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batch sparge question

itsratso

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planning an upcoming big beer for a fundraising event. I will be brewing 5 gal of a 1.100 stout. I have a grain bill of around 25 lbs. of grain into a 10 gal igloo cooler mash tun. BS is telling me to add 8.5 gal. water to mash in - there is no way that it will all fit into my igloo, 25 lbs. of grain has to take up more than 1.5 gal. of room. so I figure no prob, I will just adjust my "fill mash tun to 90%" down to 80%. and BS tells me ... to add 8.5 gal of water at mash in? adjust down to fill to 70% and still 8.5 gal of water. so two questions: 1. am I right that this can't possible fit? and 2. is 8.5 gal the minimum water you can add to get a this gravity?
 
scroll down do Can I mash It?
http://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml


I used this on my last batch. did 30# in 12 gallons with way more than 1.2 qt/LB.
 
interesting. almost didn't use that link as I am from Chicago and we don't go for all that green bay stuff around here.  :-X thanx for the link, it says I will be about a half gallon over so I guess I can just short it a little if I have to. does anyone know though why the mash in amount doesn't change when you change the "fill mash tun to.." amount? I even changed my igloo profile from 10 gal cooler to 9.5 gal and tried to re-scale the recipe and THAT didn't change the mash amount either?
 
You could export and post the recipe file here to take a look. It should account for mash tun size.
 
here are two versions of the same recipe, both are identical. except in one I have scaled the recipe for a 9 gal mash tun and the other has a 10 gal mash tun. the mash in amt. has not changed for both, it is the same for both?
 

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and just noticed if I try to scale down the recipe for a 5 gal. mash tun it still tells me to mash in with 8.6 gal.  :eek: so something is clearly not right here.
 
Wow, that is bizarre. It's not something you've done or can change. It just a lousy notification. If you look on the Mash tab you'll see the Mash Volume Needed has a red flag next to it. I guess that is the only thing stopping people from making a mess.
 
so it seems like the best (not easiest, as it is kinda a pita) way to get around this would be to simply split the mash in into two even halves and just mash/sparge twice and combine them together. one question about this though - if i cut the grains in half and the mash in volume in half, how/do i have to adjust the mash in temp to meet my strike temp?
 
Splitting is is a great option when going for 1.100 because efficiency really takes a nose dive when making beers that big.

If I had to do it. I would copy the recipe to a new file (using the Save As button) and then scale down to %50. then just delete the extra file after brewday.
 
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