Collected too much wort

[timm747]

I'm following Midwest's recipe for the Octane IPA. I put the amount of strike water, etc in and I have collected too much wort (I think). I have a 7 gallon pot and I have about 3 inches headroom. I am pretty sure this is gonna boilover when I add the hops.

Should I scoop some out and ditch it or should I just let it go?

Thanks!

Tim

 

[Yooper]

I'm following Midwest's recipe for the Octane IPA. I put the amount of strike water, etc in and I have collected too much wort (I think). I have a 7 gallon pot and I have about 3 inches headroom. I am pretty sure this is gonna boilover when I add the hops.

Should I scoop some out and ditch it or should I just let it go?

Thanks!

Tim

Well, it doesn't sound like too much wort for the recipe, but maybe for the pot! If you have a 7 gallon pot, three inches from the top is probably about 6-6.25 gallons which is about right.

You can take some of the wort out, and boil it separately and just add it back as you need to.

One thing I like to do is NOT add the hops until after the hot break. So, bring it to a boil and wait for the foaming to stop. Then, add the hops and set your timer for 60 minutes. It helps tremendously with boil overs! Then, after the hot break and the first hop addition, you can add more wort as you need to. Or, just boil it in a second pot on your stove, and add it at then end. You want to start with at least 6 gallons (probably a bit more due to trub and kettle losses), to end up with 5.

 

[timm747]

Thanks Yooper!

 

[bovineblitz]

Fermcap-s is your friend too, in the future you should use it. I've boiled 7.5 gallons in my 8 gallon pot without a boil over.

 

[timm747]

Thanks Bovine, I'll check that out.

So quick question, what happens if you follow the recipe and you end up with too much wort for a 5 gallon batch at the end? Do you dump the rest?

I'm still new to AG so I don't know how much to expect for boil off, etc. I've just been following Midwest's and Austin's recipes.

Thanks!

T

 

[Yooper]

Thanks Bovine, I'll check that out.

So quick question, what happens if you follow the recipe and you end up with too much wort for a 5 gallon batch at the end? Do you dump the rest?

I'm still new to AG so I don't know how much to expect for boil off, etc. I've just been following Midwest's and Austin's recipes.

Thanks!

T

No, don't dump it! You should be right in the ballpark, but if you have a 5.25 gallon batch instead of a 5 gallon batch, it's no big deal.

If you find you have too much wort pre-boil (and up to 6.5 gallons is NOT too much!), you can boil some for starters and the like and freeze it for later use.

I had a 7.5 gallon pot when I started AG, and though it's really a bit small, you can do it. A smaller pot isn't really adequate, though. You usually start with about 6.25-6.5 gallons to end up with 5 in the fermenter. During the summer, your boil rates can vary from the winter, so sometimes boil-off is a guess for most of us anyway.

You may want to drain your runnings into a bucket or pot with measurements, or mark your spoon with tick marks at each gallon. It's harder to figure boil off when you don't even know how much wort you started with!

One thing to do for next time is to "work backwards". What I mean is this- say you want 6.5 gallons of wort to start with. Drain your first runnings, and measure them. Say they are 2.5 gallons. That means you need 4 gallons of sparge water to get you to 6.5 gallons. That way you never miss your volume. You can heat up more sparge water, so that it's ready, but measure it going in so you know how much you have coming out. There isn't any aborption by the grains during the sparge.

 

[bovineblitz]

One thing to do for next time is to "work backwards". What I mean is this- say you want 6.5 gallons of wort to start with. Drain your first runnings, and measure them. Say they are 2.5 gallons. That means you need 4 gallons of sparge water to get you to 6.5 gallons. That way you never miss your volume. You can heat up more sparge water, so that it's ready, but measure it going in so you know how much you have coming out. There isn't any aborption by the grains during the sparge.

That's my strategy. I usually prep my water (add campden tabs) in my 6 gallon fermenter and a 5 gallon secondary, both marked at 1 gallon increments. For every measurement, I use the increments to the best of my ability and since I've started this practice I've been hitting my volumes right on.

Usually if I'm expecting 4 gallons of sparge water, which is pretty typical, I'll just heat up an entire 5 gallons for sparging and eyeball the odd gallon or so I don't wind up using. IMO it's better to have more water than less, you can't fix less very quickly.

If you do get extra, do not dump! As Yooper said you can freeze for starters or you can throw it into something like a growler and add a touch of yeast and let it do its thing. You can even do something weird like add spices or fruit to it... it's just a half gallon, why not? If you don't have a stopper handy for that size just use a piece of sanitized tinfoil over the top, I generally punch a little pin sized hole in it just to be save.

 

[doctorRobert]

Cant you just boil some of it off? If not, why not just throw it all in the fermenter...nobody said you can't have more than 5 gallons in the fermenter.

 

[Yooper]

Cant you just boil some of it off? If not, why not just throw it all in the fermenter...nobody said you can't have more than 5 gallons in the fermenter.

You don't want to boil off once you've added your finishing hops. That will change the whole profile of the beer. If you know you're way over on volume, you can boil before you add the hops and that would be fine.

 

[doctorRobert]

You don't want to boil off once you've added your finishing hops. That will change the whole profile of the beer. If you know you're way over on volume, you can boil before you add the hops and that would be fine.

But wouldnt too much volume also effect the beer and change the profile. I mean, it depends on the beer, if it was a beer without finishing hops, like a wheat, then i would keep boiling. And IPA i'm not sure, but I dont want a watery beer either. The OG might we way short.

 

[Yooper]

But wouldnt too much volume also effect the beer and change the profile. I mean, it depends on the beer, if it was a beer without finishing hops, like a wheat, then i would keep boiling. And IPA i'm not sure, but I dont want a watery beer either. The OG might we way short.

(He's making an IPA...........)

Watery? Well, I doubt being .5 gallon or even more would make the beer watery. It really would depend on the recipe, the OG, etc. If the OG was very low, some DME could be boiled in a bit of water and added.

That's why I suggested that anytime someone is over on volume they boil down to what they want for a preboil volume, and THEN add the hops. It's easy to add water to the finished wort if the volume is too low and the OG is too high. It's not so easy to do the reverse.