Help with mash and sparge volumes.

[brewboss]

Attempting my first mini-mash tonight and I want to make sure I'm on track with my water volumes.

My total grain bill is 4lbs with 5lbs of LME.

Planning on mashing with 2.5 gallons and sparging with 3.75 for a total boil volume of 6.25. I'll hopefully end up with around 5 gallons post boil accounting for 1 to 1.5 gallons of boil off on a 60 minute boil.

I know that my volumes are a little high for the amount of grain but I am trying to avoid having to top off.

Am I going in the right direction or do I need to do something differently??

Thanks!

 

[brewboss]

After thinking a little more about this, I realized I forgot to account for grain absorption, so I probably will have to top off pre boil.

I am trying to make sure I do everything the right way, as I plan on entering this brew in a local home brew contest in December.

Oh, btw, it's a Pecan Porter recipe from AHS. The kit came with instructions but only for a partial boil. I have already adjusted my hop schedule due to better utilization during a full boil.

 

[duboman]

Attempting my first mini-mash tonight and I want to make sure I'm on track with my water volumes.

My total grain bill is 4lbs with 5lbs of LME.

Planning on mashing with 2.5 gallons and sparging with 3.75 for a total boil volume of 6.25. I'll hopefully end up with around 5 gallons post boil accounting for 1 to 1.5 gallons of boil off on a 60 minute boil.

I know that my volumes are a little high for the amount of grain but I am trying to avoid having to top off.

Am I going in the right direction or do I need to do something differently??

Thanks!

In mashing you should shoot for 1.25-1.5qts per lb of grain so at 4lbs you should mash with 1.25 gallons -1.5 gallons.

Absorption is usually I believe .12g/lb so you would lose about 1/2g, there is no loss on the sparge so if you want a full boil volume of 6.5g you need to sparge with about 5-5.5g.

Don't forget the LME will add volume so take that into account in your volumes, hope I helped!

 

[brewboss]

Didn't think about the LME adding volume.

Thanks!

 

[FATC1TY]

I'd also worry about sparging too much just because you want to get the volume. Watch your gravities on your runnings after the sparge.

 

[brewboss]

Ended up mashing with 3 gallons and sparging with 2. I only had to add around 1 gallon to get to full boil volume with the LME.

I ended up hitting my og right on target. And didn't have any problems, not a normal brew day for me lol.
Now, let's just hope everything else goes the way it should!

 

[brewboss]

Transferred my porter to secondary today. I racked onto 2oz of oak chips that had been soaking in bourbon for a few days.

Tasted pretty good already, can't wait until this one is done!

 

[brewboss]

Bottled last night, and I must say that the taste was amazing! Just enough of the oak aged taste/bourbon and a slight hint of bitterness. Similar to a coffee taste to me.

I added 1oz of pecan flavoring at bottling and threw it in the closet to age for a couple months. I can't wait to crack one open and see how it has turned out.