I've been searching for this problem on here without luck. I've ran into this problem many times, but not sure how to deal with it best. So I'm looking for others who may know.
I do 5 or 10 gal batches, all grain, with fly sparge. I've done probably about 15 batches so far.
While brewing, I test my runoff with a refractometer. I know going below 2-3 brix (balling) will get a bitter astringent taste. So I usually stop around 2 brix.
So I did a recipe that called for 70% efficiency, and should have ended runoff with 13.g gallons pre boil. Then after boil should have been 11 gallons at 1.041.
Now I ended runoff with 11 gallons at 14.4 brix (1.059 brix). Added 1.5 gallons of water. After boil ended at 11 gallons with sg 1.048
So I ended with too high of gravity, with too low of volume...
So I figure there are a few things I can do:
Sparge slower (already at 60+ minutes)
Sparge faster
Add water at the end (this time I did add 1.5 gallons to get the gravity and volume to match where I wanted, but I worry about diluting flavor of the beer).
So, how much water can one add after runoff without diluting flavor (preboil). Is this common? Or how can I get more runoff without ruining my efficiency?
I hope this makes sense, because I think I'm confusing myself here..
Thanks in advance,
Ryan
I do 5 or 10 gal batches, all grain, with fly sparge. I've done probably about 15 batches so far.
While brewing, I test my runoff with a refractometer. I know going below 2-3 brix (balling) will get a bitter astringent taste. So I usually stop around 2 brix.
So I did a recipe that called for 70% efficiency, and should have ended runoff with 13.g gallons pre boil. Then after boil should have been 11 gallons at 1.041.
Now I ended runoff with 11 gallons at 14.4 brix (1.059 brix). Added 1.5 gallons of water. After boil ended at 11 gallons with sg 1.048
So I ended with too high of gravity, with too low of volume...
So I figure there are a few things I can do:
Sparge slower (already at 60+ minutes)
Sparge faster
Add water at the end (this time I did add 1.5 gallons to get the gravity and volume to match where I wanted, but I worry about diluting flavor of the beer).
So, how much water can one add after runoff without diluting flavor (preboil). Is this common? Or how can I get more runoff without ruining my efficiency?
I hope this makes sense, because I think I'm confusing myself here..
Thanks in advance,
Ryan