Finally made the big leap to all grain. I’ve done a couple AG brews from kits and recipes but now I want to formulate some of my own. Trouble is, I don’t understand how to calculate the mash/sparge temps, times and amounts for myself. The following is a recipe I was screwing around with. How would the experts brew this???
10 lbs Pale 2 row
1.5 lbs Munich
.5 lbs CaraPils
1 lbs Crystal 40
.5 lbs Carastan
.25 lbs Honey Malt
I’m no ‘expert’ but I think most would need a little more info. Like what type of beer are you shooting for? And what type of gravities and/or ABV are you trying to hit? Generally mashes are done with 1 to 1.5qtrs of water per lb of grain depending on what you’re trying to do.
I think I’m looking for an OG in the high 1.060’s and something similar to an APA.
Kinda heavy on the crystal malts. 2 lb. counting the crystal, carastan and honey malt. I’d leave out the carastan and honey malt, or use them and nix the crystal. Shoot for a mash temp of around 153 for 60 min. As to temps and water amounts, it’s kinda gonna depend on your system. If you;re batch sparging, I’d recommend using 1.6 qt./lb. for the mash. After you runoff the mash, measure how much you have in the kettle and subtract it from your boil volume. The answer you get is how much sparge water to use. What are you doing for hops and yeast?
For an APA, 1.060’s sounds good. I like to mash my APA around 150F for 60min. Single infusion. No need to for step or decocnation mash with that grain bill.
Unless you have a brewing program, go to hopville.com. You can plug in your recipe and come up with a mash schedule. I’d go with 1.5qts water per lb of grain. 150F for 60min. So you’d mash in at about 163F with room temp grains to get you down to 150F. If you want it to be a less malty and drier, drop your mash temp a little lower to maybe 147-148F. If you want it a little maltier, mash around 154-155F. Hopville.com can help you figure out a sparge schedule too. Here’s a recipe for my APA. It’s an Orange Cascade APA. It’s a recipe I found on homebrewtalk.com that I’ve tweaked quite a bit.
5 gallons
10.5lbs 2Row
12oz Victory
8oz C120
8oz Carapils
1oz Cascade 60min
1oz Cascade 15min
1oz Cascade 10min
1oz Cascade 5min
1oz Cascade 1min
2oz Cascade Whole Leaf Dry hop (14days)
Yeast nutrient and fresh zest from 3 medium organic oranges at 10min
Wyeast 1272 - Ferment at 64F for 14days. Secondary with dryhop at 68F for 14days.
Bittering with Simcoe and using late additions of Amarillo and Cascade for aroma. Dry hopping with Cascade. I was planning on a British ale yeast.
Thanks for the hopville tip! How much does the zest come through in your APA?
Very light. I think it kind of just blends in with the Cascade.
here’s a helpful calculator for your question:
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php