Sparging - have I got this right?

[integersmirk]

I am struggling to get to grips with the specifics of mashing/sparging in my system and hoped that by writing out my understanding - and highlighting grey areas - I might make some progress. All input greatly appreciated.

1. Volume of water in mash.
As far as I can tell, you should aim for between 2 and 6 litres of water in the mash, with lower volumes of water meaning less fermentable/more body, and higher volumes meaning more fermentable/less body.
In practical terms, with 4.5kg of grain, a mash volume of 12 litres isn't far wrong.

2. Mash temperatures
67deg for 60minutes is a good place to be. I don't need to worry about a protein rest or anything like that unless I get into some fancy base malts or adjuncts. (Are Maris Otter, Golden Promise or Weyermann Pils fancy base malts?)

3 (optional) "Mash out" - Raise the temperature in the mash (with hot water for my system) to 76deg. Is this necessary?

4) drain out hot liquid from tun, add X litres of hot water, stir and drain, add Y litres of hot water, stir and drain.

This is pretty much what I did on Saturday.
I mashed with about 11litres of water, at a temperature as close to 67deg as I could get, for 60min.
I drained the mash tun as dry as I could get.

For sparging I used water that was pretty close to boiling, although now I read that 79deg is better.

I added 12 litres, stirred, drained it dry, and then measured that the wort already extracted was still about 12 litres short of my target boil volume.

I added 12 more litres for the second sparg.

This means I used a whopping 35litres for mashing and sparging, which does not feel right. I am reading that the grain should absorb about 4litres only. My total extract was about 26 or 27litres at the most, so I lost 4-5litres somewhere... I did stop the sparg when we noticed we had exceeded the target boil volume but stirring the leftover mash it felt pretty dried out... hard to believe it still had 4 litres to give.

Anyone got any advice to shorten my learning curve?

[James P]

Anyone got any advice to shorten my learning curve?

Yep, brew again tomorrow.... and the next day... that will shorten it a bit quicker! :)

1. I think I lose about 1.5~2.5 litres per kilo of grain, so with 4 kg I'd lose 6~9 litres.
2. Protein rest is only required if the malts are not modified, or you need it to get a better conversion.
3. Optional, however can get a couple extra points in gravity. Stops the conversion of starch to sugar.
4. Yep..

Any higher than 76C will introduce tannins into the beer, mouth puckering...

[integersmirk]

Looks like I might have produced my first batch of Puckered Up Pale Ale :D

Thanks for the tips