Mash Out versus Sparge

[JuanMoore]

mgortel,

You may find that the amount of water needed to hit mash out really cuts into your sparge water. This is the main reason many skip it. You can do a decoction for mash out, or direct heat your mash (if you mash in a kettle) to avoid an infusion. But with a large grain bill, a mash out infusion is going to leave you with precious little water to sparge with.

I don't think you can necessarily calculate it so that you add boiling water for a mash out, and then have your first run off be 1/2 the preboil volume. That would be a special case with a very low gravity beer (ie small grain bill).

+1 to this. When I did mash-out I always used boiling water to minimize the volume.

 

[HawkATP]

I use a 10 gallon rubbermaid for my mash tun and don't have any extra room for a mash out when I do my 10 gallon batches. If I had extra room I may consider it, but I get efficiencies in the high 70s and am happy with that.

 

[mgortel]

As I mentioned, I don't see any advantage at all to a mashout in a batch sparge, if you're doing two rounds of batch sparging. The mashout addition basically IS the first round of batch sparging.

But if you insist on trying a mash out (and why not?!?), your procedure will work. I'd still rather see two rounds of batch sparging, but I know Denny Conn describes his batch sparge technique just as you're planning.

This is the conclusion I came to while trying to educagte myself on this......for my first all grain brew session.....thus, the posting.

SO perhaps I should try a double batch sparge....

So I would drain my mash....then do (2) batch sparges in addition to first draining to get to my target pre-boil volume?

 

[Yooper]

This is the conclusion I came to while trying to educagte myself on this......for my first all grain brew session.....thus, the posting.

SO perhaps I should try a double batch sparge....

So I would drain my mash....then do (2) batch sparges in addition to first draining to get to my target pre-boil volume?

Yes.

Drain the MLT after the mash and measure the runnings. You can start them on to boil if your BK is right there, otherwise it's fine to wait a bit for more runnings.

Once you measure your first runnings, you know how far you are from your boil volume, that's why I suggest doing it that way the first few times.

Say you need 4.5 gallons more to get to your boil volume. Then, you just add 2.25 gallons to the MLT (and you can make it about 180 degrees, so you bring up your grain bed to 168-170) and stir like crazy. Vorlauf (recirculate) a quart or two, drain. Do it again, with 170 degree water the second time. If you heat the sparge water to 180, turn off the heat and add the first addition, by the time you're ready to add the second addition, it should be right about at 170. Once again, stir like it's your job then vorlauf and drain. This whole process will take less than 20 minutes. I like to start my wort onto boil once I have the first runnings in the pot- it brings it to a boil faster.