new brewer, baffled by volumes

[TimothyTaylorslLandlady]

I aimed high when I named myself but my early brews are baffling me. I don't understand the volumes.

I tried to clone Timothy Taylors Landlord and make a whopping 115L (I have big old diary tanks). The beer tastes very promising after 6 days fermenting but I only have 75L and 40Litres are missing.

I mashed 55L, then sparged 60L. Where did it all go? I can see there will be moisture left in the grain and you boil some off but is it usual to lose 35%?

If that is usual, when you have a recipe for 115L do you just add water after the boil to get you to the final volume (115L)? Tap water? But then my SG would have been very low so maybe my sparging was not hot enough (80C)

Or do you sparge with 100L? ??

confused but happy that it still tastes ok

TimothyTaylorsLandlady

 

[david_42]

Between grain absorption and boil-off 35% is reasonable. However, you should have used more sparge water.

 

[HBHoss]

Welcome to HBT. Where abouts in Scotland are you? You'll find a lot of helpful people here and great information.

 

[TimothyTaylorslLandlady]

I'm based in both Glasgow and Hampshire (450miles apart and a regular sleeper train).
I work in Glasgow for a week to earn enough money to pay for alcoholic hobbies, and then take 2 weeks to tend a small new vineyard in the south of england and a tiny fledging microbrewery (nano) in an old diary. For now its personal consumption and presents but maybe one day.....

 

[Bobby_M]

After you figure out your typical boil off losses, you now know how much wort you need to start with in the kettle. It's important to sparge enough to get to that required volume or your wasting grain. In other words, it's much better to get that extra volume through sparging rather than plain old top off water.