Understanding Calculations for All Grain

Hey all,

So i'm completely new to all grain. I did my first batch last weekend with a friend of mine and while I think it went pretty well, I noticed that there was a LOT information to keep track of than my previous brewing attempts with LME and Specialty Grains. My buddy also suggested I check out BeerSmith in order to help me manage some of these calculations, but so far that's only helped magnify just how uneducated I am when it comes to the different calculations involved with brewing. I've comprised a list of questions that I'm hoping you all might be able to either help me with or at the very least point me in the right direction to find information.

(Also, as a note, I had initially thought of putting this post under the Beer Software forum since it sort of related to questions that came from checking out BeerSmith, but I really feel these are questions more about the actual All Grain process. If necessary though, I can move the thread there.)

So for starters, here's the basic equipment I'm working with right now...

15.5 Gallon Keggle Conversion Mash Tun w/ Bazooka Screen
5 Gallon Boil Pot
Bayou Classic Propane Burner

My initial process for my first AG brew was to heat 4 Gallons of water in the Mash Tun to roughly 160 degrees, and then add the grain (about 12lbs total for the recipe I was using). I let it mash for an hour before while boiling and additional 2 gallons of water at about 170 degrees (for a total of 6 to fight off any losses) that I then add to the mash tun before sparging. Then I sparge into my 5 Gallon Bucket 3 times before starting my boil as usual.

Again, most of these questions are basically right from looking at the Equipment Setup on BeerSmith 2 and not understanding what they relate to or how to estimate them. I did watch the official BeerSmith video on YouTube relating to Equipment Setup, but there are still some areas that I thought were a bit vague and wanted to get confirmation on.

1. Brewhouse Efficiency - From my understanding this is somehow related to the mashing process and the OG that brewers are able to achieve, giving them an idea of how efficiently they were able to extract fermentables from the grain. Please correct me if that's totally off. This is set to a default of 72% in BeerSmith. I'm not sure under what circumstances I'd actually change it.
   
2. Hope Utilzation Factor - Set to 100% by default and the video says this isn't really anything I need to worry about unless batches go well over the size I'm brewing. If anyone would like to speak on this though, the information is welcome.
   
3. Mash Tun Volume - Seems straightforward, my Mash Tun holds 15.5 Gallons. I just wanted to make sure this is in reference to it's capable volume and not the target volume of the brew itself since I'm currently only doing 5 gallon batches.
   
4. Mash Tun Weight - Not sure just yet. I can throw it on the scale pretty easily, but I'm more curious exactly what this has to do with anything.
   
5. Mash Tun Specific Heat - It's a Keggle conversion so I'm going with the 0.12 Stainless Steel guideline given by BeerSmith.
   
6. Lauter Tun Deadspace - I believe this is more in reference to people using a false bottom. I'm using a Bazooka Screen, so I'm guessing I don't have as much loss as someone with a false bottom, but i'm a little unsure what to estimate this at. I generally tip the mash tun at the end anyway in an attempt to make sure I get as much out as possible.
   
7. Top Up Water for Kettle - Completely uncertain of what this is referring to. I thought it might relate to the extra 2 gallons I add to the mash before sparging but not exactly sure. Any clarification here is appreciated.
   
8. Boil Volume - Is this something I should be setting manually or something that should be set for me based on other calculations? I understand that it's the volume of water at the start of the boil, but it seems that will be heavily skewed based on other steps in the process such as mashing and losses associated there.
   
9. Boil Time - Simple and straightforward. I've always done 60 minute boils. Not even sure under what circumstances I'd go more than 60 minutes at this point. I assume this is based on beer styles and recipes?
   
10. Boil Off - Again, not entirely sure how I should be calculating this myself. The video I watched mentioned a boil off of about 1 gal, (roughly 15% an hour). I'm not sure if that's a good estimate or really what all goes into determining that value. Also not entirely sure how this might be affected by things like altitude since I live in Colorado.
    
11. Cooling Shrinkage - Video says 4%. Completely left this alone for the time being as I'm unsure of what it relates to. I assume something to do with the chilling process?
    
12. Loss to Trub and Chiller - I totally understand where the loss comes from but as with most of these numbers, i'm a little unsure of how to calculate this. Default was set to 0.75 gallons so i've left it as so for now.
    
13. Top Up Water - This is a little more clear to me than the Top Up Water for Kettle, but i'm a little uncertain as to whether or not this is something I should even be doing since I'm brewing All Grain.
    
14. Batch Volume - I assume this relates to the target volume of beer you aim to have by the time you go into primary fermentation.
    
15. Fermenter Loss - Another one that I actually understand where it comes from but am a little unsure of how to accomodate for this.
    
16. Also, on a random note...I'm curious if given my process I'm actually doing Partial Mash Brewing or not? Seems like that would be helpful to know when discussing these matters with other brewers.

Thank you all in advance for any tips or information you can provide. Again, I apologize if this thread is completely out of place or filled with seemingly ignorant questions. I just wanted to make sure I completely understand everything that goes into this stuff so I'm not just reading off a set of instructions without learning anything. Also, if you have tips or suggestions relating to my process all together, those are very much welcome too!

 

[/COLOR]

No problem at all. I'd suggest watching the videos on Beersmith. It's a good program to build with, and learn, but ultimately, you will be better off running a bit by feel when you brew, IMO. Use the temps and volumes on the BS and leave the rest to just learning from doing.

 

If you're just starting out in all grain and haven't used Beersmith, you may want to do a couple batches without software first. I did my first 20+ AG beers with just hand calcs. And to be totally honest, doing the calcs by hand saves a lot of time and gives you a much better perspective on what you're doing since you don't get so bogged down in the details. All you need to know is the potential of each grain. So if you have 10 lbs of 1.036 malt, that's 360 points, divided by 5 gal is 72 points at 100%. So at 70% efficiency you get about 50 points, I.e. 1.050 OG. Water balance is similarly easy, just need to know water absorption is 0.12 qt/lb of grain. Done.

 

From the beginning I chose to record my brew recipies and do the calculations with my own excel spreadsheet. Not because I beleive its better than brewing software (the software is better, and probably a wise investment) but because I wanted to understand the relationships at an intuitive level. Each time I do a batch I learn a little more and I refine the spreadsheet. I still use tasty brew to calculate OG and FG, then compare to what my sheet calculates. Its usually very close. Like any hobby, you can make it as simple or as complex as your sensibilities require. For me its not as important to reach (for instance) a certain effeciency as it is to be consistent. I usually end up with 75-80% extract effeciency on my mash. If I suddenly did a batch that was far lower, (or higher) I'd look over my process to see what was different. The values in the software are there fdor those brewers that choose to calculate everything to the gnat's a&&. (probably because that's the mentality that chooses to write software for brewing) That may or may not be where your mind leads.

 

I found this post to be very helpful when I setup my Beersmith profile for the first time:

 

Wow! Sorry for the late reply but thank you all so much for the awesome in depth responses and advice. A few of these have prompted some follow ups as well.

7. Top Up Water for Kettle - Completely uncertain of what this is referring to. I thought it might relate to the extra 2 gallons I add to the mash before sparging but not exactly sure. Any clarification here is appreciated.

Water you need to get back to the correct volume. If you sparged, and for some reason did sparge enough to get your pre boil volume, you will need to top up. I don't know why anyone would do this unless they are getting .010 or less from their wort anyways. Leave it at zero.

I think i'm a little confused by the answer. If I did sparge enough to hit my pre-boil volume, why would I need to top up? I guess this is also something I need to pay more attention to. In the first AG brew I did, I didn't really pay attention to how much volume I got from sparging anyways. I basically waited until the end to top up when going into primary fermentation. Part of the reason is because my brew kettle is only 5 gallons but I think my preboil volume needs to be 6 to accomodate for the roughly 1 gallon loss during boiling. Does it really matter at what stage in the process you make up for this? Couldn't you just wait until the end and top off your primary fermenter to the desired batch volume?

8. Boil Volume - Is this something I should be setting manually or something that should be set for me based on other calculations? I understand that it's the volume of water at the start of the boil, but it seems that will be heavily skewed based on other steps in the process such as mashing and losses associated there.

You will lose water added initially to your grain. So for instance, you'll lose .1 gal roughly for every pound of grain. 10 lb of grain will absorb 1 gallon of water and won't give it back. There is a section in the "mash" portion of your recipe that will show that. So if you mash with 3.5 gal roughly for the initial mash for 10lb of grain, you'll only get 2.5 gallons of wort for the 1st running. If you know you boil off 1 gal an hour, and are doing a 60 min boil, then you need one more gallon of wort, to finish at your 5 or 5.5 gallons once you are done. So you will drain the tun, and sparge with whatever you need to make up the difference. So you would need 4 gallons to sparge with, to get your 6.5 pre boil, and lose 1 gallon to boiling off for 60 minutes.

It will be set based on YOU deciding how much you want to end up with at the end of the brew day. Based on a couple of things. Do you want 5 gallons in the fermenter, and lose a bit to transfer and sludge in the bottom, or do you want 5 gallons in the keg/bottle when done? In which case you'll want more than 5 in the fermenter. It's a trickle down... or up case.

Alright, so I think this is starting to make sense. I guess cause for part of the confusion is just determining where all the losses are and where the additions should be to make up for everything. I guess this is also magnified by the fact that everyone probably does things their own way. So I guess the question here is if there's any real pros or cons to when you make the additions. Does it make sense to top off during the sparge to get up to 6.5 gallons before you start boiling? Or does it make sense to just boil with what you have after the sparge and then top off before going into primary? In my case, I have to adjust for the fact that my brew kettle is only 5 gallons and i'm going to lose probably another gallon during the boil (possibly more to whole hop leaf absoprtion?). So I might be forced to top off after the boil while going into primary.

13. Top Up Water - This is a little more clear to me than the Top Up Water for Kettle, but i'm a little uncertain as to whether or not this is something I should even be doing since I'm brewing All Grain.

Not really. You should account for your volumes correctly from the start and shouldn't need to top up anything.

Again, I think I might be locked in here a bit given the fact that my boil kettle is only 5 gallons, so I can't boil all 6.5 together at once in order to get down to the 5.5 I'm shooting for. Correct me if I'm misunderstanding this.

16. Also, on a random note...I'm curious if given my process I'm actually doing Partial Mash Brewing or not? Seems like that would be helpful to know when discussing these matters with other brewers.

Not sure what you are asking. If you are using extract, and then mashing your specialty grains with some base malt, then you are partial mashing. If you are using extract and special grains, and steeping them, then it's extract brewing. If you are mashing everything, sparging, and doing full boils, then it's all grain.

Ya, I guess I interpreted it as, if I'm not mashing with all 6.5 gallons right from the bat then that's "partial mash". Just a bad reading of the terminology on my part.

Ya, I'm probably putting a little too much thought into it at this point but details drive me crazy and I figure that understanding exactly what each of the calculations does will help me in the future. I do appreciate the efficiency calculations though, that's another thing I've been pretty ignorant about and wanted to read up on.

Definitely appreciate the advice! Going to start taking lots of notes from now on so that I can gauge how the process works for me. One thing I need to do for sure though, is get a good idea of where certain measurements end up in my equipment cause thus far I haven't been tracking it.

Sweet! Thanks so much for the link, checking it out now.

 

Check out the videos for sure. They will help. The biggest part, is getting your equipment and your process down in the program. Once you have it dialed in, and can reproduce it over and over close enough, will it be able to tailor and change ANY recipe from one you took from someone to one you made off the top of your head to YOUR process and YOUR equipment.

 

One thing to remember, that for me cut through a lot of the clutter; Once you have finished mashing and sparging, and your grains are disposed of, you are not going to gain or loose any sugars. The SG variances from there forward are a result of gaining or loosing water. Boil off water and the SG goes up. Add tap water and the SG goes down. Thats why there are so many variables related to water throughout the process. If your SG into the kettle is too high, you add more water. If its too low, you can boil for 30 minutes or so to boil, off water and raise the SG. Next batch, decide during your planning whether your intent is to hit a SG or a volume and concentrate on that.

When I started AG i decided that the SG was most important. I did a make up calculation at the start of the boil and added DME as required to hit the proper SG after the boil.

 

Good advice. It's really about volume when you do AG in most all cases. You have to know how long you plan to boil and how much you will lose to start with enough. It's not the end of the world if you have to top up, but it's not something you want to keep doing.

 

Good point about volume being so important. I found that my volumes were always nice and consistent UNTIL I started using Beersmith. There are just so many variables that i kept screwing up my pre- and post-boil volumes. It's hard to have any perspective when you're there in the weeds.

Yes I still use Beersmith, but everything related to water volumes I do by hand.

 

So I should take a gravity reading preboil to get an idea of what my SG (Starting Gravity?) is and whether it's too low or too high? Too low, add some DME, too high add some water? I thought there wasn't really any problem with having a high gravity before you pitch since that just meant there was enough sugar for the yeast to chew through in primary. Of course, this all brings up the fact that I'm going to need to figure out exactly how I should be finding or calculating what my SG SHOULD be before I start boiling...which I have no real clue how to do just yet.

 

Yes, you should get a pre boil gravity ALL the time. Easiest way is a refractometer with ATC. 2 drops of wort from the kettle and you've got your gravity, so you can keep boiling and heating it away.

If you have a low OG, and have enough volume, you can boil longer, before you add your hops and get the gravity to come up without having to add DME. Thats is, if you have too MUCH wort in the kettle before you boil, and know you won't boil it off. In some cases, you'll have a longer boil, or need a longer boil, and will intentionally sparge more to get more wort from the grain, especially in higher gravity batches.

If you don't have a refractometer, then grab a sample from the kettle after you are done sparging. Mix the kettle up, grab a sample and cool it off in some ice. Get it to 60, or whatever you hydrometer is calibrated to. Then continue getting the boil going.

It's important to get a pre boil though, period.

 

And this, good sir, is exactly why I so strongly advocate hand calculations. It's basically the same calc I described above.

If you have a 7 gal boil at 1.030, then you have 7x30= 210 points. Say 5.5 gal will be your final volume. Then 210/5.5= 38; i.e. your OG will be 1.038. Easy.

Brewsmith can do this calc under the "Boil Off" tool. You can input various boil off rates and a cooling loss %, but again, you're gettin' into the weeds.

 

Meh. It's only important if there's a reasonable chance you'll really miss your OG. I've rarely had much of an issue, so I don't bother with pre-boil gravity. A good idea, though, for those new to all-grain.

 

Haha, guys...I seriously can't thank you enough for all of your help thus far. Every new post brings new questions so I apologize in advance if my limited knowledge is becoming grating but all of your input is TRULY helpful! So basically, SG is a PreBoil Gravity reading, OG is a Post Boil/Pre Yeast Gravity and FG is final after fermentation? I'll have to look into a refractometer I guess, since I've literally never heard the word before (in all honesty you guys could probably troll me pretty hard at this point by making up fake instruments lol). I did take the day to go ahead and start measuring off some of my equipment so I have a good idea approx. where I'm at in terms of yield at every step along the way. My next step is to try and come up with some brewing plans in terms of how much water I want to have at each step in the process and sort of go from there. I'm guessing that in the absolute best case scenario, I'm going to have to top off with almost 2 gallons of water (given my 5 gallon boil pot, a maximum 4 gallons in the boil and a loss of a gallon over 1 hour) which obviously isn't ideal...guess it's time to grab one of the 8 gallon pots.

 

I use some of these equations manually and plug in some of the numbers on brewcalcs.com to get other results. Like someone else commented, it's good to do the basics now and then. Not only keeps you understanding the process and identify problem areas but you can check your software for accuracy as they are not all the same.


Volume V=πr^2h
Gravity GU=(SG-1)x1000
OG Amount of Grain(Efficiency)water
SG (W*EP*Eff)/V
Total Gravity (OG) total gallons= TG rGU
rGU (Grain Weight lbs.)Extract Potential(GU/lb)x %eff
Efficiency Total Gravity/total potential
MCU (SRM_rating x lbs)/gallons
MoreyColor 1.49(weight SRM Rating)/Gallons)^0.69=SRM
Daniels SRM Method (.26 x MCU)+8=SRM
IBU (Wgrams*U%*A%+1000)/(Vliters+Cgravity)
IBU (Wgrams*U%*A%+7489)/(Vgal+Cgravity)
Cgravity 1+{(Gboil-1.050)/2}

 

If they don't know their efficiency then it helps. It also helps to spot check, and if you have a refractometer then it's literally seconds. I see no reason to skip it unless you've brewed many of batches on your system and doing a recipe you've done before and expect the same outcome.

Past that, sure you could skip it. I like to check though.

Post boil is important obviously.

 

brewing a 5 gal batch with just one 5 gal pot really doesn't work, as I think you're figuring out. If you're going through all the hassle of all grain, it doesn't make sense to be topping up with 2 gal(40%) water. Sadly, an 8 gal pot would barely cut it ... Hello boil overs. Go with 9 or 10 gal, or if funds are tight, just pick up another 4 or 5 gal pot and use 2 pots on the stove. Nothing wrong with that.

 

I like to chech preboil SG but I use it primarailly because using the refractometer makes me look WAAY scientific. If you do get one, be sure you get one that's temp corrected and dual scale. Most read in brix, a few (dual scale) have a scale alongside that also directly in SG. Eliminates one more potential conversion error. Be sure you actually look in the sight before you buy. I saw some at my LHBW that said dual scale on the box but weren't.

 

About to brew my second all grain batch today. Wanted to say thanks for all of the suggestions, information and support thus far. I'm taking a copious amount of notes as well and plan to share them with all of you after everything is said and done in hopes of getting additional feedback on my process or exposing any big holes in my brewing steps.

I'm taking your advice this morning and actually doing some hand calculations as well in order to figure out how things match up against my BeerSmith notes and instructions. I'm using the following malts...

Pale 2 Row - 10lbs @ 1.036 = 360 pts
Victory Malt - 1lbs @ 1.034 = 34 pts
Honey Malt - 1lbs @ 1.037 = 37 pts
Munich Malt - 1lbs @ 1.035 = 35 pts
Total Points = 466
Divided By Planned Batch Size of 5 Gallons = 93.2 @ 100% efficiency
@ planned efficiency of 72% = 67.104 or 1.067 OG

This seems to match up almost identically with what I have in BeerSmith so I guess I'm on the right track. My only questions here right now are if you're supposed to divide the total points based on your planned final batch size or if it should be based on the amount of water being used to mash, sparge, etc. Also, this sort of begs the question from me of why exactly we should be shooting for efficiency of 70% versus 80, 90, or even 100 (I just assume 100% is impossible given all the factors but i'm still curious).

Anyways, hope to keep you all posted throughout the day today.

 

I figure mine with the target batch volume being 5.5 gal for example for a 5 gallon batch. I have the extra in there for what I cant get out of the boil or the fermenter due to dead space. Usually I will be right at 5 gallons bottled.

Start out shooting for 70% as this is common for many home brewers and you can adjust based on actual efficiency later. Commercial brewers are typically in the mid 90's. You could do this with this batch by doing the following.
67.104x100/72=93.2 or 1.093 is 100% target SG for this batch. Take the OG you achieve and divide by this number for instance.
1.073 or 73/93=78.4% for efficiency. Then you can then adjust your volume on the fly until you basically have it watered down enough for the target OG (this is where a refractometer comes in handy) If you come in low there really isn't much you can do but to increase your grain bill to your actually achieved efficiency next time. If OG is higher you can simply reduce your grain bill size next time or keep having larger batch sizes. So we start at 70 because it is better to come in high than low because of the ability to adjust on the fly.

 

Your calcs are spot on! Easy, eh? As to your questions: if you divide by the final volume bottled/kegged, then you have Brewhouse efficiency. Alternatively, you can divide by the amount going into the fermenter, which can include trub & hop junk. But then you have Efficiency Into The Fermenter, which can be several % higher. Unfortunately, there's no real standard, and you often don't know which of those measures people are citing as their efficiency. So just be consistent. Personally, I only consider the amount that ends up in my keg, so I divide by 5.0 and correct later if I'm off.

Efficiency isn't a goal, but rather a result of your processes. The real goal is to be consistent. If you get 70% (that's my typical), you could sparge more (for example) to get near 80% but you'd waste time sparging then have a huge boil volume, requiring extra boil time. And a quest for higher efficiency can hurt quality in a few ways. Better to just be consistent.

 

Alright, so I finished my second All Grain brew yesterday and I made sure to take as many notes and readings as possible during the process. Here's a quick breakdown of what I did. A lot of this raised several extra questions for me, which I've added to the end.

11/3/12

• -Began Yeast Starter.
• -Poured 800ml Tap Water into Pot.
• -Added 1 Cup Briess Pilsen Light Dry Malt.
• -Brought to boil on stove. (Did not check temp, just brought to boiling bubbles)
• -Post Boil Volume – 600ml (due mostly in part to an accidental boil over)
• -Pitched 1 vial White Labs California V Ale Yeast (WLP051) at 9:36 PM @ temp of 69 degrees

11/4/12

• -Began heating 4 Gallons Eldorado Natural Spring Water in Mashtun. (Keeping Lid On)
• -Added all 13 lbs of grain once water temp was between 150-170
• -Held Mashtun temp between 150-170 for roughly an hour. (this was my first time using the burner. Had some issues maintaining a constant temp. Looking for suggestions here). Also in this time frame I started a boil of additional 2 gallons of water for sparging.
• -Ended up going over 1 hour by a bit. Thought I needed to cool down Sparging Water. Is there a specific temp that Sparge Water needs to be at before adding to mash?
• -Added 2 gallons of Sparge Water ( ½ Eldorado, ½ tap ) that was boiled up to 190 and then cooled down to 163 before being added to Mashtun for initial sparging. (kept lid on Mashtun during sparging)
• -Poured Sparge Water through 3 total times (only tipped out on the final sparge)
• -Ended up with well over 4 gallons of wort after sparging. Approx 4.75
• -Took Post Sparge/Pre Boil Gravity Reading of 1.060 with wort @ about 111 degrees
• -Started Wort Boil
• -Boiled Wort at temps 190-200 degrees. Not sure if this is too hot or perfectly fine for the boil.
• -After 60 Minute Boil with both pellet and whole leaf hop additions, removed from heat and put in Wort chiller
• -Took about 20 minutes to get wort temp below 80 degrees. This seemed like a long time. Was it too long to achieve proper cold break?
• -Gravity reading pre yeast pitching, 1.075> (this was hard to read as there were a lot of bubbles/foam in the wine thief but it clearly appeared to be 1.075 or greater. Temp of Gravity reading was 73 degrees.
• -Volume after boil and was well under 4 gallons, approx. 3.25-3.5 gallons. This seems like quite a bit of loss given the average of a gallon per hour of boiling estimate. Something else going on here? Too much loss to whole leaf hops?
• -Topped off with cold tap water up to approx. 5.25 gallons.
• -Gravity reading after topping off was 1.06 @ 73 degrees.
• -Pitched yeast from starter.

So that was the process in a nutshell. Again, that did seem to raise some questions along the way that I'd love to get confirmation on if anyone is willing to answer them (this thread has gotten pretty crazy and out of hand so if it would be better to just start something new, please let me know.)

I guess the first question is related to the actual recipe itself. I went with 13 lbs of grain since that was about the same size of the grain bill I used for my previous recipe (all be it they're completely different beer styles). This is the first recipe I've made for myself but I'm just curious as to what should dictate how much grain I should be using? Is it an ABV thing? Flavor?

Are there any temperature rules I should be following during the mash? My friends who have done All Grain for awhile now have just said to maintain a temp between 150-170. I've read a lot about different processes of mashing and "stepping" temperatures. Not sure if these should be followed and if so what their benefits are. In all honesty, I'm sure there's a lot more I have to learn about the mash process itself.

The Yeast Starter I used was setup about 24 hours in advance of actually being pitched into the batch. I boiled 1 cup of DME in about 800 ml of tap water (a recipe I got from YouTube). Not sure if this is a proper ratio or not. I'm a bit concerned right now as it's been about 12 hours but the brew is showing no visible signs of fermenting at all. I know it can take 24-72 hours before it will but I've also read that anything over 12 hours can be signs of a bad beer or infections. I was brewing outside. I tried to keep the lid on as much as possible (did NOT keep it on during the boil) and I'm unaware of any debris that actually made it's way into the wort, but something definitely seems a bit wrong. Not sure if the addition of cold tap water to the wort in the carboy may have affected it as well. The temperature reading I took showed the wort was still at about 73 degrees even after cop tap water addition. Did I screw something up with my Yeast? Should I rush to repitch now or wait and repitch later? My SG after adding the tap water still seemed about right for where I needed to be pre-pitching.

Speaking of temperature...do you guys have a suggestion for a decent thermometer that works well? I've been using a digital meat thermometer since it has a long string that I can drop into the wort, but I seem to get wildly different readings when I'm brewing. They also don't seem to line up very well with the thermometer that's on my actual mashtun, which is sometimes cause for confusion.

As I noted in the steps above, I seem to suffer a pretty dramatic loss during the actual wort boil. I went from approx 4.75 gallons to well under 4 gallons. I believe the original estimate I was working with was about 1 gallon per hour of boil. Perhaps this number is off? Is this affected by the high temp that I'm boiling at (190-200+)? My main question was how much of this might be attributed to the use of whole leaf hops, and how much is just the boil itself. The recipe I was making had about 5 ounces of whole leaf hop additions in the boil.

When straining wort into the carboy and using whole leaf hops, is it better to wait awhile and let the hops properly draing into the carboy? I wasn't very patient here. I didn't squeeze or smash them out into the carboy, but I also didn't wait a extremely long amount of time for them to drain. Pretty much just until they seemed to be barely dripping into the carboy.

Thanks again for your help and feedback.

 

Your grain bill is driven by the style of beer you are making and the batch size.

Mash temps are critical, a couple degrees aeith way can change the wort and therefore the beer. Lower mash temps favor high fermentables, higher mash temps (above ~ 154) favor the production of longer chain, non-fermentable sugars (the beer's mouthfeel and body builders). Some styles favor drier beer (low mash temps, high attenuation) and some favor more body, higher finishing gravity (higher mash temps, lower attenuating yeast).

I think your starter is fine, the easy ratio is 10:1 when using metric, so 100g DME to 1L water (which equals roughly 1000g). My preference is to get the wort down to about 65-66, then hold the fermentation at about 68 once the yeast are doing their thing. Avoid pitching warm if possible.

My boil off is about 1 gallon per hour; boil kettle geometry, humidity, air temp, etc. all effect it. Whole leaf hops absorb a lot more liquid than pellets so you will lose more in the transfer to the fermentor.

 

http://www.howtobrew.com/

Seriously read this about 5 times. I still look back to it when i forget something.