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Author Topic: Mash and Sparge Water Amounts?  (Read 7847 times)

Offline curtdogg

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Re: Mash and Sparge Water Amounts?
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2017, 08:42:26 pm »
Denny, as many times as I have seen this posted by you, I have never really followed it, and that may cause me some problems from time to time. Do you have an idea going in that you will need say 4.5 gallons of sparge water, but heat up 5 gallons or more in case something funky happened with your mash? I have always just figured out my mash and sparge volumes by knowing my deadspace and absorption losses and heated exactly what I was projected to need. Then added that full amount for sparge. On occasion, I have wound up with incorrect volumes (but not by enough to really be concerned.) My smaller BK is my dedicated HLT, so I guess I could heat extra in case. "Do you actually measure your mash run off every batch to calculate your sparge volume?" is I guess what I am really asking here.

Frank, I use Promash which will estimate the sparge water amount based on grain absorption (I have no deadspace).  That gets me in the ballpark.  But I always add sparge water based on mash runoff volume.  It's part of the notes I take, so I always know what my mash runoff volume is.  And FWIW, I can't recall the last time something unexpected happened in the mash.
Denny, have you found that your system gets better efficiency at a certain quarts/lbs mash? Do you always use the same ratio?
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Online denny

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Re: Mash and Sparge Water Amounts?
« Reply #16 on: January 22, 2017, 09:49:45 am »
Denny, have you found that your system gets better efficiency at a certain quarts/lbs mash? Do you always use the same ratio?

In general, I've found that the higher the ratio, the better efficiency I get.  Somewhere around 1.65-1.75 qt./lb. seems to work best for me, but I adjust slightly to get water amounts in even qt.
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Offline curtdogg

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Re: Mash and Sparge Water Amounts?
« Reply #17 on: January 22, 2017, 10:24:33 am »
Understood.  Thanks Denny.
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Offline BrewWright

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Re: Mash and Sparge Water Amounts?
« Reply #18 on: January 30, 2017, 11:41:09 pm »
I brew 5gal batches. I do a two batch sparge,  one 60 min soak with enough water to cover my grains by a few inches keeping my Temps proper for what body I'm going for,  and stir it gently for a min and let it set and check at 30 min temp and stir.  Then I drain it and do a rinse with the remaining water ft hat will make up. My post sparge pre boil amounts.   Yes calculate each batch.   I calculate my water amounts based on grain absorption and boil off.   My water batch for my most recent rye ale,  was 14 lb grain bill, 8oz of hops,  with a 5 gal finish is about 7.5 gal pre mash, no water added after sparge.  But a good wart chiller is recommended for that technique,  a slow cooling time can lead to off flavors.