gravity calculator problem

[alpine85]

Friends,

For my most recent brew, I used this calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
and noticed something. When I change my sparge volume, there is no effect whatsoever on the target OG. Is there a more thorough calculator? Or are you just on your own for analyzing your sparge?

Thanks!!!

 

[tsl346]

It shouldn't. It's assuming that you will be boiling off more water during your boil. Same amount of grains, same final volume, same OG. If you sparge with more water you will need to boil off more to get the same final volume.

That said, indirectly, if you sparge with more water your post boil efficiency will likely be higher, but not your pre-boil.

 

[doug293cz]

Additional sparge volume will increase lauter efficiency slightly, at the expense of needing more boil off to reach the same post boil volume. The effect can readily be calculated for batch sparging, but not so easily for fly sparging. In practical situations it will only make a 1% - 2% difference in lauter efficiency, and usually the uncertainty in efficiency calculations (due to small measurement errors) is more than that. So, it's probably not worth bothering with.

Brew on

 

[alpine85]

Thank a lot!!! Happy brewing!!!