bgraham
Active Member
I've recently switched to a larger boil kettle and haven't quite tuned in hitting a perfect final volume of 5.5 gallons.
My questions is how do you all do this? I see there being two choices.
A) I could do a test boil for an hour with 6 gallons and then measure exactly how much boiled off and then increase my boil time if I need to end up with less wort or add more water if necessary.
or...
B) Limit how much wort I extract during mashing/sparging.
I see problems with choice B in not hitting planned OG's.
Do you always mash and sparge with a fixed amount of water per pound of grain or vary it per recipe?
I usually mash with 1.25 or 1.5 qts/lb depending on the types of grain and batch sparge with 1.5 qts/lb. My original problem was coming up with less than 5.5 gallons and lately I've had extra wort given I've just had larger grain bills on my last few batches.
How do you all hit your desired post boil volumes given everchanging grainbills?
My questions is how do you all do this? I see there being two choices.
A) I could do a test boil for an hour with 6 gallons and then measure exactly how much boiled off and then increase my boil time if I need to end up with less wort or add more water if necessary.
or...
B) Limit how much wort I extract during mashing/sparging.
I see problems with choice B in not hitting planned OG's.
Do you always mash and sparge with a fixed amount of water per pound of grain or vary it per recipe?
I usually mash with 1.25 or 1.5 qts/lb depending on the types of grain and batch sparge with 1.5 qts/lb. My original problem was coming up with less than 5.5 gallons and lately I've had extra wort given I've just had larger grain bills on my last few batches.
How do you all hit your desired post boil volumes given everchanging grainbills?