A Little Help With Recipe And Sparge

[poompy]

Hi,

I am looking to brew the following

APA - 1.055 OG

7.02 kg MaltEurop Australia Ale (4.1 EBC) Grain 83.75 %
0.31 kg MHB - Amber Malt (45.0 EBC) Grain 3.67 %
0.31 kg MHB - Munich (16.0 EBC) Grain 3.67 %
0.25 kg MHB - Wheat Malt (3.3 EBC) Grain 2.94 %
23.97 gm Magnum [14.00 %] (60 min) Hops 19.8 IBU
23.97 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (10 min) Hops 5.1 IBU
23.97 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (10 min) Hops 4.0 IBU
26.00 gm Cascade [7.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
26.00 gm Centennial [10.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.50 kg Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 EBC) Sugar 5.96 %

Final Volume being 38L

Beersmith says that with my gear (36L mash tun, 50L kettle) I will need to drain the MT, sparge and then sparge again.

My question/s are
- Is this sparging process OK? I normally only do it in two steps (add top water then drain, then add more and drain)
- Would you up the Corn Sugar (Dextrose) to 1kg and decrease the malt to achieve 1.055 OG? In beersmith this brings the sparge process back to my normal routine. Just worried about the change in flavour (maybe?)

 

[Acasta]

Adding a second sparge step is fine, you may even notice an increase in your eff% by doing so.
However if you dont want to sparge twice, can can either this out your mash (add more water) or as you said, add other sugars, however, I wouldn't do that if you want the same malt profile.

 

[poompy]

not really worried about adding another step (time is not an issue). thanks for replying so quick!

The initial drain of the MT where no water is added never done this before so I can expect a slower drain of the MT than normal?

 

[argon]

That's pretty much how my process works. By doing it this way i've eliminated the mashout step (in sorts).

- After the sach rest voraluf and then drain to kettle
- Once you have enough in the kettle, apply heat to bring this portion up to mashout temp... you don't have to hit mashout temp range like 75C or whatever... you can bring it to boil if you like, as long as you're denaturing the enzymes, that's ok.
- Then do your first sparge with 90C water... this will bring your grain bed up to mashout temp 75-80C (depending on sach temp and volumes of course) This acts like a mashout and your first part of the sparge.
- Vorlauf and drain to kettle as normal
- Then add your second sparge, voraluf and drain to kettle.

If you time it right, with a bit of tweaking and experience, you can pretty much be at the boil shortly after you've finished draining the mash tun.

Also have a read here... essentially doing 2 smaller sparges will give you better extraction of the grain compared to 1 large sparge

Doing this has taken a good half hour out of my brewday and i achieve all the things i wanted to do.

Edit: won't make any difference how fast the tun drains.. or at least i have not noted any speed difference

 

[poompy]

awesome info, tks so much. has cleared it all up for me