Howdy,
Am doing an India Session Lager with just under 3kg of grain, two infusion mash steps (67 degrees for 60 minutes, 74 for 10) and a batch sparge. Am using Beersmith for volume and heat calculations, and have had to tinker with the mash profiles to get one that matches what I want to do. I've come up with some volumes based on what Beersmith initially spat out but it's just guess work on my part so I wanted to check....
The closest mash profile is the single infusion, xx body, batch sparge, but that only gives me one mash step, telling me to use just under 8L of water and then two batch sparge steps with a total of 25L. When I add the second mash step Beersmith makes me estimate the water volume, so I subtracted 13L from the sparge and used that for the second step. My mash profile now reads (I rounded the volumes):
8L @ 77.8 degrees (mash in) for 60 minutes.
13L @ 79.9 degrees (mash in) for 10 minutes
drain mash tun
batch sparge with 12.5L.
So, my question is how do I know what volume to use for my second mash step? When I add the volume for the second mash step, Beersmith just subtracts that from the batch sparge, which is fair enough as it's trying to hit a kettle volume of 30L. I could put in three liters of near-boiling water or 20 liters of 78 degree water and both steps would hit my mash step temperature with either a huge or small sparge volume to follow. I've just guessed and taken Beersmith's recommended volume for the first batch sparge (it wanted me to batch sparge in two steps). Is there a rule of thumb for subsequent mash step volumes?
Cheers
Az
Am doing an India Session Lager with just under 3kg of grain, two infusion mash steps (67 degrees for 60 minutes, 74 for 10) and a batch sparge. Am using Beersmith for volume and heat calculations, and have had to tinker with the mash profiles to get one that matches what I want to do. I've come up with some volumes based on what Beersmith initially spat out but it's just guess work on my part so I wanted to check....
The closest mash profile is the single infusion, xx body, batch sparge, but that only gives me one mash step, telling me to use just under 8L of water and then two batch sparge steps with a total of 25L. When I add the second mash step Beersmith makes me estimate the water volume, so I subtracted 13L from the sparge and used that for the second step. My mash profile now reads (I rounded the volumes):
8L @ 77.8 degrees (mash in) for 60 minutes.
13L @ 79.9 degrees (mash in) for 10 minutes
drain mash tun
batch sparge with 12.5L.
So, my question is how do I know what volume to use for my second mash step? When I add the volume for the second mash step, Beersmith just subtracts that from the batch sparge, which is fair enough as it's trying to hit a kettle volume of 30L. I could put in three liters of near-boiling water or 20 liters of 78 degree water and both steps would hit my mash step temperature with either a huge or small sparge volume to follow. I've just guessed and taken Beersmith's recommended volume for the first batch sparge (it wanted me to batch sparge in two steps). Is there a rule of thumb for subsequent mash step volumes?
Cheers
Az