17 replies to this topic

[Corbin]

Tomorrow I am all grain brewing a 5g batch that only has 7lbs of grain. I have never brewed a beer with this low of a gravity. I want to end up with 7g and boil down to my 5.5g. I use Denny's system of all grain brewing. In order to get my 7g I guess I will need to sparge three times?1.25qt *7= 2.18g initial mash.Mash out with a gallon of 200 degree water to get it up to 170 and collect 3 gallons. Should I add 4g to sparge next time or two smaller sparges, would it make a difference?

[zymot]

When you do the Denny method, sparge is a confusing term.Sparge in the traditional meaning is add water AND drain wort at the same time. When you batch sparge, adding water and draining wort are two unique steps. Hence some confusion.I won't use sparge and substitute two terms instead: Add Water, Drain wortMy current process in abstracted format:1- Add water to grains2- Wait 1 hour for conversion3- Add Water4- Drain wort5- Add water6- Drain wort7- Begin boilIf you want to do a mash out, add water hot enough in Step #3 to get your mash to your desired mash out temp.Denny prefers to eliminate the Step #3 found in my process1- Add water to grains2- Wait 1 hour for conversion3- Drain wort4- Add water5- Drain wort6- Begin boilIf you add enough water in Step 1, you can go with Denny's simplified process. You cannot do a mash out.

[Corbin]

Cool. Thank you very much!!

[Corbin]

Thanks for the help Zymot. Just wanted to clarify something. Would you start with the normal water/grain ratio initially and then just increase the amount of water needed for the second addition and leave it at that or go with three water additions.

[zymot]

Thanks for the help Zymot. Just wanted to clarify something. Would you start with the normal water/grain ratio initially and then just increase the amount of water needed for the second addition and leave it at that or go with three water additions.

I use the 3 water addition method. It is what I knowFor the mash in, I use 1.5 to 2.0 water/grain ratio. I work it backwards and use an easy to measure volume for strike water and end up with an oddball ratio. In your case of a 7 lb recipe, 1.5 ratio is 10.5 quarts. I would round it up to 12 quarts (3 gallons) of strike water. The ratio is 1.714285, an example of an oddball ratio. 3 gallons is easy to measure, so I go with that.I use a retention rate of .12 gallons per pound. Your 7 lbs of grain will soak up .84 gallons of your 3 gallons of your initial infusion. If you want to end up with about 3.5 gallons (about 1/2 you boil volume) you need to add 1.34 gallons at Step #3 of my process.The math:+3.50 [amount you want in the pot after 1st drain]-3.00 [amount of water added by infusion]+0.84 [amount of water retained/soaked up by grains]-----1.34 gallons calculate [I would round to 1.25 or 1.5]After your first draining, measure how much you ended up with. Subtract the yield from what your desired boil volume. That is how much water you add in my Step #5. The grain has already soaked up water, so what ever you add for Step #5, the same volume will drain out in Step #6. Any "overage" or 'shortage" you have after your first drain, you easily make up for in Steps #5 & #6.If you want to go with Denny's preferred method of eliminating my Step #3, use initial strike of 4.34 gallons.The math:+3.50 [volume of first drain]+0.84 [volume of wort retained/soaked up by 7 lbs of grain]------4.34 calculated. Round up or down as is easiest for you.For your second water addition, it is the same measure and subtract process as used for the water addition in my Step #5.

[Brauer]

1.25 qt/# is a nonsense number, you should forget that.I think Zymot's last example makes the most sense, if you are going to sparge.Sparge volume is 3.5 gallons, for a 7 gallon batch.Therefore, mash volume is 3.5 gallons + absorption + dead volume. 3.5 gallons + (0.12 gallons/# absorption x 7#) + dead volme = 3.5 + 0.84 + dead volume = 4.34 + dead volume.Personally, for a beer with such a low OG, I would mash at my first rest with 4.5 gallons, then add 3.5 gallons to bring the mash up around 160F for a while, then drain it all at once. That would give me 5.5 gallons of a 1.034 wort at the end of the boil.

[zymot]

Personally, for a beer with such a low OG, I would mash at my first rest with 4.5 gallons, then add 3.5 gallons to bring the mash up around 160F for a while, then drain it all at once. That would give me 5.5 gallons of a 1.034 wort at the end of the boil.

Good point.With a OG as low as you are working with, I would want to have some heft in it. I would look into a "no sparge" recipe. No sparge means add water, convert, add more water and drain once to get your 7.5 gallons.The down side of no sparge is this is the least efficient way to brew beer. So you have to buy more grain. The good side of a no sparge is the wort has the reputation of being richer and smoother wort, making a better beer. Below is a reference.Your recipe is not so big, the extra grain you are buying does not translate into many more dollars.https://www.byo.com/wheat-beer/item/1375-skip-the-sparge

[Genesee Ted]

Don't forget to recirc!

[Mya]

good luck!

[ChefLamont]

What are you brewing that is 1.038?

[denny]

These days I increase my mash ratio to eliminate the need for an addition before I runoff the mash. My usual ratio is 1.66-1.75 qt./lb., or whatever gets me close to 1/2 my total boil volume from the mash. As long as the mash and sparge runoffs are within a gal. or so of each other, it's close enough. Mash with that amount, drain, stir in enough 190-200F to hit my boil volume. Besides saving me a step, it has also increased my efficiency a bit.And I agree that for a low OG beer like that you might want to look into no sparge.

Edited by denny, 11 March 2013 - 10:45 AM.

[Corbin]

What are you brewing that is 1.038?

I guess a bitter or mild. I only had a 7lb grain bill. Had pale ale malt, marris otter and some crystal. This was a complete throw together recipe. Went to the LHBS and didn't realize how early they closed on fridays and I walked in 5 minutes before closing. They apperently get stocked on saturdays and were out of a lot of what I needed so I just grabbed what they had and decided to brew away.

[Corbin]

These days I increase my mash ratio to eliminate the need for an addition before I runoff the mash. My usual ratio is 1.66-1.75 qt./lb., or whatever gets me close to 1/2 my total boil volume from the mash. As long as the mash and sparge runoffs are within a gal. or so of each other, it's close enough. Mash with that amount, drain, stir in enough 190-200F to hit my boil volume. Besides saving me a step, it has also increased my efficiency a bit.And I agree that for a low OG beer like that you might want to look into no sparge.

Thanks for the info Denny!

[Corbin]

What are you brewing that is 1.038?

Lately I have been wanting to focus on brewing very low gravity beers without sacrificing flavor.

[HVB]

Lately I have been wanting to focus on brewing very low gravity beers without sacrificing flavor.

I have been working on a few revisions of a 1.040 beer that is highly hopped but low ABV. It was a request from my father, so far it has been a fun challenge.

[positiveContact]

I have been working on a few revisions of a 1.040 beer that is highly hopped but low ABV. It was a request from my father, so far it has been a fun challenge.

so what have you been heading towards? high mash temp? no sparge? lots of crystal? I think the trick with this is going to be fooling the senses into feeling like it's a bigger beer to balance out those hops.

[HVB]

so what have you been heading towards? high mash temp? no sparge? lots of crystal? I think the trick with this is going to be fooling the senses into feeling like it's a bigger beer to balance out those hops.

I did no sparge for obvious reasons. I will mash higher next time 155 range and I will also add in a nice portion of flaked barley or maybe oats. The last version came out good except the hop profile was not what I wanted and I realized one of the crystal malts did not have a flavor I liked.

[Corbin]

so what have you been heading towards? high mash temp? no sparge? lots of crystal? I think the trick with this is going to be fooling the senses into feeling like it's a bigger beer to balance out those hops.

That is what I did. High mash temp and quite a bit of crystal. Might try the no sparge method next time. Curious to see how this one ended up. It was definitely a "starting point".