Grain bill too large for kettle.

[FatCat11cz]

Uh oh ! Tomorrow I am brewing a vanilla porter in a 15 gallon megapot 1.2

I am making a ten gallon batch, and have already crushed grain. 21.5 pounds. Priceless biab calculator says it will over flow the pot. I went and bought a circular grill grate to put over the kettle to set the bad on so I can drain it. I think I want to do a pour over sparge, as I have nothing large enough to do a dunk sparge in. But I am having trouble figuring how much strike water I need and how much sparge water to use. I dunno what to do.

 

[FirstAidBrewing]

Can you split into two bags ?

 

[FatCat11cz]

Not really, plus I only have time to brew once this week.

 

[TheMadKing]

Just use a regular MLT brewing calculator.

It should say to use use about 1.5qt/lb of grain for the initial mash and sparge with 170 degree water until you hit your target boil volume or the gravity of your sparge water hits ~1.009, whichever happens first.

 

[WI_Wino]

Using my own spreadsheet and green bay rackers "can I mash it" I calculate you need exactly 15 gallons of space to mash 21.5 lbs of grain at a rate of 2.47 quarts per lb (or a total of 13.29 gallons strike water). The way I figured you need 13.29 gallons to start with is:

- I figure a grain absorption rate of .06 gallons per pound of grain (I squeeze the hell out of my bag).
- desired starting boil volume is 12 gallons (1 gallon boil off, 1 gallon of trub/waste, ~10 gallons after fermentation)
- 21.5 * .06 = 1.29 gallons lost to grain
- 12+1.29 = 13.29 gallons starting volume
- that is 2.47 quarts per gallon
- green bay rackers says that needs 15 gallons

For my system this works. If I was you, I would start with a lower volume, say 11.5 gallons. Add the grain, see how close you are to the top. If you have direct fire, add heat and water to top of kettle while stirring.

Then after you pulled the bag and drain, measure the volume and expected SG. If you had good efficiency, any variance in volume should mean a variance in SG.

 

[TexasWine]

Uh oh ! Tomorrow I am brewing a vanilla porter in a 15 gallon megapot 1.2

I am making a ten gallon batch, and have already crushed grain. 21.5 pounds. Priceless biab calculator says it will over flow the pot. I went and bought a circular grill grate to put over the kettle to set the bad on so I can drain it. I think I want to do a pour over sparge, as I have nothing large enough to do a dunk sparge in. But I am having trouble figuring how much strike water I need and how much sparge water to use. I dunno what to do.

You simply go back to the priceless calculator and use it. When you put in your kettle volume it will tell you your minimum sparge amount needed to keep from over flowing your kettle.

 

[FatCat11cz]

Uhm.....Thx I think. Your first sentence I did not find helpful at all.

Anyway. I re - measured my kettle, and found the width to be 16 instead of 15 inches. This helps a little, but the reason I am asking about this particular grain bill is that yesterday I did a 10 gallon batch of ale using 12.5 gallon water and 15 pounds of grain, and it just came to the rim, a little squeezed out when I put the lid on.

So now that I am using 21.5lbs of grain in 13 gallons of water, you can see my cause for concern.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Use any mash calculator to find a mash volume that will fit in your kettle, then simply pour over sparge to reach pre boil volume by measuring what you have in your kettle. You don't need to predetermine your
sparge volume, just keep sparging til you reach your goal, pre boil volume.

Don't over complicate it, just be able to measure what you have in the kettle while sparging.

If I were to do this now without the luxury of a brilliant calculator, I would simply mash in with say ten gallons, let rest for an hour. Then I would add hot sparge water to the kettle to bring the volume up to say within an inch of the rim, stir well pause a few minutes and stir well again, then remove the bag and pour over sparge to reach my preboil volume,,,there ya go, simple simple

 

[wilserbrewer]

So now that I am using 21.5lbs of grain in 13 gallons of water, you can see my cause for concern.

Or just mash In with 10, and sparge 3, but I prefer sparging to pre boil volume, rather than sparging a predetermined amount, just another option.

 

[TexasWine]

Assuming 1 gph boil off and everything else at the default settings, here are the results from the pricless calculator. It indicates no sparge is technically needed, but I would personally use a couple of gallons to sparge so you can stir the mash without issue.

You'll see there in the calculator it says "minimum sparging volume". That's your answer for how much sparge you need. But you can use more than that if you want.

View attachment 1440641462805.jpg

 

[cantrell00]

Should fit with ease.

I recently did a 1.072 10 gallon beer in a 10.5 gallon MLT @ 75% eff.

It was tight but fit.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

@texaswine you probably left the trub setting at .5 instead of a more realistic 1 gallon loss from fermenter. My best guess without knowing your exact system details would be a mash volume of 15.12~ gallon.. I would sparge with 1-1.5 gallons just in case.

 

[TexasWine]

@texaswine you probably left the trub setting at .5 instead of a more realistic 1 gallon loss from fermenter. My best guess without knowing your exact system details would be a mash volume of 15.12~ gallon.. I would sparge with 1-1.5 gallons just in case.

Bingo. Sure did.

I was mostly wanting to point out that the sparge volume is clearly displayed in the calculator, so it was a tad confusing when the question came up after your calculator had already been consulted.

 

[kh54s10]

Boy you people really over think things. Just start with as much water as you can, lift the grain bag out squeeze like crazy then pour over sparge until you get to your preboil volume.......

 

[FatCat11cz]

sweet ! thanks so much guys. thank you texas. i see where it says, sparge on the calc, but it only say .63gal meaning that there is virtually no more room in the kettle for even a mash paddle to stir with. i will go ahead and mash with 10gal, and poour over to reach my target volume and gravity. thanks so much tex and priceless, and wilser.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

yeah that's the minimum spare volume to get it to fit with .1 gal extra space iirc. I usually try to leave an inch of space above the mash volume.

 

[beernut70]

If my grain bill needs 14 gallons of water I just heat all the water then drain out two or three gallons into a bucket or extra pot. Once the mash is done and I get what I can out of the bag I put it in the bucket or pot and dunk the bag and squeeze out what I can then pour it into my boil kettle.