First brew day! It's finally here

Aristotelian · Feb 17, 2016

kevy said:
Let's just say I said to heck with it and drained about 1 gallon in the kettle before I realized I had the strainers. I thought I smelt burning during the beginning of the boil but it seemed to turn out alright. I ended up with 4.6 gallons of 1042 wort. Weird the gravity didn't go up after the boil. It was 1042 pre boil.
Maybe I have never smelt wort boiling and mistakes it for a burnt smell

When you took your gravity reading pre-boil, did you adjust for temperature?If your pre-boil gravity showed 1.042 at 100F, it should show about 1.045 when it cools to room temp. EDIT: forget it, that would mean your gravity would be going down after boil off, which makes even less sense.

kevy · Feb 17, 2016

Haha. I used a refractometor I though temp didn't matter with those. To an extent. I used a hydrometer also. Just for second verification

ArthurDigbySellers · Feb 17, 2016

Yeah, temp really shouldn't matter with a refractometer since the small sample will cool extremely quickly. If you ended up with 4.6 gallons of 1.042 and you started with more than 4.6 gallons, something is not adding up...Was it a rolling boil for the whole 60 mins?

kevy · Feb 17, 2016

Yes. The whole 60 it was rolling

Conan · Feb 17, 2016

What was your starting volume into the kettle? You can estimate about 10-15% boil off per hour depending on your system, boil style, and weather conditions.
It sounds like either your pre-boil or S.G. readings were incorrect. Did you also take gravity readings at the start, middle, and end of your sparge? These values (combined with volume collected) can help figure out some of these issues. Kyle

kevy · Feb 18, 2016

After talking with the guys at the lhbs I think it was was an error in how I used the refractometor but the post boil was correct 1042.
I learned a lot and I'll try not to have a meltdown next time