Which Liquid?!

[adam the flatulent]

I'm looking at doing my first full mash beer. but which water do i use for the beer? there's the water that the grains have been mashed in, and then the water that is used for sparging. which one do i boil? surely the mashing water has some sugars that i need in it? I know this is a bit of a random question......

Cheers :)

 

[jonewer]

I'm looking at doing my first full mash beer. but which water do i use for the beer? there's the water that the grains have been mashed in, and then the water that is used for sparging. which one do i boil? surely the mashing water has some sugars that i need in it? I know this is a bit of a random question......

Cheers :)

Both.

I'd do a lot more reading and asking of questions before you go ahead as you clearly dont have a grasp of the process yet.

As I did it -

Add mash water - leave 90mins
Add top up - let settle for 15mins
Drain
Add sparge water - let settle
Drain

Then boil the whole lot.

Use the calculator to find out how much water you need, this will change according to how much grain you are using and what your brew length is going to be. Heat the water to 80C then decant to your mash tun. When it reaches 76C then dough in.

Dont forget to factor in dead space and loss to hops and trub. 100g hops will drink up 1.5l of beer!

Good luck :thumb:

 

[adam the flatulent]

Many thanks for your help.

I have read books on the brewing process, however, none of them were that specific on which liquid to use. Hence I asked the question, like you suggested...

Cheers

Adam

 

[jonewer]

Many thanks for your help.

I have read books on the brewing process, however, none of them were that specific on which liquid to use. Hence I asked the question, like you suggested...

Cheers

Adam

I asked hundreds of questions before I went ahead! Its the only way, books are fine but there will always be further questions so dont be afraid to ask. Theres some top brewers on here who will give you the best advice there is! :

Edit - heres a link to a thread I started before I did my first mash. Loads of good Q&A there

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=5187

 

[unclepumble]

I'm looking at doing my first full mash beer. but which water do i use for the beer? there's the water that the grains have been mashed in, and then the water that is used for sparging. which one do i boil? surely the mashing water has some sugars that i need in it? I know this is a bit of a random question......

Cheers :)

Both,

Mash water is used to turn the starches in the grains to fermentable sugars, once this water is drained off the mash, plenty of sugars are left in the grains, hence the sparge water, which just washes the sugar away from the grains, hence the term spent grains.

The two volumes of water, mash + sparge water should add up to roughly the amount of beer you want to produce, however remember an amount will evaporate when you boil it.

Shane

 

[damfoose]

just to make things simpler for you.
Mash add required amount of water to the grains stir to ensure all grains are wetted. Let stand for 90 min add more water ( if your batch sparging ) to ensure you get required amount of wort out of the mash tun. ( use a calculator for this)
then add more water to the mash tun ontop of the grains that have already been stood in water for the 90 min, again use a calculator for this. then drain after 15 min this will give you all the wort needed for a boil you should have about 5 to 8 litres more than your required volume so if you want 21 litres to ferment you should have about 28 to 30 litres for the boil.

Boil the lot for 90 min you will be suprised how much loss through the boil process actually happenes.

May I add if their are any Ag brewers neer you it would be a good idea to go see a whole brew day, I was lucky and went to aleman who I found was not to far away from me.