Mash Volumes - getting them right

[Brauntonbeer]

Hey...

I'm about to start my first allgrain brew, I’ve got the kit in place, just awaiting the ingredients to arrive. I've been successfully (Well in my mind ) extracting for a while & wanted to try all grain - mainly for the cost saving & hopefully for a more professional finish. My main concern is mash volumes... I'm assuming you loose a fair amount of water due to it being soaked up by the grain. How do you account for this? I intend on doing a 25l brew, do I just divvy this up between the initial mash & sparge? Or do you just top up once you've finished with preboiled water?

Any pearls of wisdom would be sweet. Thanks!

[subsub]

Just go for 2.5l per kg and you´ll be fine. You won´t be able to adjust for losses that occur until you are used to your system. You´ll then be able to adhust for losses

[Parva]

This may be of use to you :- viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19662&p=225407&hilit=parva#p225407

[floydmeddler]

http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/batch_calculator.html

[Brauntonbeer]

Thanks for the hints. It's now becoming clearer that kit & amount of ingrediants make a difference to the amounts. I've got a 7 gal burco so i'll just fill that up and hope for the best With regards to the mash i'll go for 2.5l per 1000g & sparge until i've got about 6 gallons - So i'll re boil after filling the mash tun. Hopefully this wil account for evporation & hop soak.

On a seperate issue, has anyone ever tackled changing the tap on a baby burco or source pipe that will fit over the MASSIVE tap end?

Thanks for the help