Hello all,
I have noticed on my last two batches that the amount of wort I am draining seems real low to me. Example - I tried a pumpkin ale yesterday. 10.75lbs grain and I mashed with 3.25 gallons water at 152F. I only drained out 1.75 gallons and that was a stretch to get to there. Does that seem pretty low? My previous batch was pretty much the same thing. Am I doing something wrong here?
thats about right…for your mash you can assume 0.5 quarts lost per pound of grain.
3.254=13 quarts strike water
10.750.5=5.375quarts lost
13-5.375 = 7.625q (1.91 gallons out)
moral of the story, add more strike water (1.5-1.75 quarts per pound of grain).
edited: math, because im an idiot.
Broseph, you meant 10.75 x 0.125gal/lb.
Iceman maybe you’re forgetting that the dry grain holds onto some water, 0.125gal/lb to be exact. You want to mash with enough water that you can drain out half the total preboil volume, so you take half the preboil (say 6.5gal/2=3.25gal) and add the amount of water thats going to stick with your grain (another 5qt=1.25gal) and you should be mashing in with 4.5gal. Then you sparge with 3.25gal, since the grain is already wet you get it all back.
