How to brew AG recipes from HBT?

[jojacques]

Hello fellas,

This will look like a pretty stupid question, but I can't seem to fin the answer anywhere. A lot of generous people on this forum are sharing their recipes, some of them I would LOVE to try.

Most people are sharing the grain and hops bills, mashing and fermentation temperatures & time..... great.... The thing is I still have to learn how to figure out the mashing of these recipes.....

How much mash water?
How much sparge/mashout water?

Is it a rule of thumb or is it specific to my equipment?

I am using a 5G Mashtun with a false bottom.

 

[lumpher]

Everybody uses different amounts, whatever works for them. For the sheer ease of it, I use about 4 gallons mash and about 4 gallons for a batch sparge for a 5 gallon mash. I get about 78% efficiency, with that, and my crush, etc., and I'm ok with that.

 

[BigMack]

The volumes used depend entirely on your system. A 5 gallon mash tun seems pretty small do be doing 5 gallon batches though. The reason that all they give is the mash length and temp is so that you can adjust the mash for the variety of different configurations/methods people use to brew.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

Do what is specific to your system since boil off and other system losses will be different.

For my system I used to do a 4 and 3, 4 gallons mash, 3 gallons sparge. I reversed it on a whim recently and found I got better efficiencies, and I can more finely tune my mash temp since the 4 gallons of "sparge" water I heat to boiling as soon as my I have mashed in. Little under what I wanted for mash temp, scoop some boiling water from the sparge amount and pour that in. Due to my own system limitations I do a mix of "fly sparging" with BIAB so I'll rinse the grains a bit after pulling the bag, then I'll batch sparge the bag in the remaining sparge water while I begin to heat the first runnings.

You can never go wrong with 1.25-1.35 quarts of water per lb of grain for mash. Some people also do no-sparge so they're putting everything in at once.

 

[A2HB]

With a 5 gallon tun and if you're doing 5 gallon batch sizes you need to figure out how much grain you can fit in there and still be able to have a good amount of water to get everything all mixed in. I use a 5 gallon cooler like you do, and the most grain I can comfortably fit including the mash water is about 12.5-13 lbs before it gets too full and starts overflowing. That amount of grain will usually get me about 2-2.5 gallons of first runnings, and then depending on what size batch I'm going for will determine how many times I have to sparge to get my pre-boil volume. I tend to drink higher gravity beers so I don't sparge too much and only do 3-4 gallons batches instead of a full 5, but if you want to get five gallons of wort you'll probably have to sparge at least two more times with equal amounts of water to get your 6+ gallons of pre boil volume.

So the quick answer to your question is how much beer are you trying to make (finished) and what gravity are you shooting for will determine how much sparge water you're going to need.

If you upsize to a 10 gallon cooler none of the previous will matter as you'll be able to fit in all the grain and as much water as you need and you won't be confined by too little space.

 

[mcspanner]

If you're using software like beersmith or brewer's friend ( both have trial versions if you haven't used either before and there are probably others available too) they have some good calculators within those packages that can calculate mash, sparge and boil volumes with a little bit of configuration for your system. If you aren't using them there are some good "rules of thumb" on the ratios of grain to water as outlined above. Again it's all dependant on your system and methods.

 

[MrVix]

It would probably serve you best to download a brewing app. For example I often use my Brewers Friend app. Just type in the grain weights and the app will tell you how much water at what temp to achieve your goal.

 

[jojacques]

Thanks fellas, I get what you mean.
I did use Brewer's friend before but did not realize calculators were available!

Any advice on qts/lbs for the mashing? I will probably just mash around 1.25-1.4qts/lbs..?

And then fly sparge until I hit my pre-boil volume? I usually loose about 1.5gal during my 60min boil.... so my pre-boil volume should be 6.5gal..? Should I boil until I hit my 5G post-boil or stick with the 60minutes?

 

[normonster]

Thanks fellas, I get what you mean.
I did use Brewer's friend before but did not realize calculators were available!

Any advice on qts/lbs for the mashing? I will probably just mash around 1.25-1.4qts/lbs..?

And then fly sparge until I hit my pre-boil volume? I usually loose about 1.5gal during my 60min boil.... so my pre-boil volume should be 6.5gal..? Should I boil until I hit my 5G post-boil or stick with the 60minutes?

Sounds like you have all the info on your equipment that you need. If I were you I'd do my self a HUGE favor and purchase the Beersmith ap for my phone...maybe $15 or something and 100% worth it in my opinion.

From there you can input your equipment profile (likely a pre-existing one that will work for you), then put in a mash profile (also likely there's already one in the program that fits your intention), then "add" a recipe by selecting the equipment profiles you decided on in earlier plus the grain and hops. It will not only give you good estimates of gravity (pre and post boil), IBU, abv, etc, but also has a reverse timer for when you're ready to brew that will indicated that it's time for each addition (both mash and boil).

Not to mention you can then design and copy recipes in bed, at work, on the sh!tter, while commuting, during dinner, while your wife is lecturing you, while you should be doing something else. Best thing ever.

Cheers! Get beersmith! Have a blast! Then, likely discover you need a bigger...everything. lol

 

[jojacques]

Norm, after reading your post (thanks for the giggles!), I went ahead and got the beersmith mobile app for my phone. It gets a certain time to understand everything but in the end it seems like an awesome app (and it was only 7CND$) Woohoo.

I'll use the info in this thread and the beersmith app to brew next time.

Thanks to everyone, very good info from all of you!

Cheers.

 

[Yooper]

The calculators will definitely help, but you seem to have a good grip on how to work with your system.

Using 1.25-1.5 quarts/pound of grain, you can probably mash up to 12 pounds of grain in your cooler, depending on your false bottom. I use the "can I mash it" calculator here http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml (scroll down a bit) and it will calculate the volume of the mash for you to see if it will fit.

Then, just sparge up to your boil volume.

The calculators will help you hit your mash temperature, and I love Beersmith for that. Once I have it all set up, it never misses. The first few times, make sure you have some extra boiling water on hand, and a couple of ice cubes. Just in case the calculation isn't quite right.

 

[jojacques]

Good info! Thanks!

 

[normonster]

Norm, after reading your post (thanks for the giggles!), I went ahead and got the beersmith mobile app for my phone. It gets a certain time to understand everything but in the end it seems like an awesome app (and it was only 7CND$) Woohoo.



I'll use the info in this thread and the beersmith app to brew next time.



Thanks to everyone, very good info from all of you!



Cheers.

Right on!