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I use this same size ss pot. 20-25% seems about right for me, looking back. No where around where I had planned though. Thanks for your observation. captaineriv

wow, 10 degrees sounds like a lot. I suppose it would help to maybe do a little experiment with this before the real deal next time. captaineriv

Just noticed this from earlier. What should I heat my initial sparge water up to so I can correct for losing a few degrees? captaineriv

Haha. I meant the little hand trowels for planting small plants. Thanks for the sparge info. So far, I've done it by regulating the flow on both vessels so that the water level in the mash tun stays at a constant 1 inch above the grainbed. I'll definitely try your suggestion next time...

That information helps A LOT. Thanks a lot. Two questions though. I use a sparge arm that is propelled only by the water passing through it. I have the water coming from my sparge tank just fast enough to even spin the arm and no faster. How would you suggest slowing things down using that...

Sorry to change the topic, by the way, but you all answered my first questions. Thank you all for that. captaineriv

I'll plan more for evaporation losses next time. I would have added water but my OG was just barely where I wanted it, so I held off. Promash tells me my efficiency is somewhere between 65 and 70% and has been this for both of my AG batches. Everything seemed good with my mash and sparge...

If that's the case for me, maybe I lost less water than I thought to hops and more to evaporation. For the quantity of hops I used (1 oz. Pellets and 2 oz. leaf), is it unrealistic to think that I'd lose much more than half a gallon, or might it be closer to a gallon. If I can seperate what I...

I have 2 questions for everyone. 1. Does anyone has any info or know where I can find a table that shows how much wort is absorbed by whole leaf hops. When I use hop pellets (all I've done in the past), I plan my mash/sparge water amounts so that I end up with 5.5 gal. of wort in the kettle...

Good to know. I felt silly asking because I've always had my timing down to an art. Shouldn't have had those beers when I decided it was time to activate the yeast tonight. :drunk: captaineriv

Normally, I break the Wyeast smack packs (125 ml size), let them swell for 6 hours, make a starter, and pitch the starter after about 12 hours. I've had good results pitching while the starter is at peak and would like to keep doing it this way. Tonight, during an absent-minded move, I smacked...

That's correct. It is the 1338 that they call for. However, I was initially considering culturing the yeast from the Rochefort bottle until the link I provided in the previous post stated that Rochefort is the likely source for Wyeast 1762. If that is indeed accurate, I was wondering if it...

I hope nobody minds my consecutive replies to myself so I'll try to make this the last, but I found something at: http://smurman.best.vwh.net/zymurgy/wyeast.html that says the source for Wyeast 1762 -- Abbey Ale II is Rochefort whereas the source for the yeast my recipe (from Szamatulski's "Beer...

From http://www.classiccitybrew.com/rochefort.html : "Rochefort contains a complex blend of two yeast strains -- both in the primary fermenter and in the bottles." If I'm interpreting this right, I'm taking that by using the words "blend," and "both in the primary fermenter and in the...

Upon further investigation, it turns out that Rochefort does indeed use two different strains of yeast, but I could not find out what the primary strain was or when each strain is used. Since I am not familiar with the concept of multiple strains, would it be most likely that one "primary"...

Unfortunately, you're right about Rochefort, but overall a very helpful link. If I cannot find much out, I suppose I could make the starter using some of the hops thought to occur in the beer and then compare it as best I can to the real thing. Might be a little hard to do w/o the specialty...

Just a correction, the recipe calls for Wyeast 1388 (Belgian Strong Ale) yeast. captaineriv

I have a recipe for this brew that recommends using Wyeast's Strong Ale yeast, but recently, after drinking a bottle, I noticed what appeared to be yeast collecting on the bottom a few days later. Does anyone know anything about the yeast in this brew? I know many of the Trappist-type ales use...

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is 3/8. The tubing sold as "blowoff tubing" I was looking at online was 1 inch diameter, but it makes sense that a blowoff with a 3/8 inch hose would probably be a little more substantial than just a 3-piece, at least during peak fermentation. Thanks for the idea...

I would assume that I would just use as much water as I can in the sparge to be left with about 2.75 gallons of wort after a 2 hour boil (assuming a 2.5 gallon batch). Even though this is high gravity, it is a very small batch. With that, would the fermentation still be so violent that a...