Oatmeal stout disaster

[sbushwhacker]

Brewing in winter is difficult. While trying to be prepared I moved my sanitized pump and reverse wort cooler to the garage where my brew pot was fired up. When my 60min boil was done I connected the rf cooler and plugged in the pump and everything had frozen 10 degrees F. I lost some wort trying to thaw my rf cooler and pump. But when all was said and done I only had about 2.5-3 gal of wort to fermenter. Started with 10.5 lbs of grain, dough in with 2.5 gal. and sparged with 5 gal. thought I would only loose 1 gal during 60 min boil? Started with 5.5- 6 gal from lauter tub. Pitched anyway didn't even check the s.gravity any Ideas? Steve

 

[indigi]

Why didn't you check the OG?

In any case I'm sure it'll be fine, there'll just be less of it than you wanted.

 

[afr0byte]

Brewing in winter is difficult. While trying to be prepared I moved my sanitized pump and reverse wort cooler to the garage where my brew pot was fired up. When my 60min boil was done I connected the rf cooler and plugged in the pump and everything had frozen 10 degrees F. I lost some wort trying to thaw my rf cooler and pump. But when all was said and done I only had about 2.5-3 gal of wort to fermenter. Started with 10.5 lbs of grain, dough in with 2.5 gal. and sparged with 5 gal. thought I would only loose 1 gal during 60 min boil? Started with 5.5- 6 gal from lauter tub. Pitched anyway didn't even check the s.gravity any Ideas? Steve

Assuming you did a single infusion mash, 2.5 gallons is a very thick mash. Usually for 10.5 lbs of grain I'd aim for about 4 gallons for the mash. Also, you'll probably have lost at least a gallon of water to the grain, and probably a bit to to your mash tun (It might have been more than a bit, since you said you only got 5.5-6 gallons to the kettle.). I know personally, especially in the winter, with my kettle I can get really large boil-off rates (I've seen as high as 25%/hour). If you got a 25% boil-off rate, you could end up with as little as about 4 1/8 gallons. You said you lost some to the cooler, so it seems reasonable that you could get down to about 3 gallons in the fermenter after trub loss and all.

 

[sbushwhacker]

I was curious about boil off rates being larger in the cold temp. That makes sense. I also had difficulties with trying to filter off the hot break and hop plug when transfer from boil pot to wort cooler, used funnel with filter and a hand held strainer. (Kept clogging up) This is where a brewing partner would really be helpful.

 

[bja]

I was curious about boil off rates being larger in the cold temp. That makes sense.

Boil off rates are higher when the relative humidity is lower. Not so much the temp.

 

[sbushwhacker]

What can I expect to happen to my Stout with so much boil off? Could I cut it with water before bottling? It was to be a mild sweet oatmeal stout.

 

[tasq]

What can I expect to happen to my Stout with so much boil off? Could I cut it with water before bottling? It was to be a mild sweet oatmeal stout.

We cant answer because we don't know if you got close to your numbers. There is no guessing here. We need hard data.

 

[rjwhite41]

I was curious about boil off rates being larger in the cold temp. That makes sense. I also had difficulties with trying to filter off the hot break and hop plug when transfer from boil pot to wort cooler, used funnel with filter and a hand held strainer. (Kept clogging up) This is where a brewing partner would really be helpful.

I just siphon my wort keeping the bottom of the auto siphon out of the trub. No need to strain.

 

[sbushwhacker]

Added 2gal of water at 2nd fermentation. Ended up with just under 5 gallons. Bottled with 3/4 cup priming sugar for 14 days and I am very happy how it turned out.

 

[pernox]

-edit- Oops, didn't see that the resolution had been posted.