All grain volume question

[mikeljcarr]

I did my first all grain brew yesterday. For the first time I thought it would be best to try one of the Northern Brew, brew in a bag kits. I started with the 5.5 gals that the directions said I should. After I mashed it said I would have about 4 gals of wort but I had around 4.75 gals. After the end of the boil I should have had 3 gals but I ended up with slightly less than 4 gals. OG was supposed to be 1.066 and I had about 1.068 (conversion from brix reading of 16.7). Any ideas about what I did wrong and what impact this might have on the beer?

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Looks ok to me. It seems you just got better efficiency than whoever wrote the original recipe. Otherwise you would of had a lower OG with the larger volume. Don't worry nothing wrong you just made more beer than they did. Now the hard part. Waiting.... Start planning/brewing your next batch. Once your pipeline is full the wait isn't as noticeable.

 

[norsk]

Different crushes and different grains used on different systems absorb varying amounts of water. Since your amount of wort pre and post boil were both high perhaps your system/pot/kettle loses less water through boil off than others. That you still ended up with a 1.068 with about 4 gallons is a good thing. A .002 give or take is WNL of variances... and not a big deal. Kits are rarely spot on, fortunately yours erred on the plus side. Sounds like you did a good job. Should be a good tasting beer...

 

[BigFloyd]

Like you, I did my first AG batch yesterday (with a mash/lauter tun).

I fretted about efficiency, but my local AG mentor said that if I end up with the volume of wort that I was supposed to have at the target OG, life is good. I did (actually a little higher) and I'm happy. Looking forward to doing it again.

Congrats.