Hi
I’m tried adding Denny Conn’s Vanilla Bourbon Stout into Beersmith and i’m a little lost with mash / sparge volumes (I’m a homebrew newbie :-[).
Can anyone help me out?
I got the recipe from here:http://www.brew365.com/beer_dennys_bourbon_vanilla_porter.php
I’m not sure how to attach the beersmith file I’ve created here. Can that be done?
Thanks
What is it that your confused about?
It’s converting the recipe on the website into a Beersmith recipe I can use which guides me through volumes of water I need. It would be great if someone could take a look at my beersmith recipe to see if it looks ok.
I don’t use BeerSmith but what seems to be the issue entering it in?
Have you read the beersmith blog on volumes and entering recipes?
I ignore volumes posted by others and rely on the volumes that work for me. I mash around between 1.5 and 1.7 volumes and batch sparge. I adjust my grist:water ratio to get volumes to the half gallon which makes it easier for me to measure.
There’s no issue entering in the information, but the recipe doesn’t provide mash / sparge volumes. Are these volumes largely the same for each recipe, or do they differ?
I’ve recently finished a Black IPA brew where I ended up bottling approximately 12 litres (24 bottles).
So If I want to bottle twice this, do I keep the mash volume the same and increase the sparge volume or add water to the fermentation vessel?
Can you explain the 1.5 and 1.7 volumes? :-[
Your target final volume is what dictates your mash/sparge volumes. If you want double the amount of your black IPA, you could double the mash/sparge volumes used for that beer to be in the ballpark. Having your mash runoff and sparge runoff being within a gallon of each other would be a good target to shoot for.
EDIT - As always, you need to take into account absorption by the grist and dead space of your mash tun. In other words you’d add these amounts to your target mash runoff to get what you’re after in the kettle.
The recipe is likely written for a 5 gallon batch. Mash volume is determined by the total grain volume and mash thickness. Beersmith has some presets, but I don’t know what they are as I deleted them and made my own for how I brew.
Do you have a copy of how to brew? Seems like you could bone up on some basic processes. If your previous batches were kits, it’s likely that the instructions had this all detailed out for you.
I meant to say 1.5-1.7 qts/lb of grain.
Mash/sparge volumes are a function of your equipment, process, batch size, and target profile. For a Denny porter/stout recipe, I would assume using a single infusion, medium body, batch sparge profile in BeerSmith. Do you have your equipment profile already in BeerSmith?
You’re making this way too hard. Start by mashing at a ratio of 1.65 qt./lb. Round up to the mearest qt. After you run off your mash, measure how much wort you have in the kettle. Subtract that from the amount you want to boil. The answer you get is how much sparge water to use. Brad Smith is a good friend and Beersmith is a great piece of software, but you can do a lot without it.
This. Remember that strike water is → water to grist ratio (qts/lb)*grain weight
Nice one. Thanks Denny
That is a tip i’ll use until I get to grips with some more complex recipes.
BTW: Thanks for your help and quick responses.
Very helpful.
Just a quick thumbs up for that recipe. I made it last year and it was loved by all, have fun with it
Wow it has been some time since I saw that recipe. I found, in the spring, a 4 year old six pack of this in the bottom of my mother’s fridge. It was still fantastic. Some flavors were a little muted, but really a nice brew. I would add a little more grain to it and plan for reduced efficiency. It was one of the first beers I ever made and my efficiency was like 60%. It won second at the KY state fair Lol
Hey, I just realized you said Bourbon Vanilla Stout…it’s an imperial porter!
Dumb question probably…
Are you the Denny of “Denny Conn’s Bourbon Vanilla Imperial Porter”
You’re right BTW, I meant Porter !!
I’ll change the subject header
We rarely call him that here. We call him “defender of the batch sparge”