by warra48 » Thursday Apr 15, 2010 3:27 pm
I no longer worry about volumes for mashing in.
I heat my HLT to about 7 to 8ºC above my desired mash temperature.
The water then starts to drain into the mashtun, and when I have about 5 or 6 litres of water in there (measured by the famous eyeballing method) I dump all the grain in and stir like mad while allowing more water to slowly run from the HLT. I monitor the temperature of the mash, and when it's within 1 to 2ºC I stop the water and continue stirring, and allow the temperature to equalise across the mash. I can add some more hot or cold water to fine tune the last degree or so. Walk away for an hour or more while it's mashing, other than refilling the HLT and heating it to about 90ºC.
I batch sparge. I top up my mash tun to capacity with a mashout addition, stir, vorlauf, and drain.
My measure in my kettle tells me how much I've collected, so I can easily calculate how much sparge water I need to add. I stir, immediately vorlauf (I don't wait like many do), and drain. I regularly achieve over 90% mash efficiency, so I agree with Doc, I don't see any advantage in fly sparging for me.
I'd advise you to drain slowly, to avoid stuck sparges. Lots of stuck sparges are caused by too fast a run off, I know from personal experience.
Bring to boil, add hops, yeast nutrient, immersion cooler, cool, and drain to fermenter. Chill in fridge to desired temperature, aerate, and pitch yeast.
Ferment, bottle, and drink. Easy peasy.