Help with DIY dawg app

[Libigage]

Hi all, still waiting to take the leap into all grain, I'm just doing a lot of research. I've just downloaded the DIY dawg app and I think I would like to eventually try some of these recipes, only problem being is that it states the first stage as boil size. Sorry if its a dumb question but what is the process before boil size as 25 litre boil size sounds perfect for my 30 litre burco. What would the mash size be? Do you sparge the grain to get 25 litres? If so, how much sparge water? If someone could advise me it would be a greatly appreciated

 

[Redwulf]

Like most things in Home Brewing, there are a few ways to do this.

It requires a bit of trial and error to dial your kit in, but 1 kg of grain roughly absorbs 1 litre of water. So a 5kg grain bill will absorb approximately 5 litres of water, so you could start off with 30 litres of water to get 25 litres in the kettle. When you do it in practice keep track of everything and then the next time you brew you can adjust it to get the right result.

You can play with the mash thickness a bit but say 2.5l water per 1kg of grain, so the strike volume should be 12.5 litres and then the rest of the volume is sparge, say 17.5 litres. Personally I'd do 15l and 15l for both but I'm a simple creature.

Things like the grainfather and brewfather apps can help you tailor the diy dog recipes to achieve the desired outcome on your own equipment.

Hope this helps.

 

[smcc]

there are plenty of calculators to help you out with basic water calculations.
here for example
https://www.brewersfriend.com/mash/
If I am brewing its usually 20l batch size into the fermenter, so you want about 25 litres in the kettle pre boil as you will lose about 5 in a 60min boil. so work back from there for your mash volume (2.5l per kilo is probably highest I would go) then its really just sparging to get to target volume into the kettle.