All grain question boiling

[RNBEERGUY]

hello,

I saw in a book when doing an all grain batch you don’t top off water after the boil or during cooling you must add extra water preboil. Why is this? In extract you can add extra water to the fermenter after wart has cooled

Semper Fi

 

[bleme]

You get better efficiency if all your water passes though the grains (mash or sparge), but you CAN top off.

 

[kristiismean]

Yep, Most people worry about hitting their efficiency targets. you actually add water at the beginning to reach your target number at the end. I Mash with usually 6 gallons of water 148, then I use 2-3 gallons more to collect 7.5 gallons of wort. If I am a little short after the boil I have to decide which is more important, volume or abv..

With extract it's already predetermined. you will hit your numbers every time as long as your end volume is 5 gallons.

I know of one brewery out there that their 6% beer starts life as a 9% beer, they actually water down after fermentation.

 

[BLL]

You can top up post boil if it means hitting your target volume, but it's ideal to accurately predict you're boil off rate and top up to a preboil volume that will yield both the target post boil volume and target OG. The only real advantage of a preboil top up vs post boil is that you don't have to expose wort to potential contamination between the kettle and the FV. However, a post boil top up that's added before the wort drops below 180 degrees will still effectively pasteurize the additional water. Also, if your Color, OG, hop additions, etc. were calculated at 5 gallons of post boil wort and you end up with 4.5 then they all will be higher than the targets and adding that extra half gallon will bring them down closer to the target values with the added benefit of yielding the full 5 gallons you originally anticipated. Ultimately, it doesn't matter when you add water as long as you consider the potential effects it will have. Either preboil or post boil or both are commonplace in production settings and are nothing to worry about as long as you know what you're doing.

 

[JohnSand]

When I was first learning all grain, I kept me water a little low intentionally. Partly because I was using a modest pot, and partly so I could measure the gravity after the boil and calculate top off to hit my numbers. When I got used to fairly consistent efficiency, I measured the water up front. Don't let it get you too crazy, close is good enough.

 

[PADave]

Once you get your system dialed in there should be no reason to make any adjustments after the boil. Use a good calculator like Beer Smith or Brewers Friend, have the correct numbers for your system, and you'll hit your numbers every time.