sparging??

[GeoBeer]

Hey all! I went to the LHBS today and bought the ingredients below. I didn't think anything of it until I re-read the instructions and realized it called for sparging.....I just have a basic set-up.....can I just brew this like a regular Extract recipe?

ngredients:

* 6 oz. chocolate malt
* 6 oz. black patent malt
* 8 oz. honey malt
* 8 oz. 10L crystal malt
* 4 oz. toasted barley (buy it pre-toasted, or DIY @ 350 deg./10minutes)
* 8 oz. malto-dextrin
* 6 lbs. Light malt extract syrup
* 1 lb. Light dry malt extract
* 1 1/2 oz. Galena hops (60 min. bittering)
* 1 oz. Cascade hops (1/2 hour bittering/finishing)
* 1 oz. Tettnanger hops (5 min. aroma)
* Wyeast #1338 European Ale yeast
* 2 tsp. each Gypsum and Burton Water Salts (We have very soft H2O)

Procedure:
Add salts, gypsum to 1 1/2 gal. H2O. Steep grains for 1/2 hour @ 158 deg. Sparge with 1/2 gal. 170 deg. H2O, and strain out any loose grain. Mix in extract and malto-dextrin, and top off with H2O to desired optimum level for your brew pot. Bring to a boil, and boil for 10 minutes before adding Galena hops. After 30 more min., add Cascade hops. Last 5 min. add Tettnanger hops. Cool wort with hops in it. Remove hops at pitching temp., and pitch yeast. Ferment to completion according to your desired method.

 

[david_42]

Steep the grains and strain them. Sparging is not necessary for such a small amount.

 

[Orfy]

All sparging means is to rinse the grains once you've steeped them. Just drain the grain and poor a little fresh hot water over them.

You can sit them in a strainer and poor water over them from a kettle. (Not boiling)

 

[GeoBeer]

Ok, that's what I thought - so I can do that while their in the grain bag/sock, right?

 

[WOP31]

Yes. My pasta strainer fits right inside my brew kettle, so I will rest it there, put the grain bag in it and pour hot (170deg) water, about a gallon or so, over the grain bag. You want to let as much water drain out with out squeezing the bag as you can. Or you can just steep, let the bag drain and move on, you don't have to sparge.

Cheers

 

[thereefgeek]

I still do extract and "sparge" by grain bag as well. For a 10 gallon batch, I'll steep grains in a 3 gallon kettle @ 156, I bring a gallon of water in another kettle up to about 170 or so on the stove top. When the grains are finished, I straddle a big colander across the 15 gallon keggle out on the back patio, fill it with about 7 gallons of pre-boiled water, set the grain bag in there to drain and "rinse" the grains with the 170 water. Add the malt extract, top up the keggle to about 12.5 gal. (for evaporation) fire up the outdoor burner and bring it all to a boil.

I can usually pull off a 10 gallon extract batch in about 5 hours while multi-tasking on the stove and getting the outdoor kettle water filtered and pre-heated. I did a 10 gallon batch of stout that had 18 lbs. of malt extract and 7 lbs of grains to steep. That took about an hour little longer since I had to steep right there in the keggle.

 

[GeoBeer]

Just so I'm straight on this....

If I steep the grains in the grain bag for ~30 minutes at 158, then pour ~.5 G of 170F water over the bag -> remove the bag and bring up to a boil..add in hops -> then put in Primary with ~3 Gallons of cool water -> Pitch yeast

I should be all set, right?

 

[Blender]

Geo, you have it right. How big of a pot do you have? Personally I think the larger the boil you can do the beer will be better. You have a good deal of extract in your recipe so make sure you turn off the heat and add the extract. Mix thoroughly before bringing turning the heat back on to prevent scorching. Don't pitch the yeast until it is 75° and try to keep the temp stable at the fermentation temperature.

 

[TheJadedDog]

The only comment I would make would be to sparge with 160deg water not 170, other than that your plan sounds right on the money.

 

[GeoBeer]

Ok, great! Yeah, forgot to put the Extract into my little summary there, but glad to hear that this should work.

I have a pot that will probably max out at about 2.5 G.

 

[Ol' Grog]

Beware of the boil overs. That size pot won't give you much reaction time when the foaming starts. Remember, a pot will boil over whenever your NOT watching it. It's a law.