All grain batch disaster

So everything about this batch was terrible. Efficiency was 61%. The main problem was once my boil finished I had a gallon more volume than planned. Not a strong enough boil maybe? Either way I filled my carboy up to 5 gallons and then pitched the rest, drew our a sample of the discarded wort to measure original gravity. What should I expect with final brew due to these issues?

I'm embarassed to say my efficiency is there regularly. In my defence, I use the LHBS's mill and it's just not fine enough. You could have boiled harder but maybe you over sparged. The beer will taste great, as homebrew always does because it has the sweat of your brow in it, figuratively of course.

How far off was your OG?? What was the target and OG? You might have a lower ABV brew, that could have a bit less body to it than planned. At worst, you'll have about the same ABV, with [maybe] a little less body...

I've been aiming to have about 1/2 gallon left over in the kettle post boil (for 5+ gallon batches)... I was having an issue where I was boiling off too much (didn't have an accurate measure of the volumes at start or finish until it was going into the fermenter)... So, now I aim to have a bit more, so that I don't need to worry about it so much... I just need to have better control over myself and not put it all into primary anyway... A little more is good, so you have closer to 5 gallons when finished... But you don't want to fill the primary up too much, or you'll have a mess to cleanup later (hopefully not all over the walls, ceiling and floor)...

How long have you been brewing all-grain?? Either way, I'm sure you won't make the same errors as you did on this batch... Whatever the result is, you're certain to have beer... More likely than not, really good beer at that... Just come up with a funny name to dub it, in either case, and brew again... After all, it's not like you made a FUBAR batch, right?

Did you check your preboil volume? I would bet you over sparged.

Thanks for the help guys... Beersmith said to get premium volume of 6.7 gallons which is what I did. Og was supposed to be 1.042 to 1.055 and my actual was 1.044 so I guess I was in range now that I look at it more closely. So I guess if it ferments down to 1.01 I'll have decent abv. We shall see. I hated to pour out good wort!!! Also I didn't have my carboy marked so I guessed on where the 5 gallon mark was due to previous exp.

Likely you didn't calculate efficiency correctly. It is not affected by how long you boil.

I put in the gravities in to beersmith to get my efficiency so I am assuming it was right. Are you saying efficiency is calculated before the boil?

Boiling can affect efficiency by how much the total beginning volume is reduced. Taking 7 gal and making it five and a half concentrates sugar, water boils off. You can always go get a 1" dowel from home depot and measure out a gallon at a time in your boil pot and mark them off. That way, you can get a relatively accurate measurement of what's inside.

Double_D said:

Boiling can affect efficiency by how much the total beginning volume is reduced. Taking 7 gal and making it five and a half concentrates sugar, water boils off. You can always go get a 1" dowel from home depot and measure out a gallon at a time in your boil pot and mark them off. That way, you can get a relatively accurate measurement of what's inside.

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+1 there... Especially if you don't want to, or cannot. install a sight tube on the pot/kettle...

I would also suggest marking the carboy at the 5 gallon level, as well as 5-1/4 and 5-1/2 points so that you know where they are... Or get some of the pre-made markers (another thread here) that will do it for you...

If you go from 1.044 to 1.010 you'll get 4.5% ABV... Obviously, the lower your FG is, the higher the ABV will be, but less body it will have...

For ABV calculations, I'd use the Rooftop Brew page instead of Beer Smith...

Boiling does not affect efficiency. Efficiency refers to how much starch is converted to sugar.

I am sure you will have a tasty brew, if a bit lighter than expected.

Sean said:

Boiling does not affect efficiency. Efficiency refers to how much starch is converted to sugar.

I am sure you will have a tasty brew, if a bit lighter than expected.

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Yes... but that's "brewhouse" vs. "mash" efficiency we're talking about now.

You're right You're right. And this is a brewhouse issue. Move along, move along.. nothing to see here.

Good point, I got stuck on the word 'efficiency.' As someone said, oversparged, or as the OP pointed out, too soft a boil.

Double_D said:

Yes... but that's "brewhouse" vs. "mash" efficiency we're talking about now.

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That's exactly right. I assume whenever anyone brings up efficiency, they are talking about brewhouse, since that is the final efficiency.

Regardless, boil has nothing to do with efficiency. I don't have the energy to go through why because my I have 2 racks of spare ribs coming of my grill and my wife has some scrumptious shrimp ready for chomping and the acadamy awards is coming in a minute. Trust me, though, the boil can't affect your efficiency.

passedpawn said:

That's exactly right. I assume whenever anyone brings up efficiency, they are talking about brewhouse, since that is the final efficiency.

Regardless, boil has nothing to do with efficiency. I don't have the energy to go through why because my I have 2 racks of spare ribs coming of my grill and my wife has some scrumptious shrimp ready for chomping and the acadamy awards is coming in a minute. Trust me, though, the boil can't affect your efficiency.

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Enjoy your evening.. I would like to hear your thoughts. It seems like if he over-sparged, and measured it, he could have boiled for 90 min, and with the same hop schedule, have the OG and bitterness he intended.

I am not sure that he would have had significantly more evaporation with a stronger boil. That is sort of limited unless the boil is in an oversized vessel.

You did WHAT with your extra wort? I'd have dumped that into the fermenter if I could have made it fit and fermented out as "extra" beer. Next time don't get hung up on the "5 gallons" and ferment out what you get. If the fermenter gets too full, leave the lid off, use foil or saran wrap to cover it, set it in a tub in case it spills over and ferment it near the cooler end of the recommended range of the yeast if you can. You ended up in the range predicted so what you dumped is just a waste.

Actually, thinking about this a bit... You 'tossed' about a GALLON of wort... Ummmm, dude, next time, save it to use as your priming solution... KRAUSENING!!!

Isn't a gallon equal to 128 fluid ounces? Aren't there 12 ounces in the normal beer bottles? That dude just dumped nearly a 12 pack!

Lol. Reason I dumped it is because I don't have a 6.5 gallon carboy and was told not to over feel it and to leave enough headspace. Didn't think about priming solution though. I need to read up on brew house vs mash efficiency though... Not sure of the difference. I just hate that the og was lower than expected because I am the type that likes higher abv beers. I read to have some dme handy for these situations but that was after the fact and I didnt have any.

So, just curious did you put 5 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy for the primary fermentation??

For the retail value of the wort you dumped were it fermented out into beer, you could have purchased a 6 1/2 gallon fermenting bucket with lid and airlock and had plenty of space to brew the whole batch. You should buy one or 2 of them anyway so you can brew another batch while waiting for this one to ferment out fully.

Sean said:

Enjoy your evening.. I would like to hear your thoughts. It seems like if he over-sparged, and measured it, he could have boiled for 90 min, and with the same hop schedule, have the OG and bitterness he intended.

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Right, that's what I do, just keep boiling until I get to the volume I need. Having a sight glass / gauge on your kettle is very helpful here.

Sean said:

I am not sure that he would have had significantly more evaporation with a stronger boil. That is sort of limited unless the boil is in an oversized vessel.

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Technically, it's not evaporation but vaporization. And it is directly linearly related to the amount of heat you are hitting the wort with. So, turning up the heat will certainly increase the boil off rate. I don't use a flame (all electric), so I don't have a good feel for how much of the heat gets into the kettle when on a burner. On my system, if I increase the average power to my heating element by 10%, I will increase the boil-off rate by 10%.

I had put 5 gallons of wort in a carboy made for 5 gallon batches. So let me get this straight... Boiling for two hours if need be would not harm the taste of the beer?

mrduna01 said:

I had put 5 gallons of wort in a carboy made for 5 gallon batches. So let me get this straight... Boiling for two hours if need be would not harm the taste of the beer?

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Right.

If you have a low pre-boil gravity and a high volume, would boiling off the extra volume increase the post-boil gravity?

Yes, as you boil, and the water vaporizes out of the wort, the gravity goes up.

What you should do is boil till you hit your intended OG. A refractometer can help with this. I trust my software, and my system, and I almost always hit my OG once I've boiled down to the right volume.

So, the boil does affect the brewhouse efficiency. If you do not boil long enough or strong enough, you will have a lower eff. No?

Either way, it seems, if you know your pre-boil gravity, you can get the beer to the OG you want. Longer/shorter boil, add dme, add water.

Sean said:

So, the boil does affect the brewhouse efficiency. If you do not boil long enough or strong enough, you will have a lower eff. No?

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No, it doesn't. The boil doesn't affect any efficiency. I'm at work and can't get into detail now.