Water for first All Grain

[mannishboy24]

I'm planning on doing my first all grain recipe soon. I was doing some calculating for it and found that I'd be using over 9 gallons of water for a recipe with just over 11lbs of grains but the recipe is supposed to yield 5 gallons. Is there really that much absorption and evaporation during the process that I'll end up with 5 gallons.

I have 11.5 lbs of grains and was doing a 1.3 qts of water per pound for the mashing and 2 qts per pound for sparging. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[johnnv]

Use a brew calculator, yes there is quite a lot of absorption in all grain and 1 hour boil off will be close to a gallon , depending on the diameter of your boil kettle.

 

[LLBeanJ]

If using a traditional mash/lauter tun setup (as opposed to BIAB), it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of:

batch size (5.0 gallons) + absorbtion (.1 gal/lb) + expected boiloff (assuming 1.0 gal/hr) = 5.0 batch size +1.15 absorption + 1.0 boiloff (if 60 min boil) = 7.15 gallons total water needed. If there is any mash tun and boil kettle deadspace, you'll need to add those amounts to the total and increase the sparge water by the same amount.

So, if 7.15 gallons is the total water, and you're mashing with 1.3 qts/lb, that's 14.95 (round up to 15) qts, or 3.75 gallons. That leaves 3.4 gallons for sparging. Take you're 2 qts/lb figure and toss it out the window, as sparge volume is dictated by the remainder needed to reach your pre-boil volume after collecting first runnings.

If you're using BIAB method, you can cut the absorption rate in half, to .05 gal/lb.

 

[Double_D]

If using a traditional mash/lauter tun setup (as opposed to BIAB), it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of:



So, if 7.15 gallons is the total water, and you're mashing with 1.3 qts/lb, that's 14.95 (round up to 15) qts, or 3.75 gallons. That leaves 3.4 gallons for sparging. Take you're 2 qts/lb figure and toss it out the window, as sparge volume is dictated by the remainder needed to reach your pre-boil volume after collecting first runnings.

If you're using BIAB method, you can cut the absorption rate in half, to .05 gal/lb.

I know I'm the "well actually" guy but it depends on the type of sparging you're planning on. This is perfect for batch sparging. Which is usually perfect for the new all grain brewer. But 2 quarts per pound would be a sufficient (but on the low side) estimation of the amount of water necessary for fly sparging. So maybe instead of throwing it out the window just keep it in mind that there is always more than one way to get the job done.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yep, I assumed he was batch sparging.

Thanks for clarifying.

Double_D, so what do you do with all the extra water if fly sparging with 2+ qts per lb? Boil it off? I BIAB, so none of this is relevant for my process, but now I'm curious.

 

[Double_D]

It stays in the mash tun. Basically you're using the difference in water density to "push" the heavier sugar laden wort to the bottom of the mash tun. You'll generally want to maintain a couple inches of water on top of the grain bed and then add water to the top at roughly the same rate you remove wort from the bottom. Neither way is really better. I've used both methods with equal results but it does depend on the capabilities of your set up. I used a 62 qt bayou classic with a copper manifold when I was mashing and then switched to a bazooka screen for the boil for years. It wasn't practical to fly sparge then. Batch sparging was much more convenient. Now that I finally finished my single tier fly sparging is convenient so I can rinse my herms coil and clean as go while sparging. You just finish sparging and drain the mash tun when you've collected your preboil amount.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Makes sense. Thanks.