boiled off to much on first all-grain?

[PUD]

so i finally got around to my first all-grain yesterday. i think i got about 6.5-7 gallons off my mash and batch sparge. it was a 90min boil and by the end it was about 3 gallons of beer.

my 10 gallon megapot was about 3-4 inches from the top when i started my boil. what went wrong? was it the 90min boil?

 

[Brew-boy]

No I think you made a mis calculation some where. I dont see how you could boil off 4 gallons of beer. I boil many times at 90 with pilsner malt and I sparge to 8 gallons to get 6 after the boil. Do you have a calibrated stick to measure sparge volume?

 

[PUD]

no i don't. that would make a hell of a lot of sense though. are you talking about a stick to measure gallons in my kettle?

 

[knarfks]

I had the same problem a couple months ago as well. If the boil is too vigorous and it is cold outside evaporation will happen very quickly. 6.5gallons to 3.5 for me as well

 

[MA_Brewer]

I've never boiled off quite that much either - even on very cold and dry days - but I guess it might be possible. I do notice that I will boil off much more in the winter than on the hot and damp summer days. If I see the wort level dropping in the kettle faster than I think it should, I'll just turn down the gas a bit and boild "slower".

 

[Kayos]

no i don't. that would make a hell of a lot of sense though. are you talking about a stick to measure gallons in my kettle?

Just use a wooden dowel with notches cut out every gallon. Gives you a good ballpark figure.

 

[Bobby_M]

Many things will factor in... cold temps, low humidity, and wind will all increase boiloff. Then there's vigor of the boil, how large of a diameter pot you have (more surface area). There's also the fact that boiling hot wort takes up more space than room temp wort so you do lose some volume to contraction after chilling. There's also trub/hop absorbtion.

 

[WBC]

You can always add top up water if needed the last 15 minutes before flameout so it will sanitize. If you have extra runoff from the sparge, that can be added in place of the water.

 

[jds]

so i finally got around to my first all-grain yesterday. i think i got about 6.5-7 gallons off my mash and batch sparge. it was a 90min boil and by the end it was about 3 gallons of beer.

my 10 gallon megapot was about 3-4 inches from the top when i started my boil. what went wrong? was it the 90min boil?

Altitude. At the altitude in Cortez (I grew up in Mancos, myself), you can easily boil off a BUNCH of water from your kettle. So, yeah, it was probably the 90 minute boil, combined with the altitude and dry climate.

 

[PUD]

how would you counter the altitude?

 

[jds]

how would you counter the altitude?

Brew in McElmo Canyon.

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do. A tall, narrow kettle will boil off less than a short, wide one. Partially covering may help, but could interfere with DMS boil-off.

Are you using brewing software, like Beersmith or Beer tools Pro? If so, you can adjust your boil-off rates based on what you're getting in a normal batch. Beersmith defaults to 9%/hr for 5 gallon batches, but my rate at 5600' in the Denver 'burbs is more like 20%/hr. I'd expect Cortez to be higher.

Even if you're not using software to track it, you should have an idea now of how much extra volume you'll need to add to maintain your volume and target gravity. For 5.5 gallon batches, I'm collecting 7-8 gallons of wort from the mash.

It will probably take a few batches to get a handle on your efficiency, boil-off-rates, and methods for hitting your target gravity. Software will help track this stuff, but you can certainly do the calculations by hand, too.

 

[PUD]

i've got beertools pro but havn't made the time to figure everything out with the software.

i've been in cortez for about 5 yrs now. small town living man! mcelmo canyon is like a death trap. nice to hear from someone from this area(originaly). cheers!