For the love of god....

I'm on my third all-grain batch. The first was great and the second sucked. With regards to the second I can't even fathom where I went wrong, not taking gravity readings is the first problem but probably not the only. Ultimately batch #2 was tasteless, as in water-like and a complete loss.

Anyways, I'm just finished with batch #3. I used the www.brew365.com calculator to pick H2O amounts and temps. I missed my mash temps by ~8 degrees (even after preheating my mashtun) and added about 1-2 quarts of extra hot H2O to bring up the temp. After mash and sparge it seemed like I had a ton of wort. Brew365 indicated I'd have about 6-7 gallons of wort but it seemed like I had a lot more. This is where I took some risk. Given the amount of wort I decided to boil off a bunch of H20 and then start my hops addition which of course throws off my hops timing. I'm hesitant to take any gravity measurements considering the wort is near boiling but this isn't giving me the "warm and fuzzy" I'm looking for.

What're your thoughts?

It's not uncommon to start with a larger volume and boil it down for a while before starting the 60 minute hop utilization boil. You should definitely check gravity. If it's high you can dilute, if it's low and you have too much wort you can boil down.. Plus knowing pre/post boil gravity is important for knowing efficiency, abv, IBU calculations, etc. It also helps establish a record of your brew, so you can brew it again if it comes out real good.

Are you batch sparging or fly?

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Hammy71 said:

Are you batch sparging or fly?

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Batch sparging.

With the mash I was using 1.33. quarts per pound. I'm wondering if I should reduce this to 1.25

I also use brew365 for my water and temp calcs. I use 1.25 qts/lb.

For higher gravity brews I usually use more sparge water than they tell you and then end up boiling it off. If I wanted to avoid having to boil down, I suppose I could use more grain and sparge with what brew365 tells me and figure on a lower efficiency. I think an extra pound or two of grain is cheaper than burning propane gas.

There no reason you should have extra in the pot. Sounds like the grain absorption figures are throwing you off. I mash in using the 1.25qt/#. After the mash time, drain the MLT. Measure the amount of liquid that is the first runnings. Then subtract that number from your total amount you want pre boil. Divide that number by 2. This number is the amount of your two sparge additions. I never trust the calculators when it comes to sparge amounts. There are just to many variables, and by doing the method above, you'll hit your pre boil volumes every time. Here is a neat calculator to help with your stike temps and such.

http://www.brewheads.com/batch.php

The other way to get to your preboil volume (6.5 to 7 gallons for my system) if to have a calibrated stick or spoon, marked with your preboil volume target. Then sparge until you reach that mark. Easy-peasy.

Pappers_ said:

The other way to get to your preboil volume (6.5 to 7 gallons for my system) if to have a calibrated stick or spoon, marked with your preboil volume target. Then sparge until you reach that mark. Easy-peasy.

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Yes, you must come up with an accurate measuring proceedure. If you add extra to your mash to adjust temperature, be sure to minus that amount from your sparge water.

Pappers_ said:

The other way to get to your preboil volume (6.5 to 7 gallons for my system) if to have a calibrated stick or spoon, marked with your preboil volume target. Then sparge until you reach that mark. Easy-peasy.

Click to expand...

This^

And when measuring remember that water expands when heated.

+1 for BeerSmith. I love version 1.0; 2.0 not so much...