Is my Mash Tun Big Enough For This?

[MyCarHasAbs]

I've got my buddy's imperial stout recipe this weekend. It calls for 23lbs of grain, I have a 10 gallon mash tun. According to some calculators, I'll need around 7 gallons of mash water to start with. This site says my mash will take up about 9 gallons of space. https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

What's the biggest beer you've made with a 10 gallon mashtun?

 

[madscientist451]

I've used the rackers "can you mash it" calculator many times and it seems pretty accurate. You could go for less quarts/lb if you are worried about it.
Another option is to do two mashes, but that would take twice as long or you could scale the batch size back from 5 gallons to 4.
I think the easiest thing to do is reduce your batch size.

 

[lump42]

I've got my buddy's imperial stout recipe this weekend. It calls for 23lbs of grain, I have a 10 gallon mash tun. According to some calculators, I'll need around 7 gallons of mash water to start with. This site says my mash will take up about 9 gallons of space. https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml

What's the biggest beer you've made with a 10 gallon mashtun?

If you look at the Man Skirt Brewing calculators, at 1.25 qt/lbs a 10-gal mash tun can hold up to 25.6 lbs of grain and strike water. Max OG, 70% eff. at 1.117. If you mash in thicker at 1 qt/lb, 30.48 lbs will fit.

https://manskirtbrewing.com/calculators.aspx#mashsizehdr

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

If you look at the Man Skirt Brewing calculators, at 1.25 qt/lbs a 10-gal mash tun can hold up to 25.6 lbs of grain and strike water. Max OG, 70% eff. at 1.117. If you mash in thicker at 1 qt/lb, 30.48 lbs will fit.

https://manskirtbrewing.com/calculators.aspx#mashsizehdr

so if I'm doing my math right, 1qt/per gallon, 23qt's would be around 5ish gallons of mash water, and with a thicker mash comes a thicker bodied wort. Yes?

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Based on whats posted here's what I get for seven gallons...

and for eight gallons...

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

Based on whats posted here's what I get for seven gallons...

View attachment 652635

and for eight gallons...
View attachment 652636

those numbers look pretty sound to me! Thanks.

 

[Big Monk]

Keep in mind that what fits in the mash tun and what comes out as required wort amount/quality are two different things.

There are a lot of factors that don't go into a basic "what fits" analysis, i.e. absorption, MLT loss, Conversion Efficiency, etc.

 

[GnenieGone]

I'm doing a quad right now. 20lbs of grain/6gal water. Probably fit 1 more gal. I usually Max at 21lbs then substitute w/Dark DME to bump gravity.

 

[MyCarHasAbs]

I usually Max at 21lbs then substitute w/Dark DME to bump gravity.

^^^ ooooo, that's a good idea! The recipe says it'll be around 9%, but I'm trying to see if I can beat that marker.

 

[lump42]

so if I'm doing my math right, 1qt/per gallon,

Mash thickness is traditionally measured as quarts of strike water per pounds of grain (qt/lbs).

23qt's would be around 5ish gallons of mash water,

23qt is 5.75 gallons. I don't know where this 23 qts is coming from.

and with a thicker mash comes a thicker bodied wort. Yes?

A thicker mash may result in a higher gravity first runnings. If you sparge that would increase the sugar rinsed from the mash tun to the kettle, but would lower your kettle gravity. This is can be countered by boiling longer or adding DME. The body of the beer will have more to do with the mash temperature and the grain bill.

To answer the OP: yes ~7 gallons of strike water is correct for 23 lbs of grain at 1.25 qt/lbs. Yes, it will fit in your mash tun, assuming you don't have more than 1-gallon dead space in the bottom.

The largest grain bill I've done in my mash tun 20 lbs in a 13 gal MT.

 

[GnenieGone]

That seems a bit light. 23lbs at 11gal total? Should be around 11% at 65%eff with mash temp around 150.

^^^ ooooo, that's a good idea! The recipe says it'll be around 9%, but I'm trying to see if I can beat that marker.