InHopsWeTrust
Member
I'm hoping you experienced all-grain brewers can help me out a bit. I have been brewing with extract for years. I have recently ventured out into all-grain. I'm about to start my 3rd batch. My first batch was a pale ale, and I know what I did wrong there. I didn't pre-heat my mash tun and it I didn't quite get the temp right, which resulted in a poor conversion. It still ended up being drinkable, but I wasn't thrilled with it.
My second batch was an Irish Red Ale. I get all of my ingredients in kits still. I use midwest supplies. This time, I had great conversion. I was ecstatic with that result. However, both with this batch and the Pale Ale before, I am not ending up with 5 gallons of wort. I follow the directions to the "t". Here are the water volumes for the Irish Red I did a couple of months ago.
Mash in: 1.25 quarts per pound of grain.
This recipe has 10 pounds total grain. So, 1.25 x 10 is 12.5 quarts. 4 quarts to a gallon, so 12.5 / 4 is 3.125 gallons of water for mashing.
Again, conversion was excellent. Now, the sparge.
Instruction say 1/2 gallon per pound of grain. Okay, that's 5 gallons. All went well. I ended up with just over 7 gallons of wort.
After the 1 hour boil, cool down, and pour into fermenter, I'm ending up with 4 gallons. I am not understanding it. I have always used about 6 gallons when doing extract to start out with, and I've always ended up with a 5 gallon batch. The laws of physics don't seem to apply in my garage when I'm doing all-grain. haha. I'm at a loss.
Should I sparge with more water and end up with 8 gallons? Will this dilute the end result? I'm not sure what to do here. I haven't tried my irish red ale yet. Just put a bottle in the fridge last night to test out. It's been in the bottle for 2 weeks. It tasted very promising when I took a taste during bottling, but it was still only 4 gallons. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I want to start a batch today of all-grain, and really want to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter. Thanks so much.
Edit: Maybe I'm crazy in thinking I have ended up with 7 gallons? I have a 15 gallon brew pot. Surely, I'm not losing 2 gallons during boil? I'm going to measure out one gallon at a time for the brewpot, and maybe mark a stick or something at one gallon intervals. Maybe it is less than 7 gallons and I'm going crazy. It doesn't change the fact, however that I am following the directions perfectly, and coming up short.
My second batch was an Irish Red Ale. I get all of my ingredients in kits still. I use midwest supplies. This time, I had great conversion. I was ecstatic with that result. However, both with this batch and the Pale Ale before, I am not ending up with 5 gallons of wort. I follow the directions to the "t". Here are the water volumes for the Irish Red I did a couple of months ago.
Mash in: 1.25 quarts per pound of grain.
This recipe has 10 pounds total grain. So, 1.25 x 10 is 12.5 quarts. 4 quarts to a gallon, so 12.5 / 4 is 3.125 gallons of water for mashing.
Again, conversion was excellent. Now, the sparge.
Instruction say 1/2 gallon per pound of grain. Okay, that's 5 gallons. All went well. I ended up with just over 7 gallons of wort.
After the 1 hour boil, cool down, and pour into fermenter, I'm ending up with 4 gallons. I am not understanding it. I have always used about 6 gallons when doing extract to start out with, and I've always ended up with a 5 gallon batch. The laws of physics don't seem to apply in my garage when I'm doing all-grain. haha. I'm at a loss.
Should I sparge with more water and end up with 8 gallons? Will this dilute the end result? I'm not sure what to do here. I haven't tried my irish red ale yet. Just put a bottle in the fridge last night to test out. It's been in the bottle for 2 weeks. It tasted very promising when I took a taste during bottling, but it was still only 4 gallons. Any help will be greatly appreciated. I want to start a batch today of all-grain, and really want to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter. Thanks so much.
Edit: Maybe I'm crazy in thinking I have ended up with 7 gallons? I have a 15 gallon brew pot. Surely, I'm not losing 2 gallons during boil? I'm going to measure out one gallon at a time for the brewpot, and maybe mark a stick or something at one gallon intervals. Maybe it is less than 7 gallons and I'm going crazy. It doesn't change the fact, however that I am following the directions perfectly, and coming up short.