How much water should I use

michaelpeach76 · Nov 1, 2011

This weekend I'm gonna do my first all grain batch. Here's my recipe:

American Ale:
8.75 lbs two row pale malt
12 oz. Crystal Malt 80l
8 oz. Crystal Malt 60l
1oz. Centinnial Hops 9-11 alpha% (boil 60 mins)
1/2 oz. Centinnial Hops (boil 15 mins)
1/2 oz. Centinnial Hops (boil 5 mins)
1oz. Centinnial Hops (Dry Hop 1 week)

American ale yeast

According to BrewR:
Bitterness (IBU): 40.1
ABV: 5.4
Color (SRM): 12.1

Ultimately I want to have a 5 gallon batch into my fermenter...what I was thinking was 3.5 gallons of strike water / 3.5 gallons of sparge water and then given what the grains absorb and boil off...would I wind up with 5 gallons of wort into my fermenter? If so... Should I be building my recipe based on 7 gallon boil / 5 gallon batch or just 5 gallon batch?

jaycount · Nov 1, 2011

Depends on your grain absorption and BK.

For a 12 lbs. batch on my system, I use about 16 qts mash water and 18 qts sparge water. This gets me a 6.5ish gallon pre-boil volume which ends up right around 5 gallons in the fermenter. I have a wide BK so I have a fairly high boil off compared to some folks.

Figure it out via trial and error, if you're off by a half gallon one way or the other, no huge deal.

Also, that's an interesting recipe. Makes me think of Tallgrass Ale...

JLW · Nov 1, 2011

michaelpeach76 said:
This weekend I'm gonna do my first all grain batch. Here's my recipe:

American Ale:
8.75 lbs two row pale malt
12 oz. Crystal Malt 80l
8 oz. Crystal Malt 60l
1oz. Centinnial Hops 9-11 alpha% (boil 60 mins)
1/2 oz. Centinnial Hops (boil 15 mins)
1/2 oz. Centinnial Hops (boil 5 mins)
1oz. Centinnial Hops (Dry Hop 1 week)

American ale yeast

According to BrewR:
Bitterness (IBU): 40.1
ABV: 5.4
Color (SRM): 12.1

Ultimately I want to have a 5 gallon batch into my fermenter...what I was thinking was 3.5 gallons of strike water / 3.5 gallons of sparge water and then given what the grains absorb and boil off...would I wind up with 5 gallons of wort into my fermenter? If so... Should I be building my recipe based on 7 gallon boil / 5 gallon batch or just 5 gallon batch?

I take total grain bill * 1.25 quarts then divide by 4 to get gallons.

3.2 gallons for the mash. You can easily do two batch sparges at 3 gallons each.

Yooper · Nov 1, 2011

JLW said:
I take total grain bill * 1.25 quarts then divide by 4 to get gallons.

3.2 gallons for the mash. You can easily do two batch sparges at 3 gallons each.

Right. Total grain bill (10 pounds) times 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. So, it's 12.5 quarts (3.125 gallons) for the mash.

You can assume that the mash will absorb about .125 gallons per pound, so you should get out about 1.875 gallons of first runnings.

Since you will want to start with a boil volume of 6.5 gallons or so, you will then need to use 4.6 gallons of sparge water. You can divide that into two additions, if you're batch sparging. If you're fly sparging, you can just sparge until you reach your boil volume.

Make sure you measure your runnings, as it will really help you with any efficiency issues if you want to correct any mistakes the next time!

MakeshiftBrew · Nov 1, 2011

It kind of depends on what you want your grist/water ratio to be, the boil off rate and grain absorption. Different grist/water ratios promote different enzymes, like temperatures but to a lesser degree. But listening to Yooper is always a good idea.

JLW · Nov 1, 2011

Yooper said:
Right. Total grain bill (10 pounds) times 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. So, it's 12.5 quarts (3.125 gallons) for the mash.

You can assume that the mash will absorb about .125 gallons per pound, so you should get out about 1.875 gallons of first runnings.

Since you will want to start with a boil volume of 6.5 gallons or so, you will then need to use 4.6 gallons of sparge water. You can divide that into two additions, if you're batch sparging. If you're fly sparging, you can just sparge until you reach your boil volume.

Make sure you measure your runnings, as it will really help you with any efficiency issues if you want to correct any mistakes the next time!

Yooper brings up a great point about measring your wort pre boil. You'll want to get a hydro sample and cool it way down and take a reading. Here is a calculator to help calculate pre boil gravity:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

If you don't already have brewing software here is another calculator for Mash Infusion

http://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/