BarberSurgeon
Well-Known Member
I started the brew day feeling great and enthusiastic, but now I feel like screaming.
I've been brewing for about a year now, and throughout all of my progress, one aspect of brewing has continued to haunt me from day one. I cannot for the life of me finish the boil with a dependable volume. It's like a plague on my brewing and it's driving me crazy.
Evaporation never seems to be consistent. I don't know whether the elevation is combining with the dramatic seasonal changes and wildly varying humidity, but I can't duplicate results. I thought I had it dialed in for a while, then suddenly I'm losing another quarter gallon (I do very small 2-gallon batches, so that amount is significant).
I also can't seem to manage to keep track of trub losses. I was very excited to try whirlpooling today. It seemed like a fantastic technique and just what I needed to get this half of it down. I tried it a few times for kicks during the cooldown, and it only worked on the hot wort. All I got for the "real" attempt at ~90F was the same flat, settled trub that I had to sacrifice a 10th of my wort to as usual.
I'm sorry for ranting. I'm just so disappointed. I don't have the money for the equipment needed to make this easier. I can keep making watered down 1.040 beers, but I don't see the point. I'd love to RDWHAHB, but even if all these beers I make are fine in themselves, they aren't what I want to drink. We're not talking 1.100 monsters; I just want to make a decent 1.060 beer without getting lucky.
That was probably a lot of unneeded information. What can I do to fix this?
I've been brewing for about a year now, and throughout all of my progress, one aspect of brewing has continued to haunt me from day one. I cannot for the life of me finish the boil with a dependable volume. It's like a plague on my brewing and it's driving me crazy.
Evaporation never seems to be consistent. I don't know whether the elevation is combining with the dramatic seasonal changes and wildly varying humidity, but I can't duplicate results. I thought I had it dialed in for a while, then suddenly I'm losing another quarter gallon (I do very small 2-gallon batches, so that amount is significant).
I also can't seem to manage to keep track of trub losses. I was very excited to try whirlpooling today. It seemed like a fantastic technique and just what I needed to get this half of it down. I tried it a few times for kicks during the cooldown, and it only worked on the hot wort. All I got for the "real" attempt at ~90F was the same flat, settled trub that I had to sacrifice a 10th of my wort to as usual.
I'm sorry for ranting. I'm just so disappointed. I don't have the money for the equipment needed to make this easier. I can keep making watered down 1.040 beers, but I don't see the point. I'd love to RDWHAHB, but even if all these beers I make are fine in themselves, they aren't what I want to drink. We're not talking 1.100 monsters; I just want to make a decent 1.060 beer without getting lucky.
That was probably a lot of unneeded information. What can I do to fix this?