So, I just made my third attempt at all-grain brewing. My first two attempts were 5-gallon batches that were prepared recipes from AHBS. I did them a day apart and nailed my numbers across the board on both beers. It's important to note that this was around 8 months ago, and I basically forgot everything I learned.
Yesterday I made the Zombie Dust clone recipe from right here on HomeBrewTalk (6-gallon batch):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/3-floyds-zombie-dust-attempt-help-info-requested-245456/
This did not go as well. I don't think the beer is ruined at all, and I don't plan on dumping it by any means, but I thought maybe someone could provide some insight into how I got a bit lost.
Some things to note:
Problems I encountered:
Did I mess up when I added distilled water? Does this account for missing the OG by that much? How does a pot with less width boil off more water? I'm confused.
Also, I did use Bru'n Water, but I'm wondering if I should use BeerSmith for the boil-off and mash/sparge calculations.
Yesterday I made the Zombie Dust clone recipe from right here on HomeBrewTalk (6-gallon batch):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/3-floyds-zombie-dust-attempt-help-info-requested-245456/
This did not go as well. I don't think the beer is ruined at all, and I don't plan on dumping it by any means, but I thought maybe someone could provide some insight into how I got a bit lost.
Some things to note:
- I was using a new pot. The difference in width was only 0.4", however.
- I have never done a 6-gallon batch before
- I used my previous two attempts at all-grain to calculate my anticipated yield from mash and sparge
Problems I encountered:
- The yield from my mash was off by 0.5 gal (under)
- I corrected for this with distilled water after my sparge
- My boil-off was greater than anticipated with a thinner brew pot
- My OG was way under what I anticipated: 1.055 vs 1.065
Did I mess up when I added distilled water? Does this account for missing the OG by that much? How does a pot with less width boil off more water? I'm confused.
Also, I did use Bru'n Water, but I'm wondering if I should use BeerSmith for the boil-off and mash/sparge calculations.