Over sparged. 10 minutes left. Keep boiling?

[jpinetti]

Not sure where I went wrong but I'm thinking I have about 6 gallons still boiling in what should be a five gallon batch. Keep boiling?

 

[lumpher]

yes, but if it's a style that needs aroma hops, don't forget to do that on the new schedule

 

[jpinetti]

First batch AG. calculated 2.5 gal boil off an hour earlier today. Put that in and it said strike with 4 and sparge with 7. Had like a 9 gallon boil going. Something is not right??? Do you use all the sparge water in the mlt?

 

[samc]

2.5 gallon boil off seems way high.

 

[mcaple1]

yeah, i've never heard of a 2.5 gal BOR either. 1-1.5 is pretty typical. check your current gravity and if it is on, then go with it, otherwise keep on boiling.

 

[jpinetti]

So this afternoon I went to test this. Put 5 gallons in the BK and went for an hour. 2.5 was left. I was blown away. Didn't see similar results come brew time though. Had to quit boiling this down. Missed target OG by a mile. Was supposed to be 1.054 and I hit 1.042. Like 55% efficiency. . Better luck next time I guess.

 

[JonW]

2.5 gallon boil off seems way high.

I can do a 2.5 gallon boil off in my 20 Gal Blichmann with a 10 tip jet burner. I normally don't turn the burner on full as the boil off is too aggressive. However, a couple of batches ago I seriously oversparged as well. I fly sparge and usually leave extra water behind in the HLT for cleanup, but ended up running the sparge too long. Fortunately, I knew it at the beginning of the boil so I just boiled for an extra hour before starting any hop additions.

Also, Fermcap-S is awesome for the boil. No boil overs!

 

[seabass07]

Boiling 7 down to 5 is not the same as boiling 5 down to 3. You need to calculate your boil off with the amount of water you will be boiling off. I can do about 1.2G in an hour if I start with 7.5. If I start with 5, I'll boil off about 2.

 

[jpinetti]

That's the thing here. I'm on a whole new setup with the Blichmann burner. Even at what I would consider a low setting it's such a beast! I'm gonna have to learn how to control this heat.

 

[mredge73]

I did the same thing on my first 5 gal all-grain batch.
Beersmith had me start my boil at 8.5 gal, I got it down to 6.5 in a 60min boil.
I didn't continue to boil because I already added my final hops. Result was a light beer...
I now start my 60 min boils at about 7 gal. Live and learn.

 

[JonW]

Boiling 7 down to 5 is not the same as boiling 5 down to 3. You need to calculate your boil off with the amount of water you will be boiling off. I can do about 1.2G in an hour if I start with 7.5. If I start with 5, I'll boil off about 2.

I think your boil off rate is going to be pretty consistant regardless of volume. If you can get it to a rolling boil it doesn't matter if it has 3 gallons under it or 10 gallons under it. Obviously it will take longer to get the larger volume to a rolling boil, but if your burner is strong enough, it won't really matter on the volume. I think the surface area is probably more of a factor.

All my batches are 10G. On my messed up one, I had started with just over 14 in the kettle and boiled off 2.5 before starting my "normal" boil time. Just FYI - at full tilt - I can actually boil off 3 gallons per hour.