Boiled off a little too much

[reibrew]

Hey everyone,

I did my second AG biab just now. I was shooting for a 3 gallon batch as I did 5.5 my first time and mashed WAY too hot and it's fairly undrinkable right now after a couple months in the bottle.

Anyways I measured out 15L (4 gallons), mashing went great, got a 60 minute rolling boil going but I noticed that I was boiling off pretty fast 30 minutes into the boil and turned it down to a more gentle boil and there seemed to be less steam coming off the top.

I cooled and poured the whole thing into the fermenter, even the sludge at the bottom, and I saw I just barely had 10L (2.6 gallons). I sterilized a glass and threw in an extra liter of filtered water to get me up to 11L (2.9 gallons)

Question:

Next time should I go for a more gentle boil? Do I gain a lot with a more vigorous boil?

Or should I start with ~16L if I want to end up with a final volume of about 3 gallons.

I just took a reading.. 5 pounds of maris otter, 1.052 or about 80% efficiency. Squeezed the crap out of that bag. I'm hoping adding the water at the end doesn't make my beer taste weird

 

[Yooper]

Question:

Next time should I go for a more gentle boil? Do I gain a lot with a more vigorous boil?

Or should I start with ~16L if I want to end up with a final volume of about 3 gallons.

No. Just start with more liquid. I boil off almost 2 gallons per hour in my system, but 1-1.5 gallons per hour is common. I start with 7 gallons to have 5 gallons go into the fermenter. If you want to end up with 3 gallons, you may have to start with 4.5 gallons. Once you know how much you boil off each time, that will tell you where to start.

You definitely want a nice vigorous rolling boil. It doesn't have to rock the pot- but it has to be a rolling boil. There are many benefits to that, including greater clarity, hops utilization, a more stable beer, etc.

 

[reibrew]

Thanks Yooper! I was just reading a recipe of yours!

Next time I'll add more water and go for a rolling boil the whole way.

Just gave it a taste.. and it's totally different and more palatable than my last batch, which was the same but I mashed way too hot (in the 160's - doh). Can't wait to see how this one turns out!!!!

 

[jcam91]

but I mashed way too hot (in the 160's - doh).

Glad I'm not the only one who's done this

 

[reibrew]

^ Sadly I did a 5 gallon batch, it's pretty well ruined. 2 months in the bottle and it's still sickeningly sweet and just gross.

This one looks much better