Sparge size and time

[guillaume]

I'm new to homebrewing and will be brewing my first beer in two weeks. I'll do an oatmeal stout, all grain.

I have questions regarding the volume of sparge water to use. The recipe calls for 2 equal sparges.

Lets say I'm doing a 5g batch, assuming around 70% efficiency, beersmith says I would need to do a 2 steps, one of 1.36g and one of 4.4g. Can I do 2.8g twice?

I also got a problem, my largest pot can only hold 2.3g (US) of water safely. Would it be best to just buy a larger pot to heat up my sparge water?

Another question, how long should sparge last?

For reference, here's my equipement (i bought a used kettle and built my wort chiller 50' 3/8"). My kettle can hold 8.5g (US) safely (with 3 inches free at the top) and I'll use it for mash (got a false bottom) and boil. Side note, I assume everyone use US gallons around here, not CAN loll?

 

[chickypad]

If your kettle holds 8.5 gal with some headspace you should be able to fit that recipe as a full volume mash BIAB. Mash with 7.5 gal of water (according to Green Bay rackers calculator that should take up about 8.4 gal space), the 10.75 lb of grain will absorb about 0.9 gal if you squeeze the bag, leaving you with 6.6 gals to boil which should be about right to get 5.25 post boil. If you decide on a more traditional mash thickness then you can certainly sparge in 2 equal volumes, but I would check your settings. A nearly 6 gal sparge seems large for a 5 gal batch, and you should be able to do it in one step. With batch sparging you can run it off as fast as it will go, and you also don't actually need to sparge with hot water so you could use another bucket or something to hold it (this is per Kai Troester's experiment sparging at room temp).

 

[RM-MN]

I'm new to homebrewing and will be brewing my first beer in two weeks. I'll do an oatmeal stout, all grain.

I have questions regarding the volume of sparge water to use. The recipe calls for 2 equal sparges.

Lets say I'm doing a 5g batch, assuming around 70% efficiency, beersmith says I would need to do a 2 steps, one of 1.36g and one of 4.4g. Can I do 2.8g twice?

I also got a problem, my largest pot can only hold 2.3g (US) of water safely. Would it be best to just buy a larger pot to heat up my sparge water?

Another question, how long should sparge last?

For reference, here's my equipement (i bought a used kettle and built my wort chiller 50' 3/8"). My kettle can hold 8.5g (US) safely (with 3 inches free at the top) and I'll use it for mash (got a false bottom) and boil. Side note, I assume everyone use US gallons around here, not CAN loll?

I appears that you are planning to use a conventional mash tun. There are a few ways to approach this. The first is to mash with as large amount of water as you have room for. The "rule of thumb" to use 1.2 qts per pound of grain is just a rule of thumb that someone came up with that doesn't have a real basis. I've successfully mashed BIAB with a ratio of 4 qts per pound with the same brewhouse efficiency.

Plan on doing a batch sparge (which it appears you will) and when you drain your mash tun, notice how much wort you have collected. Compare that to how much you need pre boil (probably about the 6.6 gallons mentioned above) and sparge with the difference. You can do that in one or 2 sparges that are the same or different quantities with little difference in the efficiency. If you want to go for the maximum efficiency in the sparges, do one hot sparge first, then a cool sparge. The hot sparge will dissolve a little more sugars and keep the grain hot so that when you add the cold water, the grain will heat it up and it too will dissolve a lot of sugar.

Batch sparges are easy and pretty efficient. Dump the water into the tun, stir well, really well, then drain as quickly as the tun will let you. If you are doing a double sparge, repeat for the second sparge.

 

[IslandLizard]

+1 ^

Beersmith has a setting you need to check mark for equal size sparges. It's still a bit whacked when it comes to calculating sparges IMO. I use Brew365's or Brewer's Friend's mash calc for that part.

You can use the smaller pot(s) to heat up your sparge water while mashing in your kettle. If you have another vessel to store the heated water in, even better. I prefer to sparge hot (~170°) 2x with equal volumes. Hot water rinses and dissolves the clinging sugars faster, but the second sparge can be done quite a bit lower. It is important that you drain your mash tun all the way each time for best efficiency. A dip tube to the bottom will help to reduce your dead space, i.e., wort left under the false bottom.

You would likely need to add a few ml of (phosphoric or lactic) acid to your sparge water to keep the pH in check (sparge pH <5.8) to prevent extracting tannins. The amount needed depends on your water's mineral composition, and your grist. Bru'n water and Brewer's Friend have good calcs for that.

 

[guillaume]

Thanks for all those great advices!

So in order to get maximum efficiency, I understand that I need to sparge until the water I get out of it is somewhere around 1.010 gravity (I might get like 10g or 6g, depending on the amount of grain used), then boil down to desired volume. Am I right?

The OG doesn't matter, it's only to know my ABV, am I right? Or do I need it to know how much yeast to use? (I'm just guessing here that too much yeast with not enough food would die too quickly)

 

[chickypad]

So in order to get maximum efficiency, I understand that I need to sparge until the water I get out of it is somewhere around 1.010 gravity (I might get like 10g or 6g, depending on the amount of grain used), then boil down to desired volume. Am I right?

The OG doesn't matter, it's only to know my ABV, am I right? Or do I need it to know how much yeast to use? (I'm just guessing here that too much yeast with not enough food would die too quickly)

Stopping sparging when the gravity gets too low only applies to fly sparging, and it's a target of when you should stop to avoid tannin extraction. You don't keep sparging until the gravity gets there, you stop when you have your boil volume.

I'm still not quite sure what you're planning, you're mashing in your kettle but you mentioned a false bottom? Were you planning to try to use it as a traditional mash tun then collect your runnings in something else and clean it out before boiling? If mashing in your kettle I would recommend BIAB, in which case a full volume mash is probably easiest and should fit as I mentioned. Otherwise, if you are going to mash in a cooler or something and then batch sparge you only want to sparge with enough water to get your boil volume. Leaving extra water in the tun when batch sparging will lower your efficiency. So you can measure your first runnings, then add just enough sparge water to hit your boil volume.

 

[guillaume]

I'll mash in the kettle, collect in a bucket, clean then boil in the kettle.
BIAB would be nice I guess, but i would need to get a bag then.

 

[1977Brewer]

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Trimaco-5-gal-Elastic-Top-Strainers-2-Pack-11573-36WF/202061360/

Get to a hardware store, save yourself some trouble.

 

[IslandLizard]

Thanks for all those great advices!

So in order to get maximum efficiency, I understand that I need to sparge until the water I get out of it is somewhere around 1.010 gravity (I might get like 10g or 6g, depending on the amount of grain used), then boil down to desired volume. Am I right?

The OG doesn't matter, it's only to know my ABV, am I right? Or do I need it to know how much yeast to use? (I'm just guessing here that too much yeast with not enough food would die too quickly)

As chickypad said, when batch sparging the only thing that counts is getting your pre-boil volume from either one single sparge or 2, equal volume sparges. I prefer the latter. Measure the gravity of the 3 runnings, the first (mash) will be high, the second (1st sparge) around 1.030-1.040 and the third (2nd sparge) around 1.015-1.025. You want to collect the EXACT pre-boil, volume no more, no less.

Don't know what your estimated efficiency is in BeerSmith, but for the first time, I would add 10% extra grains to the recipe in case your efficiency is lower than expected. If it turns out higher, you just have stronger beer or more beer by adding some water. That extra half or full gallon can go into a separate vessel (1 gallon growler) if your fermentor can't hold the extra volume. Then next time you know.

 

[guillaume]

Regarding the wort chiller, should I sanitize it before putting it in after the boil, or should I just put in near the end of boil so it's sanitized by the boil?

 

[chickypad]

Regarding the wort chiller, should I sanitize it before putting it in after the boil, or should I just put in near the end of boil so it's sanitized by the boil?

I used to put it in the last 10 minutes but it sometimes would kill the boil, for yrs I've just been throwing it in at flameout. It always takes a couple minutes to get it significantly cooled and pretty sure copper is antimicrobial on it's own anyway. Never had an issue.

 

[doug293cz]

Regarding the wort chiller, should I sanitize it before putting it in after the boil, or should I just put in near the end of boil so it's sanitized by the boil?

Most people put it in with about 10 minutes left in the boil. That takes care of sanitizing the chiller. You do want to make sure the chiller is clean beforehand tho.

Brew on