High boil-off on a winday day

[dadshomebrew]

So I was brewing today. A glorious day, but quite windy.

My boil off rate was way over what I had anticipated using beersmith. Not a big deal, I just topped off, but i did make we wonder.

Last week on a calm day I was losing 8-9% an hour, today it was all the way up to 18%.

All my other calculations - volumes, pre and post boil gravity were right on, so there was no error.

Has anyone else experienced something like this.

 

[crispbrew]

It does make sense that weather conditions could affect biol off rate, such as relative humidity and wind. But I didn't think it would double biol off rates.

Quite interesting, might be fun to track weather conditions on brew day and see if there really is a trend.

 

[northcal]

I agree wind will make it faster.

I brew indoors and always blow a box fan at my boiling kettle.

Less boil overs and faster boil off rates.

 

[MarcusKillion]

yes . I think that the humidity is a major factor in boil off . The wind speed also will make a big difference as it will not only effect the amount of steam blown away from the top of the water but will effect your flame . Perhaps making it hotter or cooler . I have noticed that too much wind sometimes cools down the top of the water and causes it to boil off slower . the right amount could make it faster . I try to block off the wind around here , usually 15 to 25 mph , by placing a piece of plywood in front of the pot.

 

[dadshomebrew]

I figured there was a temperature/humidity/barometric pressure correlation to boil off rates. Just curious if anyone else had experienced the same.

I actually screened the brew area from the wind pretty well, but it was gusting 30+mph yesterday. Not much you can do about that.

 

[aiptasia]

All the time. Atmospheric conditions outside definitely affect your boil off rate. Dry and windy conditions are going to encourage faster boil off and humid and still conditions not so much. Just be sure to have some extra brewing water handy to deal with the contingencies or be prepared to boil a little extra time-wise to hit your post-boil volumes.

 

[brewkinger]

Absolutely.

Up here in the frozen north, I routinely have boil off of 1-1.5 gallons during the winter months. During summer months, the boil off is slightly over a gallon every time.
This is of course assuming that the boil is kept at a "rolling" boil inside the barn with little to no wind.
Just enough heat to keep the surface gently and evenly moving.

Early on in my brewing experience, I brewed an Easter Sunday blonde ale outside in the driveway on a very windy and cold (44 degree) day.

Had to relight the burner 4 times before I smartened up and built a makeshift windscreen.

I boiled off 2.3 gallons that day.
Worked out well only because I had 5 gallons of pre boiled and chilled water stored in a sanitized carboy that I used to top off to 5.5 gallons.

So, long story short, being a scientist I always knew of a correlation between temp, humidity, wind and even altitude on boil conditions.
Being a brewer, many of us can attest to the fact that the correlation is true.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[gwapogorilla]

I too have noticed different boil off rates for various weather conditions. I currently have 3 different "equipment profiles" for my boiling kettles in my Beersmith program. 1 for summer, 1 for cool weather and 1 for cold.