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timm01234

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Hi all new to all this I have just done an all grain brew I wanted to make 5 litres I used 1kg pale 2 row 250 g of crystal malt I mashed with 5l of water at 68c for just over an hour I then strained off the wort and came up with 4l and after boiling I got 3.5l in the fermenter after reading g up I should have sparged how do I calculate the sparge into the recipe I wanted to end up with 5l surely the sparged will lower the level of sugars in my wort and lower my abv I'm so confused I'm a bit of a tool I didn't take a og reading will my beer turn out ok:doh:
 
If you don't sparge a lot of the sugars will still be on the grains after the mash, a good
Sparge will should increase the sugars in your wort. How you calculate depends on how you want to sparge but simple maths would suggest you'd need to sparge with at least 1.5l to get the 5l brew length.
 
DoctorMick said:
If you don't sparge a lot of the sugars will still be on the grains after the mash, a good
Sparge will should increase the sugars in your wort. How you calculate depends on how you want to sparge but simple maths would suggest you'd need to sparge with at least 1.5l to get the 5l brew length.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply so next time I'm going to do biab so do what I did but after collecting the first lot of wort place the bag back in 1.5 l of 68c water and leave to sit for a bit and collect the run off and at my boil yea sorry about this I'm an idiot
 
Your not an idiot. This is all about learning.

As said. The sparge will wash the sugars off the grain. The ones that get stuck through some chemical wonder.

I like to pass the wort over the grain a few times, you need two buckets for this mind. With the addition of sparge water.

Gets a good efficiency when just testing a flavour concept or a small batch for scaling up ;-)

Good luck, and please, ask away.
 
So when I do the mash does this sound right 2l of water per kg of grain and then sparge like you said with remainder of the water to total up the liquid in my recipe
I'm thinking of doing this
2kg pale 2 row
200g caramalt
500g Munich
125 rye
For a eight litre batch?
I was going to mash in 5 l of water and then sparge with 5 l of water hoping to get like 9 liters of wort then boil and get around and 8 in the fermenter does this sou and about right any help would be great
 
That's about right yes. Although I would personally aim for a larger boil volume as i tend to loose quite a bit from the boil :-(
 
Just a quick throw out but you'll loose anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 liters. It sounds like from your first, that's about right. So I'd sparge with that much.
 
timm01234 said:
Hi all new to all this I have just done an all grain brew I wanted to make 5 litres I used 1kg pale 2 row 250 g of crystal malt I mashed with 5l of water at 68c for just over an hour I then strained off the wort and came up with 4l and after boiling I got 3.5l in the fermenter after reading g up I should have sparged how do I calculate the sparge into the recipe I wanted to end up with 5l surely the sparged will lower the level of sugars in my wort and lower my abv I'm so confused I'm a bit of a tool I didn't take a og reading will my beer turn out ok:doh:
Click to expand...

Hi Timm. I made loads of mistakes when i started so wouldn't worry about it. 25% crystal malt is rather a lot. I have never used more than 5% and most recommended is 10% as far as i know. It can be difficult getting the right amount of wort when you start. Might find it easier with a 10l batch. There is a lot of boil off with a small pot. Best of luck.
 
does this recipe sound ok
2kg pale 2 row
200g caramalt
500g Munich
125 rye
For a eight litre batch? to much caramalt? or munich?
hops will be citra and centennial and bravo
 
Last edited:
For 8, might be ok. Just looking you'll get a tad high OG. but should taste good.
Did you figure out your water loss?
That much grain, you'll loose 2 liters in the grain and boil off 2 or so. So total I would shoot for around 12 liters of water.
 
JapanBrew said:
For 8, might be ok. Just looking you'll get a tad high OG. but should taste good.
Did you figure out your water loss?
That much grain, you'll loose 2 liters in the grain and boil off 2 or so. So total I would shoot for around 12 liters of water.
Click to expand...
so that much grain with 12 l of water i want it to be around 6%+ when its finished? again cheers for the advice
 
That'll do it. Granted that your mash temp is in the middle, 67 to 69(at the highest).
If you shooting for high, you'll want a lot of beta amylase. That enzyme will make a lot of fermentables. 60 degrees to 68. 60 is low and will make a really crappy beer. Everyone mashes at 68 because you'll get a lot of beta but you'll also get alpha. Alpha is not fermented as easily as beta... Sorry... I mean maltose. Now, please don't attack this post, I just downed 5 beers and on my 4th whiskey.
Back to topic... Sugars are not the same. You're trying to pull sugars out to feed your yeast. So you can have a low gravity, 1.035 and because you mashed low, let the beta amylase do its job, you'll end with 1.004. That is .031 times 131= 4.1% beer. But, you could mash high, 68, 69.... Hit 1.050 but finish real high, gets stuck at 1.023. You'll have a lot of glucose rather than maltose. You'll land .027 times 131= 3.6%. You get a high gravity but low ABV. but, those sigars give a great malt taste.
If you're brewing just to get wasted, don't wast your time or money. Focus on the taste. You'll get to punchy, high ABV, beers in no time.
Brew bro, brew!!!
 
i cant stand beer below 5% i think i will up it a bit or a bit of light spray malt during the boil cheers
 
You can always add a bit of spray malt at the end but I think that grain bill should be plenty for an 8L brew.

The mash temperature does have a significant effect on the final outcome. Personally I like dry, light bodied beers so mash as 64-65oC for most of my beer. I think the highest I would go would be 67oC.

If you want a full bodied sweeter beer them mash at 68oC. I think when you are making a 6%+ beer it risks ending up being cloyingly sweet. There would just be too much unfermented sugars left behind.

This is all very much personal preference but I don't think you would find many commercial beers that strong that mashed at 68oC.

Another factor is the choice of yeast. A highly attenuating yeast like US-05 will give a drier beer than an English ale strain.
 

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