My equipment:
I have a 15gal Keggle boil kettle (5500watt heating element - I usually run the boil at 65% pwm) with a chugger pump, whirlpool arm, and a 30 plate wort chiller.
My Problem:
According to BeerSmith I was supposed to have 8.5gal pre boil volume at 1.040 pre boil SG. I collected about 8.75gal pre boil at 1.038 pre boil gravity (I figured the lower pre boil SG was on account for collecting .25gal more than BeerSmith said). After boiling for 60min, whirl pooling for 20min, then running the wort through the plate chiller back into the whilrpool for ~25min. My volume read 7gal which I thought was great since 1.5gal were lost to evaporation and .25gal loss to chill shrinkage. I collected about 6.5gal into the fermentor and checked the post boil gravity. It was 1.040!! BeerSmith calculated 6gal collected at 1.050! I missed the mark by 0.010!! which drove my brewhouse efficiency down to 66%!
My question is what am I doing wrong? My last couple batches barely changed from pre boil gravity to post boil gravity causing my beers to be wwwaaaayyy lighter than expected.
Any help would be appreciated. should I turn my pulse with modulation boil % up?
I also transfer the the wort from the mash tun to the boil through a paint strainer to help strain some of the gunk, but I use that same strainer as a jerry rigged hop spider.
I have a 15gal Keggle boil kettle (5500watt heating element - I usually run the boil at 65% pwm) with a chugger pump, whirlpool arm, and a 30 plate wort chiller.
My Problem:
According to BeerSmith I was supposed to have 8.5gal pre boil volume at 1.040 pre boil SG. I collected about 8.75gal pre boil at 1.038 pre boil gravity (I figured the lower pre boil SG was on account for collecting .25gal more than BeerSmith said). After boiling for 60min, whirl pooling for 20min, then running the wort through the plate chiller back into the whilrpool for ~25min. My volume read 7gal which I thought was great since 1.5gal were lost to evaporation and .25gal loss to chill shrinkage. I collected about 6.5gal into the fermentor and checked the post boil gravity. It was 1.040!! BeerSmith calculated 6gal collected at 1.050! I missed the mark by 0.010!! which drove my brewhouse efficiency down to 66%!
My question is what am I doing wrong? My last couple batches barely changed from pre boil gravity to post boil gravity causing my beers to be wwwaaaayyy lighter than expected.
Any help would be appreciated. should I turn my pulse with modulation boil % up?
I also transfer the the wort from the mash tun to the boil through a paint strainer to help strain some of the gunk, but I use that same strainer as a jerry rigged hop spider.