3.5 gal evap?

[prrriiide]

Seriously???

Started with 11.5 gal in the 12 gal brewpot, got 8 in the buckets. 70 min boil. WTF?

55* and 96% humidity. Shouldn't boil off THAT much.

This does not make me happy.

Nope. Not at all.

 

[starrfish]

should only be between .5 & 1 gallon per hour depending on how vigarus the boil... 11.5 in 12 gallon pot doesn't leave much room at all, was there a boil over?

 

[Shay]

Were you using leaf hops? They absorb a bunch of wort.

 

[Stauffbier]

Seriously???

Started with 11.5 gal in the 12 gal brewpot, got 8 in the buckets. 70 min boil. WTF?

55* and 96% humidity. Shouldn't boil off THAT much.

This does not make me happy.

Nope. Not at all.

I don't want to question your process, but are you sure you started with 11.5 gal? Have you checked the capacity of your kettle to make sure it is indeed 12gal? If yes, perhaps your boil is too vigorous..

 

[pelipen]

My pot is wider than tall and easily loses 2 g per hour.
Did you account for wort expansion? Your near boiling volume could be as much as 10% high. 2 lost to evaporation, .5 left behind, .8 to expansion, is getting close to where you are at.

 

[Rubes]

What exactly is "too vigorous a boil"? I mean, I thought boiling was boiling. It's not getting any hotter than 212 degrees celcius, so how can it boil off more? I'm confused

 

[prrriiide]

should only be between .5 & 1 gallon per hour depending on how vigarus the boil... 11.5 in 12 gallon pot doesn't leave much room at all, was there a boil over?

Nope. No boil over. I have that part down to an art. I ride the regulator and nurse it over the hot break. Never had a boil over, even with only 2 qt head room. I'm kinda proud of that, if you couldn't tell...:rockin:

Were you using leaf hops? They absorb a bunch of wort.

Pellets. No bag or anything, just straight into the pot.

I don't want to question your process, but are you sure you started with 11.5 gal? Have you checked the capacity of your kettle to make sure it is indeed 12gal? If yes, perhaps your boil is too vigorous..

Absolutely sure. I used a graduated pitcher to collect my runnings and kept track. I got 10 gallons out of the mash/mashout/sparge and then topped off with 1.5 from the tap. Too vigorous a boil is certainly a possibility. But how vigorous is TOO vigorous? I try to keep it at a rapidly rolling boil. Perhaps I should back the heat down a bit to just gently rolling?

My pot is wider than tall and easily loses 2 g per hour.
Did you account for wort expansion? Your near boiling volume could be as much as 10% high. 2 lost to evaporation, .5 left behind, .8 to expansion, is getting close to where you are at.

Pot is 16" diameter and 15.5" deep, but not graduated. I used a graduated 1 gal pitcher to measure my runnings from the tun to the pot. The boiling volume shouldn't come into play since the runnings were far from boiling when I measured them into the pot. I know I lost at least 3 qts left behind, but even at that I should still have gotten way more than 8 gal.

I think it's time to bite the bullet and go buy a keg of good beer and sacrifice the deposit. I need a bigger pot and a bigger tun.

While I'm at it...BeerSmith got the est OG at 1.053 for 10 gal. I got 1.051 for 8 gal. If I had topped off to get 10 gal in the buckets, it would have wrecked my OG. Is that a common practice? To top off post-boil/pre-pitch to get volume, or do most folks just go with however much they got?

BTW, what I'm working on is a watermelon kolsch. I can't wait til this bad boy is done...

 

[Zamial]

If you were boiling your wort in 1 kettle directly fired by the flames of Hades you will not boil off more than 1.5 gallons per hour, that is physics and pretty much excepted that it can not be changed.

With that in mind the rest of your system/process is were it is going. I can pretty much guess that there is about 1-1.5 gallons left behind from cold break and hop absorption.

A little shrinkage and you have what is left.

This is VERY common for me, I do 13 gallon batches all the time and boil them as hard as I can.

I think it's time to bite the bullet and go buy a keg of good beer and sacrifice the deposit. I need a bigger pot and a bigger tun.

I am not advocating that you do this at all. A bigger MLT is easy as a bigger cooler and there are plenty of great brewpots from vendors here that are the same price as stealing a keg of crappy beer and destroying it. I got my kegs legally I suggest you do the same.

While I'm at it...BeerSmith got the est OG at 1.053 for 10 gal. I got 1.051 for 8 gal. If I had topped off to get 10 gal in the buckets, it would have wrecked my OG. Is that a common practice? To top off post-boil/pre-pitch to get volume, or do most folks just go with however much they got?

I used to just be a "get what you get" brewer. I have not even taken a hydro reading on my last 4 batches. This has directly resulted in beers that were much stronger. I am going to be starting to take readings with my next batches again as I am going to be "adjusting the gravity post boil and post fermentation trying to hit a specific gravities and volumes.

GL

 

[raptorvan]

What exactly is "too vigorous a boil"? I mean, I thought boiling was boiling. It's not getting any hotter than 212 degrees celcius, so how can it boil off more? I'm confused

correct but the heat has to go somewhere...once the wort hits boiling, you lower the heat. the idea it to keep it hot enough to boil but if you keep the flame high then you are basically turning your liquid into steam as a reaction to the energy that has to go somewhere.

 

[Rubes]

Ah I see, thank you. That makes sense.