Crazy boil off rate

Chupidacabra · Nov 13, 2013

So iv been perfecting my new Biab system. I got a 17 gallon stock pot a pulley and a custom bag and the last 5 batches have gone flawlessly. I use 6.5g pre boil and hit damn near 5 perfectly.

This last batch I installed a weldless ball valve. Somehow I boiled down to 3.5 gallons in the same hour as before. Any ideas what happened? The only variable is the ball valve. I don't know how that would change the boil off rate so drastically.

I'm an idiot and in a not sober enough panic I decided to top off with tap water. Now I'm not getting much for signs of fermentation. Hoping I didn't make my first drain pour with such a lame mistake.

zachattack · Nov 13, 2013

Topping off is fine as long as the water is clean. Tons of brewers top off with tap water, no problem. If your tap water is chlorinated it's not ideal, but it won't be a drain pourer.

Not sure about the boiloff rate. Is this your first time using the systemn in the cooler weather? Cold dry air can lead to much higher boiloff rates.

uncleben113 · Nov 13, 2013

Is it possible that you had a much more vigorous boil this time? The extra volume loss could be explained by boiling it to death even for the same length of time. And I don't think you should have any adverse effects from topping off with tap water. Tons of kitchen brewers do this every batch and still make great beer

nstnate · Nov 13, 2013

Chupidacabra said:
So iv been perfecting my new Biab system. I got a 17 gallon stock pot a pulley and a custom bag and the last 5 batches have gone flawlessly. I use 6.5g pre boil and hit damn near 5 perfectly.

This last batch I installed a weldless ball valve. Somehow I boiled down to 3.5 gallons in the same hour as before. Any ideas what happened? The only variable is the ball valve. I don't know how that would change the boil off rate so drastically.

I'm an idiot and in a not sober enough panic I decided to top off with tap water. Now I'm not getting much for signs of fermentation. Hoping I didn't make my first drain pour with such a lame mistake.

What is the diameter of the pot? The bigger the diameter the more boiloff

Chupidacabra · Nov 13, 2013

22inch but Iv used the same pot lots of times with a pretty high boil rate but I had it calculated. As far as the cold weather, I'm in Montana so I'm pretty used to it. Last few batches have been similar temps. And I thought about the boil, with the burner I have it basically boils over unless I'm on low. So I think that it was pretty consistent with past batches.

I'm really hoping your right about the tap water. It has a pretty low chlorine level. I brew with it normally. The problem is it wasn't boiled before I topped off. I'm hoping it didn't introduce anything unwanted.

BryceL · Nov 13, 2013

You're using same pot, so the only way your boil off would change is if you boiled it much harder than usual. 3.5 gallons is an awful lot to boil off. I would be willing to bet that you somehow miscalculated your original volume and didn't start with as much wort as you thought. Unless your ballvalve was cracked open and you were loosing wort as you boiled...I'd imagine you would have to be pretty drunk to let that happen

Chupidacabra · Nov 13, 2013

Yeah. It didn't leak. And the gravity after boil was crazy high because of concentration. So I guess I chock it up to a possible error somewhere and see what happens next round.

Crazy boil off rate

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Crazy boil off rate

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