MNBones
Member
Ill tell my story below but my question is: do you add the estimated amount of water due to grain absorption to your strike water calculation?
If I have 20 pounds of grain and want a 1.5 quarts/pound water grain ratio, simple math would say I want 30 quarts of water. However using the common grain absorption factor of 1 pint (.5 quart) per pound wouldnt my actual ratio be 1.0 quarts/pound shortly after dough-in since 10 quarts have been absorbed by the grain?
My Story:
I have 2 batches under my belt with my new 10 gallon system but my mash efficiencies kinda stink.
I have been brewing for years using my previous 5 gallon system which was a Rubbermaid water cooler, a RIMS tube, controller, and pump. I consistently measured mash efficiencies in the mid 80s. It was rare not to beat BeerSmiths Estimated Pre-Boil Gravity, and that was with an extra ½ gallon of pre-boil volume.
I switched to 10 gallon batch sizes so my equipment doubled in size (Boil kettle and mash tun are both 20 gallons now instead of 10) but I retained the RIMS tube and pump (oh, and I should mention that I went all electric with the new setup so the controller changed as well, but the RIMS was always electric. Ill post my build and pictures when I figure out the correct place to post it ).
Anyway, I brewed using the same procedure as usual, hit my temperature, mashed for 60 minutes, iodine test was fine (10 minutes before mash out), but missed my pre-boil gravity by .015 on both batches.
As I mentioned above EVERYTHING in my setup has changed (except the RIMS tube and pump) so there are a lot of variables in play but the three that stick out for me are.
1.) My city dropped the PH of our water by about 0.6 so my mash-only acid additions ended up pushing the mash PH slightly below 5 (silly me, I should have measured the water PH in the HLT at brew time and recalculated the additions. I wont make that mistake again).
2.) Sparge time: I looked at the manometer differential on the mash tun instead of watching the flow rate into the boil kettle (that thing is huge so eye-balling it is different than what Im used to) so my total sparge time was ~20 minutes instead of my usual 60-90 minute fly sparge.
3.) Water/grist ratio: In my old setup I heated strike water in the BK (because it had gallon markings) and added it to the MT-cooler, plus a little bit more for the RIMS plumbing, oh and tip the kettle a bit since is stops flowing just above the 1 gallon mark. In actuality Ill bet this was close to an extra gallon of water in the mash process that would (if my absorption hypothesis above is correct) bring my ratio up to the 1.25-1.5 range.
The pilot batches were two of my higher gravity recipes so drinkable beer will come out of the fermenters, but the batch Ill brew next is a lower gravity brown ale that cant afford to lose any OG points.
Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
If I have 20 pounds of grain and want a 1.5 quarts/pound water grain ratio, simple math would say I want 30 quarts of water. However using the common grain absorption factor of 1 pint (.5 quart) per pound wouldnt my actual ratio be 1.0 quarts/pound shortly after dough-in since 10 quarts have been absorbed by the grain?
My Story:
I have 2 batches under my belt with my new 10 gallon system but my mash efficiencies kinda stink.
I have been brewing for years using my previous 5 gallon system which was a Rubbermaid water cooler, a RIMS tube, controller, and pump. I consistently measured mash efficiencies in the mid 80s. It was rare not to beat BeerSmiths Estimated Pre-Boil Gravity, and that was with an extra ½ gallon of pre-boil volume.
I switched to 10 gallon batch sizes so my equipment doubled in size (Boil kettle and mash tun are both 20 gallons now instead of 10) but I retained the RIMS tube and pump (oh, and I should mention that I went all electric with the new setup so the controller changed as well, but the RIMS was always electric. Ill post my build and pictures when I figure out the correct place to post it ).
Anyway, I brewed using the same procedure as usual, hit my temperature, mashed for 60 minutes, iodine test was fine (10 minutes before mash out), but missed my pre-boil gravity by .015 on both batches.
As I mentioned above EVERYTHING in my setup has changed (except the RIMS tube and pump) so there are a lot of variables in play but the three that stick out for me are.
1.) My city dropped the PH of our water by about 0.6 so my mash-only acid additions ended up pushing the mash PH slightly below 5 (silly me, I should have measured the water PH in the HLT at brew time and recalculated the additions. I wont make that mistake again).
2.) Sparge time: I looked at the manometer differential on the mash tun instead of watching the flow rate into the boil kettle (that thing is huge so eye-balling it is different than what Im used to) so my total sparge time was ~20 minutes instead of my usual 60-90 minute fly sparge.
3.) Water/grist ratio: In my old setup I heated strike water in the BK (because it had gallon markings) and added it to the MT-cooler, plus a little bit more for the RIMS plumbing, oh and tip the kettle a bit since is stops flowing just above the 1 gallon mark. In actuality Ill bet this was close to an extra gallon of water in the mash process that would (if my absorption hypothesis above is correct) bring my ratio up to the 1.25-1.5 range.
The pilot batches were two of my higher gravity recipes so drinkable beer will come out of the fermenters, but the batch Ill brew next is a lower gravity brown ale that cant afford to lose any OG points.
Thanks for your comments and suggestions!
