Question Regarding Sparging with a 11.7g Mash King

[Kees77]

Hi everyone

I am a first timer and am getting ready to start all grain brewing. I bought a 15 gallon pot for my boil and a 11.7 gallon mash king cooler for the mash tun. I want to do 10 gallon batches but feel the mash king cooler is not big enough. My first recipe is the Green Flash West coast IPA and it has a 27 lb grain bill with a 1.5 Qt/lb mix. That is very tight for the Mash king. My question is how will I sparge and bring the temp to 170? I have a feeling i am stuck with 5 gallon batches. Can I simply add boiling water while draining? Thanks in advance.

 

[philjohnwilliams]

If you batch sparge there is no need to bring the temp up to 170° for a mash out. If you do not have enough room in your cooler to get your pre boil volume with one sparge, you can simply do a double (or even a triple) batch sparge. A 27lb grain bill in a cooler that size will be tight, you may want to try a thicker mash, perhaps 1.25qt/lb.

 

[Kees77]

Thank you. I found a calculator that said the 27.2 lb will require 10.68 gallons of strike water at 1.25qt/lb. That seems like it will work. Thank you.

I was unaware of a double or tripe batch sparge. Do you mean that i can simply raise the water level to the top of the cooler, rinse till it clears and then drain into the kettle? This sounds like it will be OK, .

 

[philjohnwilliams]

Don't forget that the grain also takes up space in the cooler. For a double batch sparge you don't necessarily need to fill the cooler to the top, just calculate the volume you need from your sparge, then do two sparges, adding half the necessary sparge volume at a time