Noob AG question

[GunnerMan]

Ok while we are on the subject of noob Ag questions I have one:
When your going to mash you
1.)take your grans and crush them
2.)Set them in an amount of water(amount ?) at varying temperatures for the enzymes to turn starch to sugars
3.)Grain is sparged with clean hot water
4.) the result is your wort.

So my question comes from steps 2 and 3. For my final product(wort) do you only use the sparge water for the wort or do you use the water you used to do the converting as well?

 

[Yooper]

I usually mash at 1.25 quarts of water per pound of grain. I base the temperature and time of the mash on the type of beer I'm making. Higher mash temp and shorter time favors a more unfermentable wort. Lower mash temp and longer time periods favor a more fermentable wort. So, for say, a dopplebock, I'd mash high (maybe 156 or 158). For a beer I'd like a bit thinner and drier, (maybe a cream ale), I might mash for 75 minutes at 147, just as examples.

For the sparge, you want to use fresh water at a temperature that will bring your grain bed to about 168 degrees. You want water, not wort, since it's the lower gravity water that "pulls" the remaining sugars out of the grains. This lautering procedure is what produces the sweet wort. You add these "second runnings" to the "first runnings" from the draining of the mash.

 

[cwhill]

For my final product(wort) do you only use the sparge water for the wort or do you use the water you used to do the converting as well?

Both strike (the water you mash/convert with) and the sparge water become your wort.

 

[Bobby_M]

In fact, the mash runnings are extremely high gravity (sugary) in comparison to the sparge runnings.

 

[GunnerMan]

Thanks for the info, I read John Palmers All Grain chapter and it gave me more info but confused me even more. Im stuck reading and asking questions like "He just did this and he got to that how did he do this." Im not planning on doing AG for a while, I want to get a good handle on extract brews first but I seek to further my education on homebrewing. I think I understand your standard sparge now. I have my mash in my lauter tin. When it leaves the lauter tin(without grains) it is now wort, as I am doing this I add my sparge water to get my desired volume of wort. All of this is done slowly giving the water time to extract the sugars from the grains. So why do you just mash the grains in the full amount of water?

 

[FlyGuy]

Actually, you can mash with the full amount. But conversion and extract efficiency suffers. You extract more sugars by mashing at 1 to 1.5 qts of water per lb of grain, and then using the rest of the water to rinse the sugars out of the grains.

Best of luck with the learning process -- and don't be afraid to ask for help here. Lots of knowledgeable people here to help!

 

[Bobby_M]

Because you end up diluting the enzymes too much so they can't be as effective in converting starches to sugar and also lose the PH stabilization of the grain. Oh... and read the all grain primer down there ...

 

[GunnerMan]

Thanks, for now I just wanted to get the general process down so I had some sort of clue of what people are talking about on these all grain posts
Like I said right now I want to learn; need to invest in an A/c unit as well before any more equipment because I can't have tubs of water littered about the house and one beer going at a time isint going to cut it, i can already tell that. Im thinking 3 or 4.

I will def. read the primer Bobby, thanks for pointing it out to me.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Alone with Bobby_M's primer, Bobby_M and others have posted AG videos on You-tube that I would strongly recommend. It all comes together in your mind when you see it in action and at least to me makes a lot more sense.
Best of luck and have fun doing it.