Anyone topping off their AG batches

[RandalG]

I finally found the brewsheet in Beersmith on my last batch and noticed it says to top off your kettle and your fermenter to hit your batch size. I just wondered if many people do this as it seems it would be better just to use a calculator to determine your sparge water amount for your brew kettle. And I can see where if you boil your wort too long or with too much flame you may need to top off to get 5 gallons due to evaporation but it seems like you should be able to control that with practice as well.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Never topped off. I get really close using Beersmith's calculations (usually within a qt or so), but if I'm over/under I don't really care.

 

[AnonyBrew]

I top off because after boiling in my 15g kettle I don't quite end up with 10g. I'll get between 8.5g & 9.5g depending on length of boil. So I plan for a thicker 9g of wort & top off to dilute to the target gravity.

I could just accept 8.5g of final volume, but that's not acceptable to me.

 

[HVBrewtality]

Slight tangent:

I was listening to The Brewing Network - Sunday Session yesterday and they mentioned that it is possible that if you sparge until you are getting completely clear (i.e. water-looking) runnings it can be bad. basically, if you are low on your pre-boil volume, it is better to top off with water than to use clear runnings, as there can be a lot of tannins in the clear wort.

So, it is possible that Beersmith is advising you to use however much it calculated for you for sparge water, and if you are still low, to top off, rather than sparge extra and collect tannin-rich water.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

My brewhouse efficiency is in the 75% range and I batch sparge. No problems with tannins and my volumes are spot on. I do have to start the boil with a very full keg (13+ gals) to end up with 11 gals post-boil, but I've managed to avoid boilovers lately.

 

[Synovia]

it is better to top off with water than to use clear runnings, as there can be a lot of tannins in the clear wort.

I thought tannins were brown? Isn't it tannins that make the amazon river the color it is? (Ie, blackwater)

Tannins are extracted when PH gets over a certain point. You can run the wort down to really dilute and as long as your PH stays low, and your temp stays in the right range, you shouldn't get tannins.

 

[Revvy]

I have topped off a couple batches if I have miscalculated my boiloff (especially if I am doing a 90 minute boil to blow off dms, I end up short). And the amazing thing is that when I use the dillution tool on brewsmith, taking a hydro reading, and the total volume of the wort I have, and using the calculator for the half or 3/4 gallon I have needed, I end up with the exact OG I am supposed to have.

Pretty cool.

 

[HVBrewtality]

I thought tannins were brown? Isn't it tannins that make the amazon river the color it is? (Ie, blackwater)

Tannins are extracted when PH gets over a certain point. You can run the wort down to really dilute and as long as your PH stays low, and your temp stays in the right range, you shouldn't get tannins.

I couldn't say. I honestly don't know. I am just passing on what was discussed by my betters (Jamil, John Palmer, etc) on their podcast

 

[Buffman]

I almost always top off, usually a quart or so. I figure its easier to add back water that has boiled off than to take it out if I underestimated the boiloff rate. I can't see how it would matter to the OG of the wort. I use pre-boiled and chilled water to help get the temperature down before pitching.

 

[Revvy]

I almost always top off, usually a quart or so. I figure its easier to add back water that has boiled off than to take it out if I underestimated the boiloff rate. I can't see how it would matter to the OG of the wort. I use pre-boiled and chilled water to help get the temperature down before pitching.

If you have boiled off too much, usually your og will usually be higher than it was calculated to be...so topping off to the correct amount will dillute the wort and bring the gravity down.

For example you were aiming for an og of 1.043 for a 5 gallon batch but you have boiled off 3/4 of a gallon, and when you take a reading you end up with 1.050.

So according to the dillution tool in beersmith adding 3/4 of a gallon of water, and bringing the final volume back up to 5.00 gallons, gets you back to the og of 1.043.

 

[Rottnme]

This might be slightly off topic but what are you folks using for a boil off rate? Could adjusting that number help here? I typically just use the standard out of Beersmith which I believe is 9%.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

1.5 gals is a good starting point. Divide that by your pre-boil volume to estimate the boil off in % (should be given in gal/hr instead, but the s/w won't let you do that).

 

[Homercidal]

AFAIK, tannins can be brown if they are leached from a source that is brown, like the rivers in the UP, leaching tannins from teh oak forests and whatnot, but the tannin is not technically brown itself. It's just commonly found in brown sources.

 

[Malticulous]

I toped off my last batch by 17% to get my efficiency down to 75%. I'm trying to see if I can taste the difference form 75% and 90%. I entered a comp to see if judges could pick up any noticeable astringency from my high efficiency brewing and won three ribbons. Lower efficiency may be slightly better (I think it is anyway) but done right 85%+ efficiency is not going to make bad beer.

 

[RandalG]

I have topped off a couple batches if I have miscalculated my boiloff (especially if I am doing a 90 minute boil to blow off dms, I end up short). And the amazing thing is that when I use the dillution tool on brewsmith, taking a hydro reading, and the total volume of the wort I have, and using the calculator for the half or 3/4 gallon I have needed, I end up with the exact OG I am supposed to have.

Pretty cool.

Thanks.Another lesson learned. I wish I would have known about this the batch before last. Through a comedy of errors I ended with 4.5 gallons of 1.095 wort that pretty much ended up a wheatwine. After a month and a half it's pretty much undrinkable. I'll probably end up dumping most of it but might just keep a few bottles around for 6 months to a year just to see what happens.Live and learn as they say.

 

[Malticulous]

Dilution (SG) = (Current SG*volume)/new volume. Simple algebra works for boil down too.

 

[HotbreakHotel]

Tannins won't look brown unless there's a large volume of water. And when they say clear runnings they mean relatively clear.

If I'm brewing a stout, the first runnings and the first and second sparges will be dark enough, but if I need more water and put it through a third time the runnings will be relatively very light colored, but still darkish from the dark grain.

Between the first and third runnings the ph will increase maybe from 5.3 to 5.7, still well within range, but if I keep going because I need more water the ph of the next runnings will be way over 6, which is in the range for extracting tannins. So it's not worth it. If I need more water after the second sparge I top off.