Advice needed NOW! I brew tomorrow morning!

[the75]

I have a Mashtun with about 1.5 gallons under my false bottom. I'm going with a water to grain ratio of 1.5 quarts to 1 pound grain. With 13 pounds of grain, that is close to 5 gallons water total. The question I have is that when I subtract the 1.5 gallons under the false bottom, that leaves me with 3.5 gallons to dough in with my 13 pounds of grain. That is NOT enough water to leave me with any water over my grains. Basically, my grains are sitting at or a little above the water line. Should I just add water until I have 1 inch above the grains? I'll be fly sparging, so having a cushion of water above my grains is important. I was told that I'm not supposed to count the water under my false bottom, then I was told that I am supposed to count that water...which is it? One more question: If I'm going to watch my target preboil gravity carefully, how important is it to measure out my sparge water? And if it's important...how much sparge water should I use?
I really missed my OG last time & got some conflicting information from what I got before that batch. Please everyone, speak your mind. Don't allow anyone person to stop you from saying your piece. I'll decipher the results! No, I don't believe in bigfoot. Just thought I'd put that out there...HELP!!

 

[Aa760]

Why not mash a little thinner? If you have enough base malt in your recipe with the conversion power, you should be able to go to 2 quarts per pound (I believe those are the correct units for that ratio) and still get the enzymatic effect you are looking for in the mash. I am not sure of your recipe or the parameters of your mash tun, but that seems to be a reasonable potential solution. New to the advice giving game, but perhaps we will see how some of the "heavies" weigh in.

 

[AussieBrewerInColorado]

What size batch are you trying to do here 5 gallon? 1.5 gallon under the false bottom seems like a lot to me. The false bottom is used as a strainer only for the wort to get out from the grain and not stuck your sparge. With fly sparging you need to adjust your outflow so you have liquid over your grain, using a ball valve usually. without knowing more about your set-up and what you're trying to achieve it is hard to help more.

 

[iaefebs]

Don't count the 1 1/2 gallon under the false bottom for your grain to water mixture. You need to factor it in for your final running's though. If you recirculate the liquid a few times (open the valve, drain some liquid, and pour back in)and can maintain your mash temp by adding hot water you can do it.

 

[45_70sharps]

First, it's not the water under the false bottom that you deduct, it's the quantity that is left behind when you have drained all that will run out.
Due to the height of the valve above the bottom of the tun and the configuration of your plumbing inside the tun there will be water left behind.
It won't be a gallon and a half unless you've got something wrong in the setup.
Second, you need to account for all the water that the grain will absorb.
Beersmith will figure that out, but I'm not on my computer so I can't run it right now.

If after all these corrections you still don't have enough water to sparge, I personally would use more water until I had enough to do the job, but only gather enough for my boil volume.

It might give you a hit on the efficiency, but not having enough sparge water to rinse rhe grain gives you an efficiency hit and a stuck sparge.

 

[the75]

Thanks for the responses. Ok, so I made a dip tube under my false bottom. It works well, only leaving behind about 5 cups of water. I'll be adjusting my mash water volume a bit to see if that helps. I'm also going to try stirring up my grains a bit more, last time I only did this for a few minutes. Anyways, a bunch of little tweaks to see if any of them help. I would imagine with a 47% efficiency the first time, I can't go much worse.