i just read 242 posts and still ?????

[bcryan]

so the countdown is on for monday when i will be doing my first AG. i'm gonna be fly sparging. what i don't get is why do i need to calculate how much sparge water i will need if i'm fly sparging. don't i just sparge away until i reach my preboil volume of approx. 6.5g??? or do i need a specific preboil volume for the specific recipe??? then adjust boil time. what would i be doing if i didn't have this stuff to worry about. LOL!!! i should go cut the grass

 

[acefaser]

It will help so you dont heat up 20 gallons of water when all you need is 8. It doesn't have to be exact, I usually have a couple extra gallons in the HLT just in case. Your preboil volume should be calculated by your boil off for the time you plan to boil.
I'm new also so there may be other reasons...

 

[MalFet]

You can just sparge until you hit your volume, that's fine. If you want to know how much water you need to heat up in your HLT, though, you'll need to calculate how much sparge water you need. If you don't want to for whatever reason and don't mind the wasted gas, you can just heat up more than you know you'll need and be fine.

 

[arturo7]

You calculate the volume you need so that you have enough to finish the job. The result from the calculation should be considered the minimum volume of sparge water needed.

Also, although reaching a specific pre-boil volume is an acceptable method to stop sparging, specific reaching a pre-boil gravity is better. Mash efficiency can change from batch to batch.

 

[rewster452]

Truth is, you're going to keep having more questions. When you do that first batch you're going to learn a lot more than you could in any number of posts. Not because there isn't a ton of good information here, but because experiential learning is always more profound.

However, in this case it doesn't hurt to remember that you can't let yourself get into a situation where you need a volume of heated water and don't have it. As long as you're certain you've overestimated, an estimate is cool

 

[badhabit]

SO...here is my favorite related question. What is "over sparging"? How much is too much?

 

[boomtown25]

If you haven't done it yet, get on Youtube and look for videos on everything you have questions about. I go on there nearly every night and there are so many people posting vids about how to build equipment, the science behind brewing, actual tips and trick about AG, when to do what, it has really helped me understand visually what is meant by a lot of the stuff I have read in books and on here. When you see it on here and then see someone talking about it in a video while doing it, it helps you understand better as well. Plus, you get to see how easy AG can actually be if you know what to do and when. Good luck!

 

[Yooper]

SO...here is my favorite related question. What is "over sparging"? How much is too much?

You don't want your runnings to drop below 1.010. If you take a hydrometer reading (this is where a refractometer comes in handy!) and cool it, the runnings should always be at or above 1.010. If it's lower, it's oversparging.

A guick rule of thumb that can help is that you don't want to put more than 3.3 quarts of water per pound of grain through your grainbed. That's the total, mash + sparge. If you follow that rule of thumb, you're pretty safe on not oversparging, usually.

Tannin extraction can happen when oversparging or when a too-high pH occurs during the sparge. If you keep your volume to under 3.3 quarts/pound total, the risk is minimized.

 

[badhabit]

You don't want your runnings to drop below 1.010. If you take a hydrometer reading (this is where a refractometer comes in handy!) and cool it, the runnings should always be at or above 1.010. If it's lower, it's oversparging.

A guick rule of thumb that can help is that you don't want to put more than 3.3 quarts of water per pound of grain through your grainbed. That's the total, mash + sparge. If you follow that rule of thumb, you're pretty safe on not oversparging, usually.

Tannin extraction can happen when oversparging or when a too-high pH occurs during the sparge. If you keep your volume to under 3.3 quarts/pound total, the risk is minimized.

Thanks for the clean and clear answer to a question I have been asking for a long time. I will stick to the 3.3 and take some SG readings, again thanks.