Mild: How to get boil volume w/o over sparge.

[chinaski1217]

I want to brew a Mild for march madness, but I've got a question. I have a wide diameter brew kettle and tend to boil off about 1.25 gallons an hour. It's a vigorous boil, but not jumping out of the kettle or anything. My normal boil volume for a 6 gallon batch is around 7 gallons. But is running 7.5 gallons of water through 9 pounds of grain going to amount to over sparging and cause flavor issues?

I should mention that I batch sparge.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[doug293cz]

Not a problem with batch sparging.

Brew on

 

[Yooper]

That's the only time I have issues with the risk of oversparging- brewing a mild. If you reach your boil volume and your runnings are under 1.010, then topping up with water is a valid technique.

 

[jschein]

That is a lot of sparge water to collect 7 gallons in the boil kettle

Missed the mild part

 

[chinaski1217]

That's the only time I have issues with the risk of oversparging- brewing a mild. If you reach your boil volume and your runnings are under 1.010, then topping up with water is a valid technique.

Yeah, I just don't like watering down my wort if i can avoid it. I thought about that though....

I'm thinking I may just go with the no-sparge technique on this one. Might make me feel safer, and if it produces a richer malt character, that's a bonus.

 

[Stillraining]

I want to brew a Mild for march madness, but I've got a question. I have a wide diameter brew kettle and tend to boil off about 1.25 gallons an hour. It's a vigorous boil, but not jumping out of the kettle or anything. My normal boil volume for a 6 gallon batch is around 7 gallons. But is running 7.5 gallons of water through 9 pounds of grain going to amount to over sparging and cause flavor issues?

I should mention that I batch sparge.

Any help is appreciated.

Not familiar with "Mild's" but you wont be sparging 7.5 gallons in the first place.

All my 5.5 gal brews call for between 6.75 and 7 + total pre- boil volume. Your only going to batch sparge a portion of that like 4.5 gallons or a bit more so not a problem... I do it every brew as most my grist bills are 9 lbs or less.

 

[doug293cz]

I want to brew a Mild for march madness, but I've got a question. I have a wide diameter brew kettle and tend to boil off about 1.25 gallons an hour. It's a vigorous boil, but not jumping out of the kettle or anything. My normal boil volume for a 6 gallon batch is around 7 gallons. But is running 7.5 gallons of water through 9 pounds of grain going to amount to over sparging and cause flavor issues?

I should mention that I batch sparge.

Any help is appreciated.

A quick simulation for 7 gal pre-boil from 9 lb of grain indicates that the sparge SG should be about 1.020. Don't see anything to worry about with that. Also, assuming a typical 0.125 gal/lb grain absorption, you will need 8.13 gal of strike + sparge water.

Brew on

 

[chinaski1217]

Not familiar with "Mild's" but you wont be sparging 7.5 gallons in the first place.

All my 5.5 gal brews call for between 6.75 and 7 + total pre- boil volume. Your only going to batch sparge a portion of that like 4.5 gallons or a bit more so not a problem... I do it every brew as most my grist bills are 9 lbs or less.

For clarification: I get that. I'm sparging with about 4.5 gallons or so. But, I'm still running 7.5 gallons of water total through a fairly small amount of grain. That was my concern. Thanks!

 

[chinaski1217]

A quick simulation for 7 gal pre-boil from 9 lb of grain indicates that the sparge SG should be about 1.020. Don't see anything to worry about with that. Also, assuming a typical 0.125 gal/lb grain absorption, you will need 8.13 gal of strike + sparge water.

Brew on

This actually makes me feel a lot better! Thanks, man.

Out of curiosity, how'd you come up with these numbers? Specifically, the sparge sg...

 

[RM-MN]

Yeah, I just don't like watering down my wort if i can avoid it. I thought about that though....

I'm thinking I may just go with the no-sparge technique on this one. Might make me feel safer, and if it produces a richer malt character, that's a bonus.

Learn to turn your heat down so you don't boil off so much and you don't need as much sparge water or top off.

 

[Stillraining]

For clarification: I get that. I'm sparging with about 4.5 gallons or so. But, I'm still running 7.5 gallons of water total through a fairly small amount of grain. That was my concern. Thanks!

For clarification... I get that. that's what I ment..almost every batch sparge brewer will put 7 gallons +- (Total water) through 9 lbs of grain on a regular basis without issues. Its how its done. My only ignorance is what the hell a mild is in the first place..

But in my opinion it doesn't matter.

Carry on

 

[iijakii]

For clarification... I get that. that's what I ment..almost every batch sparge brewer will put 7 gallons +- (Total water) through 9 lbs of grain on a regular basis without issues. Its how its done. My only ignorance is what the hell a mild is in the first place..

But in my opinion it doesn't matter.

Carry on

It's the best beer known to man. Brew one and join us.

 

[Owly055]

Reduce your boil time, adjust your hop additions accordingly, adding a bit more bittering addition, and adding the remaining late addition hops at the same times according to the end of the new reduced boil. There is no reason to slavishly adhere to an hour or a 90 minute boil. Modern malts don't really have a DMS issue. Most of my boils are 30 minute these days. Even if it were a problem, a more vigorous boil does a better job.


H.W.

 

[AK7007]

Since you are talking about a mild - it's a small enough amount of grain that you should consider no-sparge. Whatever amount of extra grain you need to compensate for poor efficiency will be tiny.

 

[doug293cz]

This actually makes me feel a lot better! Thanks, man.

Out of curiosity, how'd you come up with these numbers? Specifically, the sparge sg...

I put together a batch sparge simulation model that basically does the following.

1. Based on the grain bill, calculate the weight of the sugar that can be created from the grain.
2. From the weight of the sugar, and the vollume of the strike water, calculate the SG of the initial runnings wort.
3. From grain absorption and MLT dead volume, calculate how much wort is left in the MLT after draining.
4. Calculate the amount of sugar and water remaining in the MLT.
5. Calculate the SG of the sparge wort from the amount of retained sugar and the retained water plus the sparge water.

The model assumes that the mash is mixed well enough before every run-off, such that the wort composition is uniform throughout the mash volume. It also allows adjustment of the conversion efficiency used when calculating the original amount of sugar.

@pricelessbrewing has incorporated these same calculations in his on-line calculator, so you can do them yourself.

Brew on

 

[brewcat]

Learn to turn your heat down so you don't boil off so much and you don't need as much sparge water or top off.

It may just be the burner. Even really low mine tends to boil off 1.5 gallons an hour. I should probably get a new burner.

 

[Stillraining]

It may just be the burner. Even really low mine tends to boil off 1.5 gallons an hour. I should probably get a new burner.

It depends on the surface area of your pot as well..Mines 17" in diameter. it boils off fast too. I'm done when I hit my target post boil volume, how ever long that takes.... I'm not married to the whole hour boil thing.