So I only have a 7 gallon kettle and that's about as much as my electric stove can handle so I need a better understanding of mash out and the proper grain to water ratio to make sure I don't end up with too much water. I really only boil off about .3-.5 gallons for a 60 minute boil so my case might be someone unusual.
Assuming that I am doing a 5.5 gallon batch and lose .5 gallons to hop and other solids I should never boil more than 6.5 gallons if I want my proper OG. How the heck can I keep my grain to water ratio and sparging volumes in line with this? Assuming I want to mash 17 lbs of grain I would need about 5.6 gallons of water to keep my 1 lb grain/ 1.25 liter ratio. Using beer smith I'm also told to add 3.5 gallons of water to hit my mash out temperature (that seems like a lot of extra water to add). Then I am supposed to sparge (fly sparge) with 1.5 gallons of water. Now this is just an example, but it shows what I am talking about. This is just too much water! So can I reduce the ration of grain to water to 1lb/1liter? Can I get mash out temperature using a decocoction mash technique instead of adding more water.
Basically If I need 6.5 gallons of wort, how should I divide this up amongst my water contributions?
What water addition is the most critical to maintain?
-The water to grain ratio?
-The amount used for sparging?
-Should I change how I hit mash out (less volume of water added but add hotter water, or use docoction to get mash out)? Obviously it changes with the amount of grain, but I need better a better understanding then I now have. I use beersmith so perhaps I am just not using the right mash out techniques or selecting the right options, I want to understand it myself though as well as how to better use Beersmith.
Thanks and sorry for the long post
Assuming that I am doing a 5.5 gallon batch and lose .5 gallons to hop and other solids I should never boil more than 6.5 gallons if I want my proper OG. How the heck can I keep my grain to water ratio and sparging volumes in line with this? Assuming I want to mash 17 lbs of grain I would need about 5.6 gallons of water to keep my 1 lb grain/ 1.25 liter ratio. Using beer smith I'm also told to add 3.5 gallons of water to hit my mash out temperature (that seems like a lot of extra water to add). Then I am supposed to sparge (fly sparge) with 1.5 gallons of water. Now this is just an example, but it shows what I am talking about. This is just too much water! So can I reduce the ration of grain to water to 1lb/1liter? Can I get mash out temperature using a decocoction mash technique instead of adding more water.
Basically If I need 6.5 gallons of wort, how should I divide this up amongst my water contributions?
What water addition is the most critical to maintain?
-The water to grain ratio?
-The amount used for sparging?
-Should I change how I hit mash out (less volume of water added but add hotter water, or use docoction to get mash out)? Obviously it changes with the amount of grain, but I need better a better understanding then I now have. I use beersmith so perhaps I am just not using the right mash out techniques or selecting the right options, I want to understand it myself though as well as how to better use Beersmith.
Thanks and sorry for the long post