re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

So with batch sparging, you won't need to add more hot water to the mash like you do in fly sparging, correct?

So I could be bringing more water to temp. On my boil kettle while the initial mash is steeping?

For my brewday

1. I bring my initial water to temperature.
2. add water to lauder tun.
3. about 40 minutes after adding water to mash begin heating more water in boil kettle.
4. When water is to correct temp, I add to my smaller igloo to be transferred to tun in batch sparge.
5a. vorlauf
5b. empty tun into my boil kettle.
6. add sparge water to lauder tun from small igloo cooler and stir excessively.
7a. vorlauf
7b. empty water into boil kettle.
8. continue like extract brew.

Perfect! Thanks! How long in step 6 should the water sit on the grains?

I maybe stir for 3-5 minutes with a crawfish (brew) paddle. It doesn't really have to sit on the grains more than that. You've already released the sugars from the grain with your initial 60minutes, but this is to get the sugars that were left on the grain just because the liquid couldn't make all of the sugars dissolve. The 170* water is a little hotter and dissolves more sugars.

I did mess up my lauder tun once by accidentally hitting my false bottom and knocking it out of place so if your false bottom easily breaks off it's nozzle make sure you don't do that.

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Last thing. How much water do I need to be heating for each pass through the mash tun?

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A lot of calculators to use for this. It depends on how much liquid you want. If you are doing a 5 gal batch you will probably want like 6 gallons at least. A good amount of liquid will get caught in the grains. I normally have about 1.25 gallons of water that do not make it to my boil kettle so I would make sure that combined in the two steps I had at least 7.25 gallons of water added. Like I said most brewing calcs will give you how much water to add at what temp to get the correct amount of mash.

For reference most use 1.25-1.5 qts per pound of grain used for first step then finish off the sparge to get to your desired total mash. If you add too much water you can always just stop adding to boil kettle whenever you want.

There's so many different ways to brew so others may have a different way of doing this, but I've been pretty good at getting 70-75% efficiency using this method and that is perfectly good for me.

Bring pics when you're done. I always love getting new ideas as does everyone else here! Let your imagination be your guide!

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For my brewday
1. I bring my initial water to temperature.
2. add water to lauder tun.
3. about 40 minutes after adding water to mash begin heating more water in second pot.
4. When mash time is up, open valve and discover nothing will drain.
5. dump mash into 7 gallon bucket
6. check false bottom for problem
7. reassemble mash tun
8. dump mash back in
9. discover it still doesn't drain
10. dump mash into 7 gallon bucket again
11. discover the false bottom was machined incorrectly; drill out hole in stainless nipple
12. reassemble mash tun
13. dump mash back in
14a. vorlauf
14b. empty tun into my boil kettle.
15. add sparge water to lauder tun from second pot and stir excessively.
16a. vorlauf
16b. empty water into boil kettle.
17. continue like extract brew.

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maybe I'm doing something wrong?

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Sure will. Looking for a 1/2 keg to turn into a hlt

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just get a pot from Academy or Walmarks. I use a pot that came with a turkey frying kit

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I have had flase bottom problems and they are the worst. I always double check before using now. And I'm careful now when stirring because I've messed it up then.

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one of the first things B asked was "Didn't you check it with hot water first?"

Why no, B, why the frick would I do something so logical?

it's easy to laugh about it now that it is in the keg and getting consumed