HOMEBREW Digest #1792 Thu 27 July 1995:
Date: 26 Jul 1995 07:32:18 U
From: “Palmer.John” <palmer at ssdgwy.mdc.com>
Subject: Scientific Mashing Breakthru!Well, Not really.
But I did find out something that should be very helpful to many of you.I have been asking a few eminent homebrewers how much grain can be mashed in afixed volume Cooler ex. a 5 gallon Gott. The answers have been helpful, but anecdotal, i.e. “I did X lbs for this batch”.
So, last night on the way home from work, I had a brainstorm. Why not mash 1 lb in 1 quart and see what the volume is?!
Well, I did. I carefully weighed 1 lb of Great Western 2 Row malt, crushed it in my Maltmill and added it to 1 quart of 120F water. I let this sit for about 5 minutes. Since I only have a 1 quart pyrex measuring cup, I poured 24 oz of mash into the measuring cup and discarded it. I then poured in the remainder and measured it. It came to about 18 oz.
It occured to me that because the first measurement was more fluid, and the second pretty stiff, I might be experiencing compaction, and not getting a good measurement. So, I measured out 2 more cups of hot water (16oz) and added it to the 2nd measure of mash in the quart measuring cup. If I had been paying better attention, I would have only added 1 cup. The liquid level rose to just over the 32 oz mark.
Comparing the two measurements, I determined that the addition of 16 oz of water to the 18oz looked to be a change in volume of 16 oz, meaning that I had negligible compaction.
So! We now have a brewing constant for figuring how much grain can be mashed in a fixed volume. 1 Pound of 2 Row Malt mixed with 1 Quart of Water produces a volume of 42 fluid ounces. If you are figuring a 1.5 quart per pound mash, then add in the additional half quart per pound as my measurements show that 1 quart per pound is already a saturated condition.
In summary, 10 lbs of Malt at 1.5 qt/lb would fill just over 4.5 gallons, which would be do-able in a 5 gallon cooler. This would yield a 1.060 beer.
John J. Palmer – Metallurgist for MDA-SSD M&P
johnj at primenet.com Huntington Beach, California
Palmer House Brewery and Smithy – www.primenet.com/~johnj/
HOMEBREW Digest #1793 Fri 28 July 1995:
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 1995 12:14:54 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dan Sherman <dsherman at sdcc3.ucsd.edu>
Subject: Re: Scientific Mashing Breakthru!John Palmer <palmer at ssdgwy.mdc.com> wrote:
So! We now have a brewing constant for figuring how much grain can be mashed in a fixed volume. 1 Pound of 2 Row Malt mixed with 1 Quart of Water produces a volume of 42 fluid ounces.
And, since 1 quart of water is 32 fl. oz., we can conclude that 1 pound of 2 row malt displaces about 10 fl. oz.
So, assuming you use at least 1 qt/lb:
mash volume (in ounces) = (total quarts of water)*32 + (lbs of malt)*10
or
mash vol. (gallons) = (total quarts of water)*0.25 + (lbs of malt)*0.08In summary, 10 lbs of Malt at 1.5 qt/lb would fill just over 4.5 gallons
mash vol. (gal.) = (15)*0.25 + (10)*.08 = 4.55 gal.
Thanks, John. Great job!!
Cheers!
Dan Sherman
San Diego, CA
dsherman at ucsd.edu