How much water for a 5gal brew?

[jceg316]

I've done about 5 all grain brews previously so I consider myself still at the beginner end of the spectrum and I'm having trouble getting water/grain ratios correct.

I want to make 5 gallons of beer, and have found many recipes which apparently make 5 gallons, however in reality they don't. If they don't say how much water to use, I use this chart to work out how much is needed, and after the final boil there is not enough water. If I add more water to top it up, the OG goes down significantly.

If I start off with more water, then I get a weaker beer so I need to add more grain, but I don't know how much grain.

Is there a way to calculate how much grain and water I need to make a 5 gallon batch AND still get an OG similar to that of the recipe I'm following/creating?

Thanks in advance

 

[Yooper]

In general, use 10 pounds of grain to get 1.050 for an OG in a 5 gallon batch.

To calculate the amount of water, use 1.5 quarts of water per pound of grain in the mash.

The mash should absorb about .125 gallons of water.

Then measure your runnings, and sparge up to your boil volume.

I boil off about 2 gallons per hour in my dry-ish climate, especially in the winter, so you will probably be more like 1-1.5 gallons per hour in your boil off. Your number will be different than mine, but you can guess that you will want to start with 6.25 gallons at the beginning and top up with a little water if you need to.

So, to figure out how much water you need, in this example:

10 pounds of grain at 1.5 quarts/pound: 15 quarts (3.75 gallons)
Absorption: -1.25 gallons

So you'd get 2.5 gallons out of the mash. If you want to start your boil with 6.25 gallons of wort, you would need 3.75 gallons of sparge water.

So, you'd need 3.75 gallons + 3.75 gallons = 7.5 gallons of total water for 10 pounds of grain.

If you want a higher OG than 1.050, you'd use more grain. If you use more grain, you use more water in the mash and so you'd need to adjust your sparge volume a little.

 

[stevedasleeve]

Of course there is! It depends entirely on your rig so you'll have to brew, measure, adjust and brew again to get it right. Even a small change like changing your kettle can skew your results.

Here is my way - I use a 10 gallon cooler for mash tun, batch sparge, and a 10 gallon boil kettle:

mash volume for most of my 1.055-1.065 beers is 21 qts. sparge is 18 quarts. I end up with 8 gallons in the kettle. 90 minute boil gets it down to 6.75 gallons. I leave 3 qts of hop sludge etc in the kettle resulting in 6 gallons in my fermenter. I end up with around 5.25 gallons after fermentation. My efficiency ( brew house) is 70-75% which varies depending on the yield I get from my base malt (2-row + pilsner yields less than Golden Promise which is my favorite base malt. Maris otter is in the middle.)

I'm generally within 2 points of my projected OG.

I've been working this way around 5 years fwiw and ymmv and wtf etc.

Cheers!
Steve da sleeve

 

[progmac]

in general, i use 4 gallons mash water and 4 gallons sparge water for most average gravity 5-gallon batches. you should probably calculate it out per yooper's instructions above.

 

[Hello]

For me it definitely varies between mash profiles and grain bills. It will vary also if I do BIAB or full all grain.

There is no specific number but if you know your boil off, you'll know at least how much wort you need as your pre-boil volume to get down to 5 gallons. The recipes do indeed make 5 gallons.

 

[charliehorse]

The first thing that you want to do is put a measured amount of water (like exactly 5 gallons) of water in your boil kettle. Boil that for exactly 60 minutes. Measure the results and then you will know your boil off rate. If you plan on doing 90 minute boils (or even 120 minute boils) do the same thing for those times. After you have done that, add back a bit (like a half a gallon to a whole gallon) to account for trub generated during fermentation. After you have these numbers, you'll know how much wort to start with. To get that number, mash according to the recipe (normally 1.25 - 1.5 gallons per pound of grain) and subtract the amount of water absorbed (1 pint per pound of grain is the rule of thumb) then sparge with enough water to reach your total wort needed.

For instance:
my system boils off about 1.5 gallons per hour and I loose about 1/2 a gallon to trub for a total of 2 gallons lost.
On a 10 lb grain bill (which is a bit light for me), I would mash at the 1.5 quarts/pound rate giving me 15 quarts (or 3.75 gallons) of strike water. The grain will absorb 10 pints (or 1.25 gallons) on water. So I yield 2.5 gallons of first runnings and I need 7 gallons to start with. The grain has absorbed all that it's going to, so I sparge with 4.5 gallons of sparge water.

That said, I normally start with at least 12 pounds of grain, so my actual water bill works out to be a bit different.

 

[Gunfighter04]

From a high level I think of it this way
1. Loses, this comes from dead space and boil off. both should be fairly consistent from beer to beer (assuming the same boil length)
2. Absorption. This is the variable from beer to beer. Each grain bill will absorb a different amount of water
3. Ill call this misc. Basically shrinkage and waste. Cold water has a smaller volume than Hot. If you drain off 5 gal from mash to fermenter, then cool, the volume will be less. Waste I always calculate as about a 1/2 Gallon. beer gets left behind in the boil kettle Mixed with the trub, and then in the bottling bucket.

Basically 1 & 3 are pretty consistent, once you get those calculated they should stay the same. the only variable will be #2.

I generally bump my grain bill so that I have 5.5 Gal into the fermenter at the OG the recipe called for. I used to be really concerned about getting every last drop, then I just started adjusting for a larger volume and worrying less about the loses.

I also put an extra gallon into the HLT, If my calc's are correct then it's just hot clean up water. but if I messed up, spilled, whatever. It's there to use.

 

[jceg316]

Thanks for your replies, they are really useful and will take into account for my next brew. I just need to know the system better (how much water is boiled off) and can adjust a recipe accordingly, but those guidelines from Yooper seem like a good place to start - and thanks Yooper for the detailed response!

 

[DurtyChemist]

You need to increase your mash efficiency. What is your mash procedure? Single step infusion mash? Do you stir the mash at all? Do you check temperatures and if so how often?

I personally shoot for about 7.5 gallons pre boil and end with 6 in the fermenter draining everything.

 

[jceg316]

If anyone is interested, I did a brew on Saturday and adjusted the quantities from what I originally thought was needed and the results were great. Also, to answer DurtyChemist here's my mash procedure:

12lb Maris Otter (increased from about 10lb).
0.5lb Caramalt (wanted to use 1lb but ran out)
0.5lb crystal malt (to make up for the lack of Caramalt).

2oz Centennial at start of boil (wanted to use Cascade but had none left).
2oz Columbus @15mins
1oz centennial @30 mins
1oz columbus @ 45 mins

Sefale 05 American Ale Yeast

I used 4 gallons of water for the mash, increased from 3.25 which I originally thought was needed and mash lasted 90 minutes. I did stir about three times during the mash.

Sparged with 3.5 gallons to get an overall 7.5 gallons. After the boil I was left with almost exactly 25 litres and a pretty high OG - 1.045 (taken at 145F).

Will put into secondary for 3 weeks and dry hop with either Columbus or Simcoe.

 

[LLBrewer]

For me simple is the way to go. I poured 7 gallons of water into my kettle and then inserted my mash paddle and drew a line with a sharpie at the 7 gallon level. Then I did the same for 8 gallons. On brew day I always mash with about 1.3 gallons/lb. Then I heat more sparge water than I need (usually around 6 gallons). After the first runnings, I just sparge until I hit the level mark on my paddle. 7 - 7.5 gallons into the kettle is usually what I shoot for, that gives me a little over 5 gallons into the fermenter while leaving behind a lot of the trub.
I'll have to disagree with a few posts, boil off rate is not constant. It will vary with weather conditions and how high your burner is turned on. I ignore that variable.