When I make a 1.050ish beer, I usually end up using about 10 lbs of grain and mash at 2L/lb so I add 20L of water and get back about 12 - 14L of 1st runnings and then sparge with roughly the same amount of warm water to get my boil volumes. I’ve read repeatedly that you want to have about 1/2 of the volume in each (mash and sparge).
But, I want to make some milds and I’m still not sure how to handle the water volumes. Does it matter if I have a small mash (6lbs grain:12L water) and then a much larger sparge to make up the boil volume? Or do I try to stay at 50:50 and have a very thin mash?
GMAC,
I now batch sparge, but I use 1.5 qts/lb for the mash and then drain and split the sparge water between two rinses, usually about 4.5-4.8 gallons each (for a 14 gallon boil volume). That takes an extra vorlauf though and I consistently get 80% efficiency. While my efficiencies are the same as my fly sparge, I think I am getting less astringency problems batch sparging. If I could (if my mash tun were big enough) I would just add ALL my sparge water after draining and that could save me about 15-20 minutes.
With a smaller beer, you also have the option of no-sparge. You’ll use more grain, but it makes the brewday FLY by and you don’t have to worry about over-sparging.
I used this method last time I made a mild and will continue to use it for low-gravity recipes. It saves time and is easier to keep mash temps up for enhanced body/mouthfeel.
IMO., the only reason to do more than one sparge addition is if your cooler is too small to fit in all the water at once.
Graham, first of all getting equal volumes is desirable, but it’s really not a big deal if your run offs are within maybe a gal. of each other. In your situation, I’d either increase the ratio to 3l/lb. (wow, mixed units!) or just do a no sparge.
with small grist beers, you actually want to limit your sparging efficiency when batch sparging. One option is the aforementioned no-sparge. Another option is to not let the grain run dry during the 1st run-off. This keeps some wort in the MLT and effectively works like having a larger grist that would limit your efficiency naturally.
b/c small grist beers hold less wort in the grain after run-off, the resulting wort after adding sparge water will be more dilute and thus prone to leaching out more of the undesirable husk compounds.
So for a no-sparge, do I mash at my regular (mixed unit) ratio and then add the remainder of the water prior to vorlaufing or do I add it all at once and then mash at a 4:1 ratio (24L:6lbs)?
Thanks
I just substitute L for qts because they are close enough for me. But yes, you are technically right that by weight it would be an 8:1 ratio. I guess I’m thinking in terms of 1 qt per lb or 2 qts per lb. In the truest sense I guess you’re right.
I’ll probably mash at 2L/lb of grain like always and then dump in the rest of the water and try it that way. Thanks.
I’ve been doing this alot lateley. 1.75 l/lb (i use mixed units to!) then mash out with however much more I need to hit my preboil volume. although on this last brew I actually had to run some off and add more water cause the whole volume would not fit in the cooler. I guess 72 qt is just not big enough. gonna have to go for that 100 qt one.
