My Typical Mash/Sparge Process

[tmgrood]

Hello All,
I have about 4 AG's under my belt and was wondering if anyone had any comments or suggestions as far as my process.
Equipment: For my Mash/Lauter Tun I use a 5 gallon Gott cooler with SS braided hose. I dont use a spigot, only copper tubing that I have running thru the original spigot.
Most of my brews have used about 10 lbs of grains/specialty malts.
My Process: Single Infussion/Batch Sparge.
I heat 3.5 gallons of water to around 172 degrees, pour it into the tun and slowly add my grains while stirring.
The temp gets to about 150 in the mash tun.
I let it rest for 60 mins. After 30 mins I start my sparge water which is also 3.5 gallons.
I then vorlauf a couple quarts and then drain the tun into my boil pot.
My sparge water temp is heated to185-190 and once it's poured into the tun it comes to about 168. I then vorlauf and drain.
I don't take any Ph readings or do any iodine tests and my brews have come out pretty good.
Anyway, I was just curious if this process sounds about right.
Damn, what a long post! :)

[Mad Scientist]

I usually heat about 5 gallons of sparge water. For 10lbs of grian you should look for 1 quart of water per pound of grain....so 2.5 gallons or so. I would vorlauf more than just a couple of times. Make sure it is good and cleared. And since your are batch sparging, you might do smaller batches to increase your extraction.

edit...oops, clicking on submit too soon.... What are your effieincy numbers? Good? Also, grab a bottle of iodine form the store and make sre you are fully converted..... plus try fly sparging and see if you like that better...

[BrewDog]

I don't see anything inherently wrong with what you are doing. 2 things though:

1) The 3.5 gals of strike water at 172 degrees should change with each grain bill, ambient temperature (ie, are you brewing in the garage in winter?), and the desired strike temp. You will never miss a strike temp if you use ProMash or another bit of software to calculate the amount and temp of your strike water. As you move on to complicated brews and desire more subtle control over your wort composition, this will become more important. A couple degrees either way makes a HUGE difference.

2) I ALWAYS confirm conversion by doing an iodine test, though. I have had the exact same recipe, using grains from the exact same LHBS, convert in 20 mins one time and an hour and a half another time.

PS- Olympia's not THAT far from North Bend. Maybe some time we can do a brew session together.

[BrewDog]

Yeah, Boerne's right, vorlauf more to eliminate as much particulate as you possibly can. This is one source of astringency and starch haze. That might take 10 or 12 pitchers or even more depending on your setup (if you are not using a pump).

[tmgrood]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
I usually heat about 5 gallons of sparge water. For 10lbs of grian you should look for 1 quart of water per pound of grain....so 2.5 gallons or so. I would vorlauf more than just a couple of times. Make sure it is good and cleared. And since your are batch sparging, you might do smaller batches to increase your extraction.

edit...oops, clicking on submit too soon.... What are your effieincy numbers? Good? Also, grab a bottle of iodine form the store and make sre you are fully converted..... plus try fly sparging and see if you like that better...

I'm not sure what you mean by doing smaller batches to increase extraction but I will try the 2.5 gallons for sparging.
I have never tried fly sparging and may do so once I can buy a sparge arm. I have read that batch and fly sparging won't make a whole lot of difference in efficiency just as long as I adjust my grain bill. Batch just seem's like an easy way of doing it.
As far as my efficiency numbers, I haven't calculated them.
I do have Iodophor which I have heard it can be used for checking for full conversion.
Thanks Brew.

[tmgrood]

Originally posted by BrewDog
I don't see anything inherently wrong with what you are doing. 2 things though:

1) The 3.5 gals of strike water at 172 degrees should change with each grain bill, ambient temperature (ie, are you brewing in the garage in winter?), and the desired strike temp.

That was kind of an average strike water and temp amount. I do use BeerSmith to get the majority of my numbers.

2) I ALWAYS confirm conversion by doing an iodine test, though.

I will start confirming conversion. After all, I do want to get all I can out of what I have.

PS- Olympia's not THAT far from North Bend. Maybe some time we can do a brew session together.

Hey, that sounds like a great idea!! :)

[tmgrood]

Originally posted by BrewDog
Yeah, Boerne's right, vorlauf more to eliminate as much particulate as you possibly can. This is one source of astringency and starch haze. That might take 10 or 12 pitchers or even more depending on your setup (if you are not using a pump).

As far as vorlaufing, I admit that is something I need to do more of because I don't always wait until it is clear and my beer has been grainy looking.
Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

[BrewDog]

Originally posted by tmgrood
I'm not sure what you mean by doing smaller batches to increase extraction but I will try the 2.5 gallons for sparging.
He's saying that if you split your sparge water into multiple smaller sized batches, you will gain in extract efficiency (which is true).

I have never tried fly sparging and may do so once I can buy a sparge arm.
You don't need to buy a sparge arm. All you want is some way to keep the sparge water from digging a hole into your grains. One friend of mine uses a piece of tin foil on top of the grains and flows the mash water onto that. THe idea is to get the water to spread out evenly.

I have read that batch and fly sparging won't make a whole lot of difference in efficiency just as long as I adjust my grain bill. Batch just seem's like an easy way of doing it. As far as my efficiency numbers, I haven't calculated them.
Fly sparging is definitely more efficient than batch sparging.
However, don't confuse efficiency with extraction. Adding grain to make up for lower efficiency increases your total extraction but not your efficiency. Efficiency is the 'bang for the buck' rate of extraction. Extraction is how much total 'buck' you spent to get the 'bang'.
I do have Iodophor which I have heard it can be used for checking for full conversion.
Thanks Brew.
Yep, I've heard that it can, but I just got a little bottle of iodine from the pharmacy, as it is a stronger solution so the change is much clearer and easy to spot.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by tmgrood
I'm not sure what you mean by doing smaller batches to increase extraction but I will try the 2.5 gallons for sparging.
I have never tried fly sparging and may do so once I can buy a sparge arm. I have read that batch and fly sparging won't make a whole lot of difference in efficiency just as long as I adjust my grain bill. Batch just seem's like an easy way of doing it.
As far as my efficiency numbers, I haven't calculated them.
I do have Iodophor which I have heard it can be used for checking for full conversion.
Thanks Brew.

Sorry, I was not clear. I meant using 2.5 gallons of water for your mash, and heating five gallons to sparge with.

You do not need a sparge arm to fly sparge....I have never used one. A small plate or bowl to make sure that you do not bore a hole into the mash when add sparge water is enough. Whne you fly sparge, just make sure you maintain about one inch of water over the mash.