stever1000
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I am using BIABacus software to calculate water volumes needed. I started brewing yesterday morning before I had a cup of coffee and I didn't double check the spreadsheet since I set it up last week, and forgot to change my boil time from 90mins to 60mins...
Long story short I added too much water before full volume mashing and my OG was much lower than expected, and I only had time to boil for 60mins. I added 9 gallons of water to the pot before heating the water, with only 10.5 lbs of grain total. So the mash was very dilute
I used EdWorts haus pale ale, with the following grain:
8lbs 2 row
2lbs vienna
0.5lb cara 8
In a perfect world, max points: (8 x 38 points) + ( 2 x 35 points) + (0.5 x 35 points) = 393
(http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/table-of-typical-malt-yields)
Final volume was much higher than expected due to the large amount of water and shorter boiling time (60mins vs 90mins calcuated)
= 6.5gallon (6 gallons into fermenter and 0.5gal didn't fit)
1.060 expected perfect gravity (393/6.5)
Using the refractometer, the actual gravity was 1.040 so the efficiency was 67%
Pre-boil the actual gravity was 1.035. Pre-fermenter it was 1.040
I mashed for 90mins because I didn't have a way to adjust (my feeler gauges only go up to 0.025") the gap on my barley crusher from the factory gap of 0.039". I mashed around 152-154 with a bit of heat loss from the kettle (I dont have foil insulation yet so just used towels)
In the future could I theoretically take a reading at 60mins and if I have time, boil longer to reach my perferred OG? i.e. 1.050
Long story short I added too much water before full volume mashing and my OG was much lower than expected, and I only had time to boil for 60mins. I added 9 gallons of water to the pot before heating the water, with only 10.5 lbs of grain total. So the mash was very dilute
I used EdWorts haus pale ale, with the following grain:
8lbs 2 row
2lbs vienna
0.5lb cara 8
In a perfect world, max points: (8 x 38 points) + ( 2 x 35 points) + (0.5 x 35 points) = 393
(http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/table-of-typical-malt-yields)
Final volume was much higher than expected due to the large amount of water and shorter boiling time (60mins vs 90mins calcuated)
= 6.5gallon (6 gallons into fermenter and 0.5gal didn't fit)
1.060 expected perfect gravity (393/6.5)
Using the refractometer, the actual gravity was 1.040 so the efficiency was 67%
Pre-boil the actual gravity was 1.035. Pre-fermenter it was 1.040
I mashed for 90mins because I didn't have a way to adjust (my feeler gauges only go up to 0.025") the gap on my barley crusher from the factory gap of 0.039". I mashed around 152-154 with a bit of heat loss from the kettle (I dont have foil insulation yet so just used towels)
In the future could I theoretically take a reading at 60mins and if I have time, boil longer to reach my perferred OG? i.e. 1.050