Newbie Q

[Gratefuldawg81]

Hi all. So I brewed my first all-grain batch today. Forgive me if this question has been raised a million times, but I couldn't find an answer trolling around the forums for a few minutes. I watched the NB All-Grain 301 DVD. In it, it is suggested that one use 1.25-1.50 quarts per pound for the mash, and 2 quarts per pound for the sparge. On top of this, it suggests 6 quarts for a 10 minute mash-out rest. This seemed like a ton of water for a 5 gallon batch and didn't jive with numbers I was getting from various calculators. I decided to go with 1.25 on the mash and 1.75 on the sparge, and the 6 quarts for mash out...still a lot of water. First question...when I'm continuous/fly sparging, should I just turn off the valve when I reach my boil volume in my kettle. In other words, get 6 to 6.5 gallons and shut it down? Am I leaving tons of sugar behind? I brewed the NB Black IPA kit with a 1075 OG. I ended up pulling 8 gallons into my kettle, and wound up with 6.25 gallons in my primary at 1061. Should I have just pulled 6.5g rather than let everything flow through? Thanks in advance.

 

[leginx]

Brew 365 has an online mash calculator that is very accurate. Follow that. 1.33 is their default, which is mostly in the middle of the extremes. You can do either with fly sparging, just make sure your runoff doesn't drop below 1.01 sg. I tend to stop at boil volume because the last extraction is very low in sugar. Not worth the boil time to get to intended batch size.

 

[Gratefuldawg81]

Thanks for the input, leginx. I also think I should just subtract the 6 quarts I'd use for a 10 minute mashout rest from the sparge total.

 

[cluckk]

The reason for the mashout is to denature enzymes so conversion stops and to raise the temperature so the sugars flow out better. While you can do without the Mashout rest and simply let the kettle coming up to boil denature the enzymes you will find that at a lower temperature your sugars do not flow as well and you could lose some efficiency. Is your concern saving a few cents worth of water or losing the sugars from a few cents worth of grain? You still need to raise the temperature of your grain bed. There will almost always be something left behind, but it is useless anyways unless you are doing a high enough amount to parti-gyle.

 

[Gratefuldawg81]

I'm not concerned with wasting water per say, as I can always use it to clean later. I guess I just didn't know when I should stop sparging...should I just sparge to my boil volume and cut it off...am I leaving too much sugar behind when I do this? That was my main concern. To do 1.25/lb, 6 quart mash out, and 2q/lb sparge yields nearly 48 quarts of water (12.75lbs of grain)...seems like a ton for a 5 gallon batch, even accounting for trub loss/boil off/absorption, etc....

 

[duboman]

After you initially mash and know where your losses are and your boil off rate the amount of sparge water is nothing more than what you need to meet your desired pre-boil volume and really doesn't need to be any more as there is no further absorption taking place.

So example: if you mash in with 4 gallons and you collect 2.5 gallons in first runnings and you require 7 gallons pre-boil volume you simply sparge with 4.5 gallons. Obviously plug in your own values but that's the basic gist of it