bull8042

Recipes 

Well, it was better than I expected with an efficiency into boiler of 76% and a brewhouse efficiency of 74%. But my volumes were off a bit.
I pumped 4.25 gal of 174* water into my MLT and let it settle to 169*, added 13.5 lbs of grains and the temp stabilized at 154.7* after stirring well. I closed the lid and the temp climbed to 156.5* within 10 minutes or so.... Opened the lid and stirred well and the temp dropped back to 156*. I had to repeat the stirring for the first 35 or 40 minutes before the temp would stay down. (Starch conversion exothermic? hmmm.) After vorlaufing a couple of pints, the runnings cleared nicely and I began collecting into my graduated bottling bucket. But I only managed to get about 9 qts out! I tested my MLT previously and it only holds about a quart that is below the manifold, so where the hell did the rest of my water go?!?!?! I lost 8 qts to a 13 lbs grain bill..
Then came the mad dash to heat more sparge water to make up for the loss which was unexpected. I sparged with almost 4 gallons of 200* water total that settled the grain bed at 172*, higher than I wanted but not too bad I guess. I managed to get almost 6 gal into the BK after all was said and done. Boiling went well, hop additions into bag as planned, forgot whirlfloc.... Whirlpool chiller dropped temp after flame out to 70* within 23 minutes! Very happy with that, by the way.
Target OG was 1.070 and I got 1.072, but only 4.6 gal into the fermenter. I could have added some water to get my volume but 1.072 was still in range for the DFH 60 Min IPA....
New liquid chiller fermentation chamber has kept the temp at 67.3 - 68.3 even in the garage! WHOOHOO.... No bitchin from the SWMBO about fermentation odors in the closet anymore!!!

__________________
"I brew with a water cooler and some part from the toilet." - JohnnyO

"I do gravity feed the last gallon or two through my Therminator, but I expect you could suck start a Volkswagen before you could suck start one of these. - GilaMinumBeer

"..... Bull was right." - TXCurtis

bull8042

Recipes 

__________________
"I brew with a water cooler and some part from the toilet." - JohnnyO

"I do gravity feed the last gallon or two through my Therminator, but I expect you could suck start a Volkswagen before you could suck start one of these. - GilaMinumBeer

"..... Bull was right." - TXCurtis

p4ck37p1mp

Recipes 

I love it. Need to make my sig here what it is on other forums:

-- "Unix is user friendly. However, it isn't idiot friendly."

Congrats on the brew!

__________________
'Insert Name Here' Brew Club (North Atlanta Metro Area)

-- "Unix is user friendly. However, it isn't idiot friendly."

bull8042

Recipes 

Hahaha! There is much truth in that statement.

Thanks.

__________________
"I brew with a water cooler and some part from the toilet." - JohnnyO

"I do gravity feed the last gallon or two through my Therminator, but I expect you could suck start a Volkswagen before you could suck start one of these. - GilaMinumBeer

"..... Bull was right." - TXCurtis

Choguy03

Recipes 

I would say that losing that much to the grains is about right initially.

__________________
Mad Scientist Brewing Co.

:Fermentation Cabinet:

Primary: Bee Cave Bavarian Hefe
Secondary: Nothing
Bottled: Nothing
On Deck: Gumball Head Clone (Jekster)

bull8042

Recipes 

I am glad to hear someone say that. I knew I would lose SOME to grain absorption and forgot to compensate, but had no idea that the loss would be so high. I will strike with an extra 1.5 qts per lb of grain next time. Live and learn I guess.

__________________
"I brew with a water cooler and some part from the toilet." - JohnnyO

"I do gravity feed the last gallon or two through my Therminator, but I expect you could suck start a Volkswagen before you could suck start one of these. - GilaMinumBeer

"..... Bull was right." - TXCurtis

Choguy03

Recipes 

Just use that amount lost to grain in your software and you will be dead on the next time.

__________________
Mad Scientist Brewing Co.

:Fermentation Cabinet:

Primary: Bee Cave Bavarian Hefe
Secondary: Nothing
Bottled: Nothing
On Deck: Gumball Head Clone (Jekster)

Bobby_M

Recipes 

Typical absorbtion is .1 gallons per pound of grain so 13 x .1 is 1.3 gallons. I bet some of it was due to grain-induced deadspace. My theory says that water-only dead space test results are not going to be the same when there's grain in the tun. It would help to prop up the far end of that cooler with a 2x4 prior to vorlauf.

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Personal Website, All Grain Primer, Keg Polishing, etc... | Youtube Channel

bull8042

Recipes 

Yeah, I think I need to verify my volumes. Based on the MLT marks I made, I added around 4.25 gallons to the MLT, then added 4 gallons for the sparge, lost a little in the BK to evaporation plus what was below the pickup..... and only had 8 gallons to start with. Something is just not adding up.

__________________
"I brew with a water cooler and some part from the toilet." - JohnnyO

"I do gravity feed the last gallon or two through my Therminator, but I expect you could suck start a Volkswagen before you could suck start one of these. - GilaMinumBeer

"..... Bull was right." - TXCurtis

Kauai_Kahuna

Recipes 

bull8042 - Nice set-up, I'm sure with 2 more batches you will feel the need to change something because you have your system nailed down.
I always use the line "Unix/Linux is very user friendly, its just picky about who it's friends are".
It does not directly insult the "management / Lusers", but it gets the message across. Oh that and "uptime = 1 year plus" kind of helps.

__________________
---
In Primary: Belgium Chimay clones.
In Secondary: Braggot, pale ale, end of the world white.
Conditioning: Mead, Cider, braggot, Belgium Wheat.
On Tap: Clones, Chimay Blue, Red, Porter, malted cider.
Bottles: Far, far, too many to list.