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Date: 16 Oct 2006 12:50:26
From: Jim
Subject: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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Okay so a few weeks ago I did my first all grain session and it was not
much of a sweat. Everything went pretty smoothly and it looks and
smells like good beer in the fermenter!!
My biggest question is this...
How do I calculate how much water I need to use for my mash, and
particularly my sparge.
I was shocked at how little wort I got out of the first runnings and I
had a loose calculation going in my mind of how much water to sparge
with so I would get up to 6.5 gallons to allow for boil off. What I
basically ended up doing was dumping hot sparge water in until it ran
up to the 6.5 gallon mark on my boil kettle.
I'd like to be a bit more precise on this next go around so I was just
wondering if there is some tried and true equation for calculating how
much water you'll need to Mash/Sparge with. I know there will be some
variation as to how much my system loses, etc but a starting point is
all I'm asking for.
Thanks!
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Date: 16 Oct 2006 18:57:55
From: Jim
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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>
> Do you fly or batch sparge?
Batch sparge..
> For the mash, anywhere between 1 - 2 qts of water per lbs of grain works.
> Generally, somewhere around 1.2 qts/lbs is standard.
> If you batch sparge, then it does become a little more useful. You basically
> need to know how much water is absorbed into the grain, and then figure
> out what total volume you need to add in order to hit your kettle volume.
> I don't know if anybody really does it that way though. I've seen where
> a lot of batch spargers just drain the mash tun the first time, measure
> how much they get into the kettle vs how much they still need, and then
> just add the difference back in as a second batch sparge.
Ahh okay... that makes sense. I kinda did it that way on my first try
but I wasn't sure if that was okay. I guess I just won't sweat the
volume from my sparge and just keep at it until I have the kettle
volume I want.
Thanks!!
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Date: 17 Oct 2006 06:37:07
From: Jim Stansell
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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On 16 2006 18:57:55 -0700, "Jim" <formatreinstall@gmail.com >
wrote:
>
>>
>> Do you fly or batch sparge?
>
>Batch sparge..
>
>> For the mash, anywhere between 1 - 2 qts of water per lbs of grain works.
>> Generally, somewhere around 1.2 qts/lbs is standard.
>
>> If you batch sparge, then it does become a little more useful. You basically
>> need to know how much water is absorbed into the grain, and then figure
>> out what total volume you need to add in order to hit your kettle volume.
>> I don't know if anybody really does it that way though. I've seen where
>> a lot of batch spargers just drain the mash tun the first time, measure
>> how much they get into the kettle vs how much they still need, and then
>> just add the difference back in as a second batch sparge.
>
>Ahh okay... that makes sense. I kinda did it that way on my first try
>but I wasn't sure if that was okay. I guess I just won't sweat the
>volume from my sparge and just keep at it until I have the kettle
>volume I want.
>
>Thanks!!
Jim.....
There are a lot of places to "lose" water throughout the brewing
process. For example, as others have noted, a typical water/grain
ratio is 1.25 quarts per pound. So, for a recipe that uses 12 pounds
of grain, you would want to mash with about 15 quarts (3.75 gallons)
of water.
But, the grain itself will absorb water. Depending on your crush, you
could lose a gallon (or more) of water for each eight pounds of grain.
Thus, your 12 pounds of grain could absorb six quarts of mash water,
leaving a runoff of just over two gallons (out of your original 3.75
gallon of mash water).
In addition, if there's any deadspace in your mash tun, you might
leave some wort behind, further reducing your runoff.
Once you brew a few time and learn your system, you can pretty much
anticipate these variables. I have a spreadsheet to account for these
factors so I know exactly how much sparge water to use.
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Date: 16 Oct 2006 14:40:47
From: Mike
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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John is right about the 1.2 quarts/lb of grain. I use Pro-Mash and it
calculates the amount of sparge water needed. The only advantage
gained by knowing the amount of water needed in advance is that you
don't heat up additional water that is not used for brewing.
Jim wrote:
> Okay so a few weeks ago I did my first all grain session and it was not
> much of a sweat. Everything went pretty smoothly and it looks and
> smells like good beer in the fermenter!!
>
> My biggest question is this...
>
> How do I calculate how much water I need to use for my mash, and
> particularly my sparge.
>
> I was shocked at how little wort I got out of the first runnings and I
> had a loose calculation going in my mind of how much water to sparge
> with so I would get up to 6.5 gallons to allow for boil off. What I
> basically ended up doing was dumping hot sparge water in until it ran
> up to the 6.5 gallon mark on my boil kettle.
>
> I'd like to be a bit more precise on this next go around so I was just
> wondering if there is some tried and true equation for calculating how
> much water you'll need to Mash/Sparge with. I know there will be some
> variation as to how much my system loses, etc but a starting point is
> all I'm asking for.
>
> Thanks!
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Date: 16 Oct 2006 22:45:41
From: John Bleichert
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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Mike <mikek_brewer@yahoo.com > wrote:
> John is right about the 1.2 quarts/lb of grain. I use Pro-Mash and it
> calculates the amount of sparge water needed. The only advantage
> gained by knowing the amount of water needed in advance is that you
> don't heat up additional water that is not used for brewing.
>
>
Agreed. I use 1.25 qts/lb to get me in the ballpark. There's a big
difference in how much sparge and strike water you'll need between a
14 lb malt bill and an 8 pound malt bill. Why heat up the kitchen with
the big kettle if you don't need to. Unless it's February :-)
JB
> Jim wrote:
>> Okay so a few weeks ago I did my first all grain session and it was not
>> much of a sweat. Everything went pretty smoothly and it looks and
>> smells like good beer in the fermenter!!
>>
>> My biggest question is this...
>>
>> How do I calculate how much water I need to use for my mash, and
>> particularly my sparge.
>>
>> I was shocked at how little wort I got out of the first runnings and I
>> had a loose calculation going in my mind of how much water to sparge
>> with so I would get up to 6.5 gallons to allow for boil off. What I
>> basically ended up doing was dumping hot sparge water in until it ran
>> up to the 6.5 gallon mark on my boil kettle.
>>
>> I'd like to be a bit more precise on this next go around so I was just
>> wondering if there is some tried and true equation for calculating how
>> much water you'll need to Mash/Sparge with. I know there will be some
>> variation as to how much my system loses, etc but a starting point is
>> all I'm asking for.
>>
>> Thanks!
>
-----------------------------------------------
John Bleichert syborg@earthlink.net
The heat from below can burn your eyes out!!
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Date: 16 Oct 2006 20:23:04
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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On 16 2006 12:50:26 -0700, <formatreinstall@gmail.com > wrote:
> Okay so a few weeks ago I did my first all grain session and it was not
> much of a sweat. Everything went pretty smoothly and it looks and
> smells like good beer in the fermenter!!
>
> My biggest question is this...
>
> How do I calculate how much water I need to use for my mash, and
> particularly my sparge.
Do you fly or batch sparge?
For the mash, anywhere between 1 - 2 qts of water per lbs of grain works.
Generally, somewhere around 1.2 qts/lbs is standard.
For the sparge, I fly sparge and never bother to try and calculate it
ahead of time. Just keep the sparge running until you collect the
volume in your kettle that you want, and then stop. There's not much
reason to try and calculate it ahead of time.
If you batch sparge, then it does become a little more useful. You basically
need to know how much water is absorbed into the grain, and then figure
out what total volume you need to add in order to hit your kettle volume.
I don't know if anybody really does it that way though. I've seen where
a lot of batch spargers just drain the mash tun the first time, measure
how much they get into the kettle vs how much they still need, and then
just add the difference back in as a second batch sparge. You can assume
that the absorbtion for the second batch is going to be 0, since the
grains already absorbed all the water they are going to during the first
batch.
The only time I see it being really critical to calculate it ahead of time
is if you wanted to do the entire sparge in one batch.
John.
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Date: 17 Oct 2006 05:00:40
From: trequites
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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Jim wrote:
> Okay so a few weeks ago I did my first all grain session and it was not
> much of a sweat. Everything went pretty smoothly and it looks and
> smells like good beer in the fermenter!!
>
> My biggest question is this...
>
> How do I calculate how much water I need to use for my mash, and
> particularly my sparge.
>
> I was shocked at how little wort I got out of the first runnings and I
> had a loose calculation going in my mind of how much water to sparge
> with so I would get up to 6.5 gallons to allow for boil off. What I
> basically ended up doing was dumping hot sparge water in until it ran
> up to the 6.5 gallon mark on my boil kettle.
>
> I'd like to be a bit more precise on this next go around so I was just
> wondering if there is some tried and true equation for calculating how
> much water you'll need to Mash/Sparge with. I know there will be some
> variation as to how much my system loses, etc but a starting point is
> all I'm asking for.
>
> Thanks!
For mashing, I generally use 2.3 times the weight of the grist. If you
use metric, it's easy - for example if you've 5 kg of grist you use 2.3
x 5 = 11.5 litres of water in the mash.
For sparging I have available the same amount of water as the final
amount of beer that I intend to end up with, so if I'm making 23 litres
of beer I'll allow 23 litres of sparge water - this gives a bit too
much, but I've never run out.
I find (from experience) that I generally lose about 2 litres an hour
on the boil and around 1.5 litres get lost with the trub.
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Date: 17 Oct 2006 12:01:54
From: Denny Conn
Subject: Re: Calculating Amount of Water to Use for Mash/Sparge..
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Jim wrote:
>
> >
> > Do you fly or batch sparge?
>
> Batch sparge..
Cool...then there's an easy way to do it until you've brewed enough
batches to get a handle on how your system works. Start by using a mash
ratio of 1.25-1.3 qt. lb. After the mash, run that off and measure how
much you get. That will tell you how much the grain absorbed, which you
can use the next time. Then, subtract the amount of mash runoff from
the amount you want to boil. For instance, let's say you were going for
a 7.5 gal. boil volume and you got 3.75 gal. out of the mash runoff.
You'd then use 3.75 gal. to sparge, since the grain won't absorb any
more water at that point. di it thsi empirical way a cuple times, and
you'll have the data you need to calculate it in the future.
---------- >Denny
--
Life begins at 60...1.060, that is.
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