First AG: Efficiency and Trub Question

[Derick_Z]

I have done a few BIAB in the past, but yesterday was my first official *true* AG with a cooler to mash in and everything. It was very exciting and easier than I thought. I did a super simple IPA recipe I found in another thread (12 pounds of 2 row, 0.5 lbs of Crystal 40L, and ~10 oz of Cascade added at various times, including 3 oz for dry hopping).

I read that you should mash IPAs on the lower end because you want little body, so I aimed for 151. After pouring in the strike water and stirring, it sat at 152. I stirred a bit more and closed the lid for an hour. I used 5 gallons for the mash (about 2.5 or 3 came out the other end) and 5 gallons total for the sparge (split into two batch sparges). All said and done, I had about 8 gallons in the boil kettle at an OG of ~1.050. I think this is a pretty good efficiency, but I've lost my bookmark to a calculator and can't seem to find it again. Any help here?

Also, I was a bit worried as I expected to have about 7 gallons at the start of the boil, and ended up with 8! I may have been a bit high on my mash and sparge, so I'm going to write that one off as me being innacurate/my mash going very well. I decided to boil for a little while to burn off some extra water before my first hop addition, and started the timer with about 7.5 gallons in the pot. At the end of the boil, I had about 6.5 gallons. After cooling I expected to rack 5 or 6 gallons into the bucket, but due to HUGE amounts of trub I only got about 3.5 or 4 gallons before it was sucking up massive amounts of what I assume was hop particles.

What should be done in that case? I ended up stopping the siphon at 4.5 gallons and dumping the rest of the kettle. I know the particles will settle out in fermentation, especially if I cold crash, but I was blown away by all that extra trub. Is this to be expected for true AG? Or just because I used so much hops?

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!

 

[blizz81]

Yeah, 10oz is a lot of hop pellets for a 5 gal batch, I'd say. I've been using the really fine nylon hop bags the last 4 or 5 brews, including a Pliny clone where I had probably close to 10oz in the boil kettle, and have minimal break trub in the kettle in the end. Not sure if you were using anything like that - if not, probably just all of the hop matter.

 

[runkelia]

I always thought if you wanted more body you mash higher, like 154. I usually start at 156 or so and it will drop to 152 after 60 minutes. Also - if you collect 3 gallons after first runnings, whatever you put in (sparge with) you get back because the grains are saturated. Therefore you shouldn't have been surprised you collected 8 gallons as you sparged with 5 gallons, should have sparged with 4. I have a wood dowel marked at 1 gallon increments to measure first runnings with. Cheers and happy brewing!

 

[duboman]

I have done a few BIAB in the past, but yesterday was my first official *true* AG with a cooler to mash in and everything. It was very exciting and easier than I thought. I did a super simple IPA recipe I found in another thread (12 pounds of 2 row, 0.5 lbs of Crystal 40L, and ~10 oz of Cascade added at various times, including 3 oz for dry hopping).

I read that you should mash IPAs on the lower end because you want little body, so I aimed for 151. After pouring in the strike water and stirring, it sat at 152. I stirred a bit more and closed the lid for an hour. I used 5 gallons for the mash (about 2.5 or 3 came out the other end) and 5 gallons total for the sparge (split into two batch sparges). All said and done, I had about 8 gallons in the boil kettle at an OG of ~1.050. I think this is a pretty good efficiency, but I've lost my bookmark to a calculator and can't seem to find it again. Any help here?

Also, I was a bit worried as I expected to have about 7 gallons at the start of the boil, and ended up with 8! I may have been a bit high on my mash and sparge, so I'm going to write that one off as me being innacurate/my mash going very well. I decided to boil for a little while to burn off some extra water before my first hop addition, and started the timer with about 7.5 gallons in the pot. At the end of the boil, I had about 6.5 gallons. After cooling I expected to rack 5 or 6 gallons into the bucket, but due to HUGE amounts of trub I only got about 3.5 or 4 gallons before it was sucking up massive amounts of what I assume was hop particles.

What should be done in that case? I ended up stopping the siphon at 4.5 gallons and dumping the rest of the kettle. I know the particles will settle out in fermentation, especially if I cold crash, but I was blown away by all that extra trub. Is this to be expected for true AG? Or just because I used so much hops?

Thanks and sorry for the wall of text!

If you want a little body to the beer you actually mash higher, not lower but 151-152 is a good temp for an IPA, most prefer the style slightly drier and crisper.

As for the trub you encountered, yeah, 10 oz of hops will suck up a lot of wort and create a lot of trub as well as all the hot break and cold break material.

When you calculate your recipe you need to account for the heavy amount of hops in your volumes and adjust accordingly. If your gravity reading into primary was higher than expected you could add some top off water to bring up the volume, if the gravity was where it was to be then I'd leave it alone and have less beer or you will ultimately dilute the final product.

 

[Derick_Z]

I should have been clearer: I actually wanted (very) little body, not (a) little body. I did not use a hop bag or anything but I think I will in the future. I was also not really sure what to expect from my first batch sparge, so I'm not too concerned with the volumes. Is there an easy way to calculate how efficient I was? I came across one thing saying to multiply the gravity points (50 in the case of 1.050) by the gallons (8, in my case) giving us 400 points. Then divide by the final volume (6.5 gallons in this case) giving you the estimated gravity of the post boil volume (61.54, or 1.06154). I ended up with about 1.060 after the boil, so I guess my volume measurements may have been off (I just used some rough notches scratched into my mash paddle, which I'm pretty sure aren't perfect.)

EDIT: Also I see people talking about their efficiency percentages. How do I calculate this? I'm curious where I landed.

 

[blizz81]

I should have been clearer: I actually wanted (very) little body, not (a) little body. I did not use a hop bag or anything but I think I will in the future. I was also not really sure what to expect from my first batch sparge, so I'm not too concerned with the volumes. Is there an easy way to calculate how efficient I was? I came across one thing saying to multiply the gravity points (50 in the case of 1.050) by the gallons (8, in my case) giving us 400 points. Then divide by the final volume (6.5 gallons in this case) giving you the estimated gravity of the post boil volume (61.54, or 1.06154). I ended up with about 1.060 after the boil, so I guess my volume measurements may have been off (I just used some rough notches scratched into my mash paddle, which I'm pretty sure aren't perfect.)

EDIT: Also I see people talking about their efficiency percentages. How do I calculate this? I'm curious where I landed.

To calculate efficiency, you'll need to know the volume of what ended up in your fermenter. There are probably an assortment of web calculators and / or pieces of software (some free perhaps?) that offer efficiency calculations. I used to use brewmasterswarehouse.com because I ordered a few recipes from them, you can use their recipe builder and add grains (etc), then set your volume and efficiency and it will calculate OG. BeerSmith is a bit better of an overall tool than the freebies though.

For volume calculations, you can check out the new post on the front page of homebrewtalk.com , or keep reading around. I usually use a 1.25qt / lb of grain ratio, and calculate as follows given my equipment:


1.25qt * 18lb / 4 = 5.625gal + 0.875gal (volume under false bottom) = 6.5gal strike water
6.5gal - (18lb * .11 for absorption) = 4.52gal first wort

Boil volume: 8gal
Sparge = 8gal - 4.52gal = 3.48gal

 

[Derick_Z]

According to this calculator, if I was correct with my measurement of 8 gallons in the kettle and 1.050 specific gravity (averaged between one reading that read 1.053 and one that read 1.047. I assume if I stirred it up it would lie somewhere in the middle, but perhaps on the lower end) I ended up with 86.77% or 81.56% if the actual sample was 1.047! I'm pretty proud of that.

Unfortunately, I only ended up with 4.5 gallons in the bucket... which drops my overall efficiency down to a much more humble 60%.