Brew Day Pics! And a Problem...need some help

[meatwad]

Hey-o!

So I brewed a California Common, such a great house beer. Some pics below.
Beautiful day here in the Central Valley, high 50s and sunny. But I have a repeating problem, and I need a little help.

PROBLEM: I'm probably 5 batches into all grain. My preboil volume is always targeted around 6.5 Gallons, so that's what I try to hit. I'm a Double batch sparge guy.

My post-boil volume is always SUPER low! I lose probably a Gallon to break/trub material that I don't want goin into the fermenter, but maybe I DO want to just pour it in.

My prediction: preboil volume of 6.5 gallons. lose 1.5 gallons to evap. Lose another gallon to break/trub/hop loss.

That leaves me at 4 gallons. Which is pretty much where I ended up today, just over 4 gallons. The good news is I hit my OG, so I'm kinda okay with it. But dammit, once the yeast cake settles and trub settles, I'm sure I'll end up with less than 4 gallons of beer. That's a lotta work for less than 4 gallons of beer.

Any pro tips you guys could point out!

On to some pics...cheers fellas. Best site in the world right here!


Mash-tastic - yah, I mash with a yard stick

Vorlauf'in like a mofo

New kettle goin to work

Threw in some beautiful pink peppercorns at the end of the boil

Wort boils at 212 degrees

Adios!

Meatwad

 

[Dynachrome]

I think you're dead on.

You just need to make bigger batches.

I loose more to grain absorption than boiling. ...and I loose a bit to trub also.

 

[meatwad]

Cool, thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. The problem this time around (if you can call it that), is that I hit my OG. If I started a gallon higher, I'm not sure I woulda hit it...but maybe I'm not thinking thru it properly.

Anyway, thanks again!

Meatwad

 

[bottlebomber]

Boil off is hard to calculate for when following recipes... I had the same problem as you are initially, I was losing way more to boiling than I had calculated. Just use more sparge water. If you are double batch sparging use the extra water in the second sparge provided you aren't getting below the 1.010 mark. This will raise your efficiency, and make up for the dilution you arre worrying about. And dump that trub into the fermenter. It is spongy at first so it is hanging on to a ton of beer, but it will compact as your beer ferments and won't be a problem when you rack the beer out.

 

[scoundrel]

Please go spend $27 on Beersmith. It will really remove the headaches. I was feeling your pain. I spent the time to enter my equipment, chill loss, etc. and my pre boil turned out to be 7.01. Haven't missed my post boil gravity yet. Good luck buddy! BTW, nice pics!

 

[Polboy]

1gal lost to trub/hops ect seems like a lot to me, i woould invest in false bottom or bazooka and get more of clean wort to your fermenter, or just increase amount of water and grain, at the end by leaving 1gal in BK you driving down your efficiency that you have to compensate somewhere else

 

[stevedasleeve]

More volume for your boil and compensate your recipe for the increase. It took me around 30 or so batches to get my volumes perfect - and they vary depending on hops etc. For me 7.5-8 gallon boils put me in the 5 gallons in my keg range generally depending on how much hops I use and how long my boils are of course.

 

[scoundrel]

I don't know. I'm not a big fan of trail and error on brew day. Just my opinion, but I don't think you should spend money on extra equipment when you can spend a minimal amount of money on software that will allow you to cater it to your setup.

 

[Piratwolf]

I don't know. I'm not a big fan of trail and error on brew day. Just my opinion, but I don't think you should spend money on extra equipment when you can spend a minimal amount of money on software that will allow you to cater it to your setup.

+1 on this. Download iBrewMaster for free. I lose almost a gallon to trub but some tinkering let me set up my ingredients and water additions so now I can hit my numbers during the brew and still end up with the desired yield!

 

[meatwad]

Some great stuff in here, thanks for all the rec's! Looking forward to dialing this thing in.

Software: I have BeerTools Pro, but it's difficult for me to get exactly what I want from it, it seems to make a lot of assumptions. I'll check out the others as well.

Thanks!
Meatwad

 

[ElevenBrewCo]

I had your exact problem comming up short. I use beer smith and before i set it up to 5 gallons and would lose more to boil off and trub usually ending up with less than 5 gallons post boil.....so i then set it up for 5.5 gallon batches and it adjusted the water perfect for me. So i usually end up with 7 gallons preboil. Good luck!

 

[Polboy]

+1 on this. Download iBrewMaster for free. I lose almost a gallon to trub but some tinkering let me set up my ingredients and water additions so now I can hit my numbers during the brew and still end up with the desired yield!

I didnt know iBrewMaster is free, last time i checked it was $9/13

 

[LandoLincoln]

Get a sight glass for your keggle (or calibrate your yard stick) so you can see how much water you're losing to evaporation. I lose about 1 gal per hour boiling in my keggle. How long do you boil? 60 minutes?

 

[KurtB]

I didnt know iBrewMaster is free, last time i checked it was $9/13

...and did I miss somewhere where meatwad even said he uses an iPhone?

I would probably go with the free trial of BeerSmith. Try it for a month, fine tune the settings to your process (and what actually happens), and then spend the $27 on the full version.

 

[1MadScientist]

Nothing wrong with Beer Tools Pro. BobbyFromNJ (Bobby_M) has some good vids on youtube with helped me alot. Also figuring out evaporation rate and grain absorption is another key, knowing your volumes and gravity readings is another, and using the analysis tab.

 

[Piratwolf]

I didnt know iBrewMaster is free, last time i checked it was $9/13

My bad. You're right. I paid $9.99 to download it.

As for whether he has an iPhone.. I don't. Just making a suggestion.

 

[Stankonia]

Cool, thanks for the encouragement, I appreciate it. The problem this time around (if you can call it that), is that I hit my OG. If I started a gallon higher, I'm not sure I woulda hit it...but maybe I'm not thinking thru it properly.

Anyway, thanks again!

Meatwad

You would add more ingredients if doing the same recipe in a larger batch..you should be able to have the same OG whether you are doing 3, 4, 5, 10 gallon batches. You just adjust the amounts of ingredients.

 

[meatwad]

I definitely have an iphone...you mean...there are people who dont!!???

Thanks much for the help, I will lick this thing, I promise! Maybe I'll add more grain next time, I actually haven't thought of that. How do I calculate that? Seems compilated, and I'm not so good at teh maths.

 

[humann_brewing]

I like the black butte porter at the end or maybe it was the beggining. Either way, good beer and it should turn out good.

 

[Dan]

I definitely have an iphone...you mean...there are people who dont!!???

I have a cheapy flip phone and love it!

 

[frod1963]

I definitely have an iphone...you mean...there are people who dont!!???

Thanks much for the help, I will lick this thing, I promise! Maybe I'll add more grain next time, I actually haven't thought of that. How do I calculate that? Seems compilated, and I'm not so good at teh maths.

Like others have said, try beersmith it does all of this very easily so you don't have too. Beersmith takes all of this worrying out of the brew day and leaves more room for metal👍 and beer.

 

[RJS]

I mash with 4 gallons, single batch sparge with 4, get every last drop, and boil. I hit 5 gal. every time even with different grain bills. Where does 3 gallons go? grain absorption, boil evap, trub, heat/cooling shrink. Good way to get better is brew a lot, brew every week. Dont depend on software either, it was made to help but not create your every move.

Whoa, where did that soapbox come from? sorry

 

[RJS]

i just realized that probably doesn't help anything. again, sorry

 

[Polboy]

you dont really need beersmith for this, i love this software but mainly for IBU and OG/FG calculation. For final volume you have to input most of the data yourself anyway and this depend on your equipment so formula is rather simple:
Total amount of water (for mashing and sparging)-grain absorption(BS default at 0.125gal/lb of grain)-dead space of your mash tun-evaporation -deadspace of your BK-other lost (lines, shrinkage ect). All this parameters but grain absorption are influence by your equipment mostly but also to lesser degree by air temperature, humidity, altitude ect

 

[RM-MN]

Have you figured out why you are willing to give up a gallon of wort just because it has some proteins and hop bits in it? Many of us just dump it all in and let the yeast eat any of it that it wants and drop the rest to the bottom of the fermenter to be covered up with the dropped out yeast. I can't see much difference in the finished beer except I have more of it.

 

[meatwad]

Yeah, I think I'm going to brew again this weekend and try some things. One of which will be to pour the whole damn thing in the fermeneter!

I've watched too many vids of people tryin to whirlpool and leave everything behind. And actually, my new kettle doesn't have a bazooka or anything on the inside, and all the large bits were just left behind by me. It's all going in next time. F it!