Hey all,
I've done about 25 specialty grain/extract brews and am plotting a move to partial mash (no space for full-on AG) My question is the following:
Does anyone have an accurate way of measuring the gravity of DME?
I use Breiss pilsen or extra light for my extract (to sub for missing base grains) and I'll need to continue to do that with partial mash so I can hit my OG. However, it seems like every time I calculate how much DME I need, I'm way off (last week I brewed an ordinary bitter, calculated to hit 1.050, and OG was 1.063). I'm not consistently overshoot or undershooting, it seems to go both ways. I've checked the calibration on my hydrometer -- no problems there. The published specs for breiss products seem to be well below what I actually get. In my previous apartment, I had room to buy a huge bag of DME, and so I could measure the gravity of 1 lb/gal and go from there. Now I don't have that kind of storage space, so I need to buy in smaller quantities, but it seems like maybe each bag is a different efficiency?
Anyway, my move to partial-mash is dictated largely on wanting to get a bit more control over my grain bill. Unfortunately, without sorting this issue out, I'm still going to be shooting blind a lot of the time.
Anyone else have these issues before? How'd you solve em?
Thanks in advance,
Dru
I've done about 25 specialty grain/extract brews and am plotting a move to partial mash (no space for full-on AG) My question is the following:
Does anyone have an accurate way of measuring the gravity of DME?
I use Breiss pilsen or extra light for my extract (to sub for missing base grains) and I'll need to continue to do that with partial mash so I can hit my OG. However, it seems like every time I calculate how much DME I need, I'm way off (last week I brewed an ordinary bitter, calculated to hit 1.050, and OG was 1.063). I'm not consistently overshoot or undershooting, it seems to go both ways. I've checked the calibration on my hydrometer -- no problems there. The published specs for breiss products seem to be well below what I actually get. In my previous apartment, I had room to buy a huge bag of DME, and so I could measure the gravity of 1 lb/gal and go from there. Now I don't have that kind of storage space, so I need to buy in smaller quantities, but it seems like maybe each bag is a different efficiency?
Anyway, my move to partial-mash is dictated largely on wanting to get a bit more control over my grain bill. Unfortunately, without sorting this issue out, I'm still going to be shooting blind a lot of the time.
Anyone else have these issues before? How'd you solve em?
Thanks in advance,
Dru