wow! did i miss my og!!!!!

lookin at this thread -> https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/my-dba-starter-double-bastard-ale-100711/
my beersmith og estimate was 1.091
i ended u p @ 1.084

should i be pissed?
i did collect 5.75 gallons into the fermentor, which beersmith shows 1.079.... so i beat the 75%, i guess i am stoked!
bummed i am way off for the recipe, but glad i finally beat beersmiths defaul estimate, first time it has ever happend!!!!!


now, i need to make a blowoff setup, i dont think a three piece setup will do so so little headspace, and a big ass starter (ended up @ 1/3 gallon)

which brings to mind, i added a 1/3 gallon of starter @ 1.018 to my fermentor BEFORE taking the og sample.......

Don't be pissed, but learn and adjust the process. Whenever I make a bigger beer, I collect a little extra wort and plan on a 90 minute boil to get the gravity and volumes about right.

well, i ended up @ 80.1 %
i am pretty happy about that fact. never been that high.

i needed to boil another 30-40 mins, and start my hops later in the boil, but it will be beer, but it will be too bitter, unless the FG comes out real low....but with wlp001, i kinda doubt that.

ohh well, whats done is done.

far too much work tho, 16 gallons o water into 5.75 gallons o wort. my back is killin me!

nosmatt said:

well, i ended up @ 80.1 %
i am pretty happy about that fact. never been that high.

i needed to boil another 30-40 mins, and start my hops later in the boil, but it will be beer, but it will be too bitter, unless the FG comes out real low....but with wlp001, i kinda doubt that.

ohh well, whats done is done.

far too much work tho, 16 gallons o water into 5.75 gallons o wort. my back is killin me!

Click to expand...

Huh? What...? 16 gallons to get 5.75 gallons?

Yeah, really... 16? I could see 10, but 16? Have you been boiling since yesterday?

sad huh?


i thought so too!


last week, 16 gallons got me TWO 5 gallon batches.
i have made strides this week to help my efficiency, but im too tired to do any match.
plus watching the superbowl.
could care less about the game, but i want 4, and 7.... got a grand in this pool riding on those numbers!

Wow- I boiled 6.5 gallons today to get 5.75 gallons. I don't boil off much in my kitchen, but I do ok. No wonder you were happy with your efficiency, though.

With 13 pounds of grain, I'm happy with 1.072 or so!

I dont understand, really...

You had 14lbs of grain... and used 16 gallons of water? How is that even possible? Your final, I dunno, 6 gallons of runoff must have been pure water.

I dont see how collecting any more than about 8 or 9 gallons would do anything for efficiency either. Isnt there a point where you are just running water through a sugar free grain bed? Picking up tannins?

I generally collect 7.5-8 gallons and my final runnings even then are in the 1.008 range.

s3n8 said:

Yeah, really... 16? I could see 10, but 16? Have you been boiling since yesterday?

Click to expand...

i did two 7.5 lb brews in a 5 gallon mash tun, split it half to get better efficiency.
caould i mash 15 lbs of grain in a 5 gallon MLT? yes.
i wanted to see if i could better 80% for the first time, which i did.... but lots of boiling!
used almost a whole 5 gallon LPG tank!

wont be doing this again any time soon.

ohh, and dont forget, 15lbs of grain soaked up more than a couple onces of water!

a huge fan on high, blowing at the boiling wort got me over 3 gallons per hour of evaproation

YooperBrew said:

Wow- I boiled 6.5 gallons today to get 5.75 gallons. I don't boil off much in my kitchen, but I do ok. No wonder you were happy with your efficiency, though.

With 13 pounds of grain, I'm happy with 1.072 or so!

Click to expand...

you can boil 6.5 gallons in your kitchen!!!!!!!!!???????????

wow!!!!!!


nah, i can barely boil 2 gallons with my bad ass kitchenaid range.
dayum!

Now I get it... you basically did 2 mashes, then boiled it down to one... dude, that sucks. That is a lot of work. Time to invest in a 10 gal. MLT... the savings in propane alone will make up for the cost.

nosmatt said:

i did two 7.5 lb brews in a 5 gallon mash tun, split it half to get better efficiency.
caould i mash 15 lbs of grain in a 5 gallon MLT? yes.
i wanted to see if i could better 80% for the first time, which i did.... but lots of boiling!
used almost a whole 5 gallon LPG tank!

wont be doing this again any time soon.

ohh, and dont forget, 15lbs of grain soaked up more than a couple onces of water!

a huge fan on high, blowing at the boiling wort got me over 3 gallons per hour of evaproation

Click to expand...

It seems to have worked. I'm not sure I understand the why/how of it, but if you're happy, that's a good thing.

I batch sparge usually, so I could boil more I guess for better efficiency. But I usually give up a few points of efficiency and only boil an hour or so.

The Pol said:

I dont understand, really...

You had 14lbs of grain... and used 16 gallons of water? How is that even possible? Your final, I dunno, 6 gallons of runoff must have been pure water.

I dont see how collecting any more than about 8 or 9 gallons would do anything for efficiency either. Isnt there a point where you are just running water through a sugar free grain bed? Picking up tannins?

I generally collect 7.5-8 gallons and my final runnings even then are in the 1.008 range.

Click to expand...

actually it was 15lbs.
i have gotten poor efficiency with my 5 gallon tun/cooler with anything more than 11lbs of grain, so i decided to split the mashes into two 7.5 lb mashes, and 4 sparges.
make sense now?

I get it... you did two brews, basically. Your grain absorbed 2 gallons, you ran off 14 gallons (not including dead space etc)... So, then you did 2 separate boils?

actually, one big kettle, and all runnings into it for one boil.

im really kickin my own ass for not spending the extra ~25 bucks on the 10 gallon cooler, just did not think i would need it.

The Pol said:

I dont understand, really...

You had 14lbs of grain... and used 16 gallons of water? How is that even possible? Your final, I dunno, 6 gallons of runoff must have been pure water.

I dont see how collecting any more than about 8 or 9 gallons would do anything for efficiency either. Isnt there a point where you are just running water through a sugar free grain bed? Picking up tannins?

I generally collect 7.5-8 gallons and my final runnings even then are in the 1.008 range.

Click to expand...

Pol,

Not to go Off Topic, but I have been reading some of your posts, you kinda inspired me to run off about 8 gallons of pre boil wort. Before I had done about 6.5 gallons, and was coming up short on volume and Gravity. Yesterday I collected 8 gallons into a 15 gallon kettle. I boiled down to about 5.5 gallons, and OG of 1.070, the recipe called for 1.067, so I am pretty happy with that, but I guess my only question is how does it affect hop utilization.?


Thanks

JesseRC said:

Pol,

Not to go Off Topic, but I have been reading some of your posts, you kinda inspired me to run off about 8 gallons of pre boil wort. Before I had done about 6.5 gallons, and was coming up short on volume and Gravity. Yesterday I collected 8 gallons into a 15 gallon kettle. I boiled down to about 5.5 gallons, and OG of 1.070, the recipe called for 1.067, so I am pretty happy with that, but I guess my only question is how does it affect hop utilization.?


Thanks

Click to expand...

How does what affect the hop utilization? The longer boil? The increase in gravity? I dont think any variable you changed will really noticeably affect the utilization.

Sorry, yes I was referring to how does increased preboil wort collection and longer boil time affect hop utilization. I really felt better collecting the 8 gallons. The pot i have is wide, so I really didn't have to boil that much longer , maybe 80 minutes total. Thanks again.

With the larger volume, you will get slightly better utilization, but again, not enough to adjust for it. The utilization difference between 90 minutes and 60 minutes is small as well.