i want to make a 5.5 gallon batch, and i know that i boil off about a gallon of water every 60 minutes. because of this, i'm going to want to sparge until i have 6.5 gallons of wort to boil in my kettle.

hopefully that wasn't too confusing. if it was, disregard it. everything you described in your initial post sounds correct to me!

best of luck.