Brewer's Friend Infusion Calculator

[Mase]

Using a Czech Pilsner (all grain) recipe from Northern Brewer (shown below) and inputting the step mashing schedule and additional steps/Infusion into the Infusion calculator on this site, the total water volume yield is just over 7.5 gallons (see below) which exceeds my Boil volume target of 6.75 gallons to yield 5.5 gallons. How do I make the adjustments, or do I just take the volume I need for boiling, and leave the rest in the mash tun? Or do I adjust the water to grain ratio? Or? And how do I sparge with no volume left?

And this is a relatively light (weight-wise) grain bill for 5-5.5 gallon batch, the question gets bigger with larger grain bills (12-13 lbs).

Ps. I would show a pic of the calculator results but I can't upload the screen shot image from my phone without a URL.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Mate use your current batch information you've already got,running with this s brewersfriend program dial it down for r up to your specks and you should be fine? If you need to dilute after boil there is a dilution calculator built in. Better yet go to your nearest pub and buy there dodgiest keg and convert that into your boil kettle/mash tun.

Adjust the recipe to suit your system if designed for another brew system adjust it for your own.

Mate I've developed a killer Pilsner to suit my Pilsner needs YOU DO NOT NEED to brew to another systems needs.

 

[CRUNK]

Are your kettle, grain, and boil off losses included in that total? It sounds pretty close.

 

[Mase]

The additional Infusion calculator just says how much Boiling water to add to raise the temps of the mash for the additional steps. And the Mash temp schedule from Northern Brewer doesn't consider my equipment, rather it just states the temps that the mash must reach.

Neither NB nor the Infusion calculator for additional steps consider my equipment.

Again, it's a light grain bill, so the volume would only go up, let alone that no consideration for even more volume with sparging.

 

[J A]

You've got 2 different things going on there. Your equipment profile settings, based on your real-world results, will tell you how much water you need to start with to get to your post-boil volume. The Mash Calculator will tell you what you need to do with that water to get to your mash temperature steps. If you start with a large volume (thin mash) and add enough to bring it up to temp for additional steps and then for mash out, you may not only be lacking sparge water but your mash tun may be too small.

Total volume of 30 quarts for a small grain bill is pretty right. My typical batch is 8+ gallons to get 7 gallons pre-boil, boiling down to 5.5. I have to start with a very thick mash - less than 1qt per lb - if I want a protein rest as well as a saccharine and dextrin rest and still have room in the tun for mash out temp without decocting wort or adding heat. And I have to be sure not to use up too much water in heating the mash so I have a good sparge volume at the end.
For instance:
11lb of grain @ .8 qt/lb
9qts - 122 degree rest
5qts - 150 degrees rest
3qts - 160 degrees rest
5qts - 170 degrees mashout
12qts - sparge
(I'm recirculating so I have to add a little heat at each step to compensate for heat loss to pump and hoses, etc, but that's a different issue)

The calculators will only tell you what you tell them to tell you, if that makes any sense. You have to determine your system losses and then formulate an infusion schedule that will work within your system volumes and get you where you want to be. There's some trial and error involved until you get things nailed down and when translating a recipe, you have to adapt it to your specific system/process.

 

[Mase]

So is the variable the water/grain ratio?

In other words, if I use true volumes in the Calculator for Recipe and I end up with too much Wort, or too little, adjust the water/grain ratio to match my equipment profile for future brew days?

Ps. Thanks to all for helping out!

 

[J A]

Yeah...it's easier to just know what your system does and then figure out what you can do within those limitations. That takes a little trial and error. Grain to water ration can definitely change with different grain amount and for smaller beers you can make up the difference with more or less sparge water as needed. Eventually you end up with a process that works every time and gives you the best efficiency for a particular amount of grain.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

we call that dialed in, once you get there you know exactly what to do at any given time