Brew Pal Question

So, this may be a dumb question, but I am getting larger than expected volumes calculated by brew pal. Maybe I am not understanding something related to process, but please straighten me out....

Trying to trouble shoot the issue here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/missed-og-hefeweizen-180764/#post2092382


When I add all the grain bill (with the 1lb pad)
Pre Boil 1.046 ---> Post Boil 1.056 ----> Final 1.015
* default 75% efficiency is used.

OK down to the question:
When I flip to the mash tab, it lists strike to be 6qts @ 163 (seems reasonable), but sparge volume to be 5.2 gallons. It also lists the volume to be 6.71 gallons. I may be missing something, but am not sure how this works with a 5 gal batch. It would take a while to boil out 1.5 gallons.

Am I crazy or just not understanding something?

-D

What do you have setup for kettle losses and boil off rate?

Grain absorption?
Racking losses?

I am going to take a guess here, but a 9 lb grain bill should mash with 12 qts of water for a medium stiff mash. 1.5 gallons boil off in 1 hour seems to be about right depending on your pot and burner.

The grain is going to absorb .14 gallons per lb aprox.

I am not sure about the software that your are using, i have never used it, i use beer calculus and a spreadsheet i made, but something is funky with the water calculations. when i run your numbers i think you will end up with a 4 gall on batch.

Might want to check to see if there is an "avg boil volume tab" some software like beer calculus is set up as partial boil by default.


I say 9 bs of grain moves solidly from partial mash to full mash with a little DME boost btw.

http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe

Brew Pal has a ton of settings in various locations that need to be set to your system. It sounds like the BOIL settings need to be adjusted. I often boil with the lid partially on my pot (I brew in my open garage and there are a ton of bugs that kamikaze into the boiling wort) so my boil loss is a lot less than the default 10%.

The program has assumptions for equipment losses, evaporation rate, and grain absorbtion. If you hit that gear wheel in the top right you can edit them.

Beernik said:

The program has assumptions for equipment losses, evaporation rate, and grain absorbtion. If you hit that gear wheel in the top right you can edit them.

Click to expand...

The BOIL assumptions are on the MORE tab.

I have been boiling with my pot partially covered with a lid as well. I bet the loss is less than a half gallon for the hour boil. I will check out a few settings and see what I get. Overall, I get the feeling that I am going to just need to brew a bunch before I get a good feel for it.

944play said:

Grain absorption?
Racking losses?

Click to expand...

I have ignored the grain loss since I am filling at the end of the boil to hit the 5.25 gallon batch volume. I am just watching my OG as I add to make sure that I am not overfilling with water and diluting the sugars too much. I have not had any trouble with it and unboiled water has some of the oxy needed for fermentation. Combine unboiled water with a bit of sloshing back and forth and I get good aeration.

As far as racking losses, maybe I am being a noob, but I am not losing any liquid during racking. My racking consists of pouring from the kettle to fermenter and opening a valve on the MLT and draining into the kettle with a tilt to get it all.

Your grain is absorbing water in the mash tun. That's the reason it's wet and heavy. (that's what she said). Not the kettle to fermenter.

Tread82 said:

Your grain is absorbing water in the mash tun. That's the reason it's wet and heavy. (that's what she said). Not the kettle to fermenter.

Click to expand...

I am not quite sure what you are referring to. I am mashing with 1.5gal which is a 1.25:1 ratio and is well within the rule-of-thumb range. It shouldn't matter how the grain is absorbing. As I understand it the rule of thumb is 1qt to 1.5qts per pound of grain; there is no addition for absorbtion. Also, since I am adding water back in at the end of the boil, I am not trying to hit a total volume prior to boil. The only concern is to wash/sparge the grain enough to get the fermentables and maintain good efficiency.