boiling off too much, how to compensate?

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raptorvan

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so with my new kettle, im boiling off about 2 gallons for the hour. so how do i make up for this? do i add an extra gallon of water or should i run it thru my mash tun to collect anything left over? i know over rinsing can cause astringency from taking too much of the stuff out of the grains....at east thats the rumor.

at this point a lid isnt really an option as the top of the keggle appears to be larger than any lids i have at home so i will have to make my own at some point.
 
All grain I assume? Maybe reduce the gas flow to a slightly less vigorous boil? if you have BeerSmith or something similar, you can adjust this and it will correct the volumes for you.
 
Do you turn down the heat once you reach the boil? I mean water can only be at maximum 212* (adjust for gravity, etc), but you still can boil more of it away per time.

I am a bit drunk but that is the first thing that comes to mind with water boiling away super quick. The other option is to add more water I guess...
 
I had the same problem, I boiled off 2.5 gallons in an hour. Fortunately my gravity was kind of high so I was able to add a gallon of water to get to the volume I wanted and close enough to my target SG. Next time I added an extra gallon of water to the pot (BIAB) and it was fine.
 
A couple solutions
1 just collect more wort when you sparge to adjust for the increased boil off.
2 adjust the volume in the kettle to acomodate boil off
3 use a make shift lid I know a guy that just puts a pizza pan on top of his keggle.
4 turn down the heat to get a less vigorous boil.
5 any combination of the above.
 
A lid does not have to be round, some sheet metal from HomeDepot or lowes... but don't put it on during the boil, put it on while heating to the boil.

Personally I would not look at this a problem at all. Just new means to my calculations. After sparging I have collected 7.5 gallons and thus 4.9 is going into my fermenter.

Ok, The first time with new equipment I would add more water to the boil if possible. After that I would adjust my calculations...

I think more people do higher gravity and thus do not have this problem, but I am sure there is a measurable point to over sparging... How do you test or measure the point of over-sparge? If I am doing a lower then average gravity I would add more water... 10lb - 8.5 gallons (1.5 quart to mash and 2 quarts to sparge ) sounds like an average volumes to me... But I would expect to get 10 gallons of pre-boil wort from 10lbs of grain without fearing over-sparging...

Any takes on what is to much?
 
A couple solutions
1 just collect more wort when you sparge to adjust for the increased boil off.
2 adjust the volume in the kettle to acomodate boil off
3 use a make shift lid I know a guy that just puts a pizza pan on top of his keggle.
4 turn down the heat to get a less vigorous boil.
5 any combination of the above.

I would advocate #2 or #4, although if you're confident you're maintaining a good pH when sparging, you could also do #1.
 
You do not boil off sugar, just water. The best way to do this:

1. Calculate how many points you want in your finished beer. If I am making 5 gallons of wort @ 1.060, that is 300 points.
5 x 60 = 300

2. Sparge until you get your points. If I am at 6 gallons and have 1.050 wort, I'm done.
6 x 50 = 300!

3. Add water to account for boil off. If I know that I need 8 gallons pre-boil for my system, I will add 2 gallons of water. This water is just going to boil off anyway, so you are not watering down your wort.
 
The astringency you're talking about probably comes from too high a temp in your sparge water. Lower your sparge temp and increase volume to match your boil off. This should give you better efficiency, and get the results you are looking for.
 
A lid does not have to be round, some sheet metal from HomeDepot or lowes... but don't put it on during the boil, put it on while heating to the boil.

Personally I would not look at this a problem at all. Just new means to my calculations. After sparging I have collected 7.5 gallons and thus 4.9 is going into my fermenter.

Ok, The first time with new equipment I would add more water to the boil if possible. After that I would adjust my calculations...

I think more people do higher gravity and thus do not have this problem, but I am sure there is a measurable point to over sparging... How do you test or measure the point of over-sparge? If I am doing a lower then average gravity I would add more water... 10lb - 8.5 gallons (1.5 quart to mash and 2 quarts to sparge ) sounds like an average volumes to me... But I would expect to get 10 gallons of pre-boil wort from 10lbs of grain without fearing over-sparging...

Any takes on what is to much?

Two things - ph and wort gravity. If you keep your sparge water under 170 F, all you have to worry about is keeping ph under~ 5.6, and to stop collecting wort when you get under 1.010 (some say 1.008). A refrac really helps with that. I do my figuring up front, then collect down to 1.010 - if I need to I boil down, and if I get more wort or higher gravity than I'd planned, I keep it in mind next time up.
 
If you are starting with a regular 6-6.5 gal wort collection, chances are that losing two gallons in an hour's boil is due toan overly vigorous boil. You will encounter some difference of opinion on this issue, but I concur with those who believe that a good, steady bubbling boil is quite sufficient, with no risk of the "DMS monster".....at least I have certainly never encountered it in four years of brewing. I adjust the gas (I have a Bayou Classic SP-10 burner) until I am just maintaining a steady boil.....I see a vigorous rolling boil as both a waste of propane and and creating the need to add water at the end of the boil.
 
If you are starting with a regular 6-6.5 gal wort collection, chances are that losing two gallons in an hour's boil is due toan overly vigorous boil. You will encounter some difference of opinion on this issue, but I concur with those who believe that a good, steady bubbling boil is quite sufficient, with no risk of the "DMS monster".....at least I have certainly never encountered it in four years of brewing. I adjust the gas (I have a Bayou Classic SP-10 burner) until I am just maintaining a steady boil.....I see a vigorous rolling boil as both a waste of propane and and creating the need to add water at the end of the boil.

2 thing...1. I had a girlfriend in highschool that had an aim s/n rico567...that's crazy. Secondly, i changed pots from a sprocket to a keggle so I'm guessing the wider surface area is also a factor so I'm assuming that if i keep it to a low roll i can keep some from evaporating. I wonder and maybe you can help, does brewing outside in 35 degree weather accelorate the evaporation? Or does it just look like that because of the cold hitting the steam?
 
raptorvan said:
2 thing...1. I had a girlfriend in highschool that had an aim s/n rico567...that's crazy. Secondly, i changed pots from a sprocket to a keggle so I'm guessing the wider surface area is also a factor so I'm assuming that if i keep it to a low roll i can keep some from evaporating. I wonder and maybe you can help, does brewing outside in 35 degree weather accelorate the evaporation? Or does it just look like that because of the cold hitting the steam?

I've not brewed outside in the Winter much......it gets pretty cold around here, and I can brew all the beer I need in the Spring & Fall. However, from what little experience I do have boiling outdoors in the cold, I'd say your assessment is correct. In the cold, water vapor that boils off will condense much closer to the source, thus giving the impression of greater boil-off, when that's actually not the case.
 
actually it is probable that cold weather slows the boil off slightly. as water vapor is not as soluble in air at the decreased temp it would make it harder to expedite the absorption into the air. Although the temps localized directly above the pot should still be really rather warm so it probably wouldn't make much of a difference. I bet the steam looks super thick due to the cold air temps though

I would be interested to see how much more propane or electricity it takes to boil water when the air temp is near freezing. Living in southern california i would never be able to test this out myself unless I decided to pack up the gear and go mountain brewing.

also considering you are boiling in rather cold conditions I can see where a problem arises, you are probably turning up the gas rather high to deal with the increased thermal loss to air etc. when you get to a boil reduce gas flow wait one minute to approximate if you should reduce it further. to get water to temps in a timely fashion you are probably using 2-3x the amount of energy needed to just boil the water.

this could potentially be solved with math (gallons of volume)(btu's necessary to boil gallon)+(approximation for inefficient heat exchange between burner and pot) would give you a decent number of necessary btu's to keep your pot at a boil. Then you incorporate your burners maximum btu out put and you can get an idea of how much pressure you should let through.
 
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