First ag brew question on liquor volumes

[wizurd]

Evening all

I'm attempting my first ag brew. It's the hobble wobble kit. Anyway the instructions state initial mash volume of 14 litres, top up volume at end of mash as 6 litres and then second sparge as 13 litres.

I'm assuming I need to add on my vessel dead space loses and also grain absorption volume? But looking at those figures above that will give me 33 litres pre boil. Is that a bit high for a 23 final volume brew? Or is it that I only add on dead space loses and the instructions already allow for grain absorption and boil off loss?

Sorry if it's a daft question but I want to improve my chances of a decent beer at the end :)

 

[CreweBrewer]

Not a daft question at all. You will not get out what you put in; it's a thirsty bugger is grain! To get a 27L pre-boil volume in a 4 to 4.5kg grain bill, I put around 31L of liquor. This has come through much trial and error, and changes due to which brand of grain I'm using. My mash tun won't handle more than 18L of sparge liquor, so I'm hamstrung by that, but my technique has adapted quite well to cope. Don't forget that hops are thirsty buggers too, and they'll need fishing out at the end. That alone might lose you up to one litre.

Also, looking at the instructions on your recipe I think it's a bit much to ask you to do a stepped mash at your first attempt. Work on a basis of 2.5 to 3 litres of mash liquor per kg of grain as a single-step mash and you'll not go wrong.

Dave

 

[wizurd]

Cheers for the advice Dave. I had wondered about the grain and how it'll soak up the liquor. So I'll need to add on for the dead spaces in my boiler, hlt and mash tun but NOT for the grain. That sound about right?

 

[wfr42]

Is that one of the hbc kits?
If so i think those instructions are for 3 vessel brewing.
If you are doing brew in a bag this might help
http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk/guide-to-brewing-8-brew-in-a-bag-biab-c-58_239.html

The grain will absorb a large amount of water during the mash. Enjoy and good luck with it.

 

[CreweBrewer]

Cheers for the advice Dave. I had wondered about the grain and how it'll soak up the liquor. So I'll need to add on for the dead spaces in my boiler, hlt and mash tun but NOT for the grain. That sound about right?

More so the mash tun. I have zero dead space in my HLT and boiler because I pick them up and pour everything out. But the grain soak and dead space in the mash tun is a fair constant.

To get a little bit more out, I take what I've got and begin the boil. But I leave the tap on the mash tun open with a jug under it to catch up to one more litre of wort that's slowly trickling out. When it's done I simply pour it into the boiler. Bearing in mind it can take up to an hour to get 27L of wort to boiling point it's a constructive way to use the time.

Dave

 

[wizurd]

Thanks all. I should of said probably I've put together a three vessel setup. I've measured my dead spaces in the hlt, mash tun and boiler. Also tested how long it takes to get the water up to the required temps in the hlt and boiler, so hopefully fairly well prepared :)

It is the hbc kit yes. Grains smell lovely :) so if I account for my dead space losses, add that to the initial mash volume and then just use the rest of the stated volumes that should work? I guess given that there's probably around 5kg of grain, the added up volumes are 33 litres but then I'll probably lose 5 litres due to grain absorption? That would give me a pre boil volume of 28 litres. Then an hour boil and I should be nearer to 23 litres?

 

[CreweBrewer]

Sounds pretty good to me matey!

 

[wizurd]

Thanks for the advice all. Just to let you know the brewing went OK I think. The starting og was supposed to be 1.054. I measured it once the wort was cooled down to 20 C and I got 1.053. So I'm pretty chuffed with that. Everything else seemed that go OK. Only issue was that I was a few litres short when transferring to the fv. My boiler has a 6 litre dead space. So I tiped the boiler up a bit to make it up to 23 litres in the fv. The boiler has a bazooka filter on it so I don't think I transfered too much crud into the fv. So all in all it seemed to go fine. Just wait and see how it brews now. Fingers crossed :)