Precipitous learning curve...

[Drover's dog]

I’m new to this brewing caper and not in the least bit apologetic to admit to it…
I’ll give you a quick run-down on my yet to be tested system then ask the underlying reason for my post.
40 Litre Electric Nano BIAB pot
Grainfather Pro fermenter
Magnetic stirrer and associated stuff and a couple of excellent books if you understand the jargon.

That’s about it in terms of gear. Now the question that has me on the precipice - My first brewery sheet arrived with my grains etc. This is a recipe for a Cream ale. We go through the process of the mash, then the sparge, the boil and finally the fermentation. I understand enough to eliminate the sparge but I am left with a deficit in total volume for the boil (10L). Therefore my question is at what volume do I mash, the Brew Day sheet calls for a batch size of 23L with total water required at 33L. So without the sparge volume how much should I use at mash time and expect to end up with at time of fermentation.

I do hope this is elementary to you because it surely has me more than a little confused.

I have every confidence in my Aussie Brewer comrades to line me up for a first brew win.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Well you have your total water, I do the no sparge method so that would be the amount of water I would use to dough into. Rule of thumb you can dough 1 kg of grain into 3 to 4 litres of water so if your recipe is 5 kg of grain that would mean you have 15 to 20 litres of water. I like mine on the thinner side so for me it would be the 20 litre.

 

[captain crumpet]

Are you doing biab then? A 33L mash? If you are asking what happens to the extra 10L you lose it to the grain and evaporation during boil.

 

[Drover's dog]

Are you doing biab then? A 33L mash? If you are asking what happens to the extra 10L you lose it to the grain and evaporation during boil.

I guess both answers are telling me that the total water figure is the one to use in my mashing, sparge or not? [emoji15]

 

[ianh]

Your water losses come from three main areas. Water absorbed by the grain, water lost during the boil and water lost due to trub etc(what you leave in the pot).
The grain will absorb about 0.6 litres per kilo of grain depending how hard you squeeze the bag.
Boil off is normally 10 -15% of volume per hour.
The amount of trub depends on what you leave in the vessel when say transferring to a nochill cube.
Just ignore the sparge part and use the 33 litres for the mash. Once you have done a few brews you can adjust the volumes.

 

[Drover's dog]

Your water losses come from three main areas. Water absorbed by the grain, water lost during the boil and water lost due to trub etc(what you leave in the pot).
The grain will absorb about 0.6 litres per kilo of grain depending how hard you squeeze the bag.
Boil off is normally 10 -15% of volume per hour.
The amount of trub depends on what you leave in the vessel when say transferring to a nochill cube.
Just ignore the sparge part and use the 33 litres for the mash. Once you have done a few brews you can adjust the volumes.

Clarity...
Thank you, isn't that what we all seek.

 

[Drover's dog]

I really do thank you all for your comments, but you raise another issue for me TRUB. I didn’t realise that we still had TRUB when BIAB (I’m getting better at the vernacular if nothing else) but from your comments we obviously do. Now a practical question; The inside of my mash tub is fitted with an L shaped outlet fitting, should that L be facing upward meaning more TRUB is left in the mash tub? I think so but I’ll ask the question anyhow.

I feel better with every sentence…
Just don’t want to become so questioning as to bore you.

 

[fw00r]

I'll get to pickup angle as you questioned but background first...
No doubt there are brewers that do the full gamut, from fermenting the lot, to filtering to the nth micron.

The trub still exists in BIAB for the most part due to proteins from the grain, and hop mass if you don't control it.
You'll want to minimise your losses to trub, after all, its all good wort.
Whirlpooling is one of the processes homebrewers use to minimise losses to trub, when you do it properly the heavier proteins and hop mass collect in the middle at the bottom (called a whirlpool cone).

Cooling the wort helps, probably with an immersion chiller for this particular purpose.
Screens (filters) help, something like the lauter helix or hopsocks, for example.

Clarity...
Thank you, isn't that what we all seek.

Reappropriating your quote because ... indeed clarity, of the wort.
If you can get your whirlpool action good enough to pick up every last dribble without picking up much muck then fantastic. Point that pickup as far down as possible.
Less trub transferred the better, less losses to trub the better. Aim your pickup to suit those two competing priorities.