Mash Size

[Dempsoir]

I'm completely new to homebrewing and I'm starting to buy some equipment to start my first beer, a Partial Mash batch of Stout.

I've bought a 15litre stock pot to use as a Mash Tun and Boil pot and I'm looking to make about just over 10 litres of pre-boil wort (when acounting for boil off, which I'll calculate later). The information I've read from John Palmers book says to use about twice as much water to sparge with than was used to mash with. In my case that'll give me about 3 or 4 litres of water to mash with. Although I haven't fully developed a recipe yet I'm thinking of using 1.75 to 2kg of grains.

Would this be about right to use? I can't help but think the amount of water isn't enough. I am new to this and would like some help. Thanks.

[adamK]

That seems a bit thin. Did you include the amount of water absorbed by the grain? 1.5 gt/lb translates to 3 L/kg, and you are planning closer to 2. Base your calcs on your mash ratio, and then make up the difference with your sparge water. Luckily, though, mash thickness is a minor concern in the grand scheme of things, just make sure you have enough water to reach all of the grain.

Good luck!

[Ozwald]

I'd call that a little thick, but the basic math is there. Aim for ~3 L/kg for your mash. The biggest problem isn't the actual mash thickness in this case but oversparging which will pull stuff you don't want out of your mash.

[Dempsoir]

Ok, so if I round up to 2kg that gives me 6 litres to mash with.

Using a general absorption rate of 1litre per K, I'll get left with 4 litres. I could sparge to make it 11L and then boil that (I don't want to boil too much in my pot for fear of boil over). Does that sound good?

Like you say Ozwalt, I don't want to sparge too much since it draws tannins from the grains.

When it comes to boil off I could calculate my rate after so I know what to account for during my next batches.

[adamK]

I'd call that a little thick, but the basic math is there. Aim for ~3 L/kg for your mash. The biggest problem isn't the actual mash thickness in this case but oversparging which will pull stuff you don't want out of your mash.

And by thin I mean thick. Damn, I need to sleep more.

[spiderwrangler]

What will you be using to mash and sparge? Since you are doing partial, are you using a bag?