Questions on the eve of my first AG

[monty3777]

I am brewing AG for the first time tomorrow. I am a little unclear on how much water to use for:

1. Mashing
2. Sparge


I am brewing Hoppiness is an IPA from Jamil's book. Says pre-boil volume is 7 gallons. However, I am unclear about how much of that should be from the first mash and how much is from the sparge. Also, how do I know exactly how much water to used to take into account loss due to grain absorption?

Second, the book says to mash @ 149*. I can check promash to find the strike temp (if I can figure out the download for my Mac!!)- but is sparge water always 170*?

Thanks a bunch! Feel free to come by in a couple of months to drink some with me! :fro:

 

[shecky]

Typically, strike water will be 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. Absorption will be roughly .2 gallons per pound. Your mileage will vary on the second. I like to sparge around 180* (I use Bobby M's fantastic all-grain primer in his sig. Check it out. He says 185* for sparging but I've found I can get my grain bed up to 168* with 180* degree water with my equipment.)

Your strike water will be dependent on your equipment. That's a trial and error thing. Don't forget to preheat the mash tun, ie go a few degrees higher than your strike temp and let it drop a few degrees before mash in.

To calculate how much water you need for sparging, just subtract the amount of the first runnings from your pre-boil volume. For example, if your pre-boil volume is 7 gallons and you get 2 gallons from first runnings, your sparge would be 5 gallons (you won't get any more absorption). I like to split sparges into two equal amounts, so in this case 2.5 gallons per sparge.

Good luck.

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

(I use Bobby M's fantastic all-grain primer in his sig. Check it out. He says 185* for sparging but I've found I can get my grain bed up to 168* with 180* degree water with my equipment.)

+1 for Bobby_M's All Grain Primer, made my first brewday a breeze, its just a matter of dialing in and streamlining your process afterwards.

 

[aeonderdonk]

+1 more, great explanation