Wort is really cloudy

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Handsaw

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My first all grain batch and I clearly don’t understand some things. First, the thing I do understand. I wound up with less than 4 gal of wort, trub and all. I guess that is just boil off.
But the wort is really cloudy. Could that be because I used BIAB and no-chill?
Will the cloudyness hurt anything? If it will, what can I do about it?

Where should I add the make up water? Should I add it to the kettle hoping that there is more liquid for the trub to sink to the bottom of; or should I just take what I can and add the water to the fermenter? Also, should I only add water until the OG is correct rather than worry about not getting enough beer?
Thanks
 
Handsaw said:
Will the cloudyness hurt anything? If it will, what can I do about it?

Also, should I only add water until the OG is correct rather than worry about not getting enough beer?
Thanks

Don't worry about the cloudiness at this point. Coulda used Irish moss in the boil, but a) it'll probably clean during ferment and b) if not you can cold crash and/or fine it :)

Definitely yes--OG is more impt!

Hopefully others will help with when to add water. Welcome to AG fun!
 
If I know how much wort I have and its SG and I know my target gravity, then how do I figure out how much water to add to hit the target? I hate trial and error.
It has been a long time since high school.
 
I figured out how much water to add, but I had to make an assumption that this formula hold true.

Let Wa be the amount of water you add.
Let Sa be the amount of wort you start with.
Let Tg be the target specific gravity.
Let Sg be the specific gravity of the wort you are starting with.

Then

Wa = (Sa*(Tg – Sg)) / (1 – Tg)

I had to guess at how much wort I had by weighing it. Actually I had to weigh me and the pick up the better bottle and weight me again and the difference was 28 pounds so I allowed 1.5 pounds for the better bottle and came up with adding 2 quarts and 8 oz of water. When I checked the sg after adding the water it was at 1.53 so I pitched the yeast put on the air lock and put it in the basement. Now I’ll just have to wait and see if it got contaminated with all of the measuring and waiting and figuring.
 
Well, it looks healthy. Bubbling along furiosly for a couple of days and now it has slowed down.
 
My advice now would be to mark off gallons (and half-gallons and quarts if you want better accuracy) on your fermenters so you have an easier way to estimate your volume next time.
 
General rule is 1.5g loss during the boil, including boiloff, dead-space and trub-loss. Some pots vary from this a little, but it's a good starting point. So if you want 5g. in fermenter, boil 6.5. Run off your sparge until you reach this point. You'll know when you get there by marking your kettle or mash-paddle in 1/2 gallon increments.
 

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