Guide to simply brewing from grain
- Heat ten gallons of water to 170-175 deg F. Transfer 1 quart of water for every pound of grain into your mash tun. When the temperature equalizes, the water in the mash tun should be 160-165 deg F. You should adjust your temperature with the addition of a small amount of hot or cold water prior to doughing in (adding the grains). You may wish to adjust pH by simply adding gypsum to your mash water (pH should be 5.0 to 5.5 - the grains will help acidify the mash at this stage).
- When you reach your target temperature, slowly stir in the grains (making sure there are no dry spots) When you have thoroughly mixed the grains and water, verify the mash is at 150-155 deg F. Cover the mash tun and allow to rest for 90 minutes. You may verify conversion with an iodine test, however simply tasting for sweetness is sufficient.
- As you reach the end of the mash rest, fill your sparge vessel with 170-175 deg F. water, attach the sparge arm, and mount it on top of the mash tun. (All valves closed). Open the valve(s) on the outlet of your mash tun and drain some of your sweet wort into a small saucepan (while making sure not to expose the grain bed - you may need to open the sparge vessel valve to do this). Recirculate the sweet wort by pouring over a spoon or saucer into the grain bed, this will avoid disturbing the grain bed and avoid splashing.
- When the sweet wort runs clear, begin sparging. Your sparge water should be at a pH of 5.5 to 6.0 (You will most likely need lactic acid to achieve this - use very sparingly!). Sparging leaches the fermentable sugars by replacing the sweet wort with water to avoid collapsing the grain bed. This will require some fine-tuning to match inlet and outlet flows - observe levels frequently to match flows.
- Continue sparging until you have 6 to 6.5 gallons of wort in your boiling kettle. Then brew as per your recipe instructions.