Quick water question

[BrewsterT]

Doing my 1st all grain today with a 10.5 lb grain bill. So I am just wondering would a be correct to mash iwth 3.25 gallons of water and then do my sparge(not sure of the difference between fly and batch but I will be using a sparge arm.) with 5.5 gallons of water. I generally get about a 1.5 gallon boil off for a 60 minute boil with my system. Should I hit my goal of five gallons?

Thanks

 

[Ricand]

Your grain should absorb about 1.2 gallons of liquor. So 8.75 total minus 1.2 absorption and 1.5 boil off will leave about 6.05 gallons. Accounting for trub, hop absorption and dead space you should end up with your 5 gallons.

Good luck with your brew day and have fun!

 

[JuanMoore]

The total volume seems close, maybe a couple quarts high depending on how much dead space your MT has and how much you typically lose to trub etc. As a personal preferance I like to mash closer to 1.5 qts/lb, so I'd probably mash in with 3.5 - 4 gallons, and subtract the difference from the sparge.