First time poster, here!
I feel like such a newb asking this, but I have noticed that the recipes in the HBA “recipes section” of their site does not offer the amounts of water for their recipes; is there a reason for this? I usually use Brewfather to brew and the instructions on it are super precise. I also use recipes from YoUTube, books, magazines, and the amounts of water are always specified…
Help?
Thanks in advance, HBA members!
Because you need to make the water fit your system and procedures. Every one is different
That’s what I thought, but I was confused since most sites, books, etc. give us the amounts of water in their recipes. So, I guess I simply add the ingredients onto the Brewfather app and the app will calculate the amounts of water for the mash, sparge, etc. Thanks so much for the reply slegare01!
I usually calculate my recipes at 1.25 qts water per pound of grain. If metric that equals out to about 2.6ml water per gram of grain. Then you just need to figure out what your grain absorption is. A good guess would be .1 X total weight of grain (but might be different depending on your grind and system). Subtract that total from the total expected pre boil volume and you will know about how much sparge water you will need. It’s always good to a have a little extra sparge water on hand “just in case” IMO.
This doesn’t take into account any losses your system has but it is a good place to start.
Thanks majorvices!
So much learning! ;D
I like to start at the end and work my way to the beginning to figure water volume requirements. On my system I want 5 gal in a keg and half a gal below the fermenter spigot, to blowoff, and to yeast/trüb are wasted so I ferment 5.5 gal. 1 gal in my boil kettle below the spigot, to hop absorption, and to trüb is also wasted so I want my post boil volume to be 6.5 gal. I boil off a gal so I want 7.5 gal pre boil.
The water absorbed by the grain will vary with the specifics of the grain bill, the type of malt and adjuncts and their moisture content, but an average value of 0.50 quarts per pound (1.04 L/kg) has proven to be a very reasonable assumption in most cases. (Ref: BYO)
For 12# grain, grain absorption is ~1.5 gal and a bit in my pump and hoses is waste. My MLT has very little dead space. So, I start with a total volume of 9 gallons of water.
I like to try to even out my 1st and 2nd run (batch sparge) so I take the 7.5 gal I want to end up with in the brew kettle (pre boil) and split it in half. So my sparge will be ~3.75 gal.
9 gal total volume required - the 3.75 gal sparge (half the pre boil volume) = the rest of the total volume as strike water (5.25 gal). The 5.25 gal strike - the 1.5 gal grain absorption = 3.75 gal (equal runs).
Thanks BrewBama for the super clear explanation! ;D