I know I’m missing something – likely something obvious – in my setup. I do 5-gallon batches using Beersmith2, build my water from RO, use a 3-vessel electric HERMS with 10-gallon Boilermaker G2’s, and ferment in a 7-gallon SSB unitank. I’ve created equipment profiles for each style I brew – mostly IPAs, porters, stouts, and one of my favorites; Kolsch. These profiles revolve around the amount of grain and hops and so far, they’ve worked perfectly for all except the Kolsch.
With all the other styles I get the final runnings from the mash down to around 1.015 SG to 1.010 SG by the time I hit my volume and gravity targets in the kettle. But by the time I hit my targets with the Kolsch, the final runnings are down to 1.002 or 1.001 SG.
I like to have between 6.5 and 7 gallons available for the fermenter as the chilling coil sits up pretty high in the SSB unitank (wish they’d make a coil that sits lower in the tank). I want the fermenter just about full to ensure I can get good temperature control while leaving some headspace for krausen. I don’t mind a bit of waste at the end so I configure my BS2 equipment profiles to be 6.5- or 7-gallon batch sizes and account for system losses due to HERMS coil, lines, pump, etc.
One of the biggest differences in all these brews is the size of the grain bill. Most are in the 13-15 Lbs range and for these, I have no problems with the gravity of my final runnings – never goes below 1.010 SG. In contrast, the Kolsch uses around 10 Lbs of grain so I think the problem stems from the fact I’m trying to pull the same total volume into the kettle as my other brews but with much less grain hence the low SG final runnings.
I’ve set my profiles up using the same general logic and all work fine but the Kolsch profile. What am I missing here?
With all the other styles I get the final runnings from the mash down to around 1.015 SG to 1.010 SG by the time I hit my volume and gravity targets in the kettle. But by the time I hit my targets with the Kolsch, the final runnings are down to 1.002 or 1.001 SG.
I like to have between 6.5 and 7 gallons available for the fermenter as the chilling coil sits up pretty high in the SSB unitank (wish they’d make a coil that sits lower in the tank). I want the fermenter just about full to ensure I can get good temperature control while leaving some headspace for krausen. I don’t mind a bit of waste at the end so I configure my BS2 equipment profiles to be 6.5- or 7-gallon batch sizes and account for system losses due to HERMS coil, lines, pump, etc.
One of the biggest differences in all these brews is the size of the grain bill. Most are in the 13-15 Lbs range and for these, I have no problems with the gravity of my final runnings – never goes below 1.010 SG. In contrast, the Kolsch uses around 10 Lbs of grain so I think the problem stems from the fact I’m trying to pull the same total volume into the kettle as my other brews but with much less grain hence the low SG final runnings.
I’ve set my profiles up using the same general logic and all work fine but the Kolsch profile. What am I missing here?