Returning wort to kettle

[beerd]

Hi all - I hope all is well. Two random musings that have come up while brewing some of my first BIAB batches:

1) Any reason for or against returning a preboil sample? I take about 250ml and let it cool. You can see the cold break happening in the sample. Since there's been a cold break, would pouring the sample back into the boiling kettle lead to any off flavors (granted small in relation to overall volume) from going cold break and back again, etc?

2) I usually let the bag drip with a light squeeze and then set it aside in a nearby bucket. If say 20 or 30 minutes later I realize I've missed my preboil volume target or something and want to put in another half gallon from the cooled drippings or further squeezing the bag - any expected off flavors or impact to the wort? Again relatively small volume but just curious.

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

1. No- it doesn't matter.
2. Sure, you could do that- no reason not to if it's got a decent SG. If it's super low gravity, I wouldn't bother as it would lower the entire gravity, but if it's ok, then there's no reason not to.

 

[beerd]

Thanks so much! I don't fully follow on the 2nd one. "if it's got a decent SG" - meaning if the drippings in the bucket have a decent SG? Sorry, new to this. I would have thought squeezings would have, if anything, a higher SG?

I was thinking of 2 scenarios:
1) I realize I missed my volume after I throw the bag in the bucket but before too long into the boil - say 5-10 min. The bag would have, I guess, cooled and the extra 1/2 gallon or so I might squeeze should have roughly the same SG as the kettle, but a slightly more fermentable profile due to it continuing to 'mash' in the bucket at a much lower temp?

2) I hit my pre-boil volume, but once my pre-boil sample cools (30 min into boil if i'm not chilling it), I realize I missed my starting SG. I could use the extra drippings (which, I guess, now would have a lower SG since the boil has progressed a decent amount), and then just boil a bit longer to still arrive at my final targeted volume with a slightly higher SG than I otherwise would have

I guess the long term solution is to hone in my absorption rate in my equipment profile to leave less wasted wort in the bag, but just wondering out loud.

 

[RM-MN]

It was a misunderstanding on both your parts. Yooper was thinking you were sparging and thus would have a lower SG wort collecting in the bucket. You weren't sparging so any wort collected would have the same SG as what was in the boil.

I'd continue to let the bag of grains drain into the bucket but pour every bit of the wort back into the boil. You might end up with a slightly higher amount of beer. Sounds like a big problem. Bottle up that excess beer and ship it to me for disposal. I'm used to disposing of excess beer. I brew a batch that is supposed to be 2 1/2 gallons which would make one case of 24 bottles and since I sparge extra I get 30 or so bottles.

I'm not into competetions so as long as the beer tastes good to me I don't get hung up on getting the exact OG nor the exact amount into my boil kettle. If I can fit it in and keep it from boiling over I'm happy with it. I don't even care if the ABV is off a little.

 

[myndflyte]

I was thinking of 2 scenarios:
1) I realize I missed my volume after I throw the bag in the bucket but before too long into the boil - say 5-10 min. The bag would have, I guess, cooled and the extra 1/2 gallon or so I might squeeze should have roughly the same SG as the kettle, but a slightly more fermentable profile due to it continuing to 'mash' in the bucket at a much lower temp?

At this point if you mashed for an hour, the extra drippings won't be more fermentable. And even if it was, it's a half gallon at most in 5 gallons so it would make a negligible difference.

2) I hit my pre-boil volume, but once my pre-boil sample cools (30 min into boil if i'm not chilling it), I realize I missed my starting SG. I could use the extra drippings (which, I guess, now would have a lower SG since the boil has progressed a decent amount), and then just boil a bit longer to still arrive at my final targeted volume with a slightly higher SG than I otherwise would have

I guess the long term solution is to hone in my absorption rate in my equipment profile to leave less wasted wort in the bag, but just wondering out loud.

Adding the drippings isn't going to increase your SG unless you were off by a point or two. And in that case, I wouldn't worry about it. If for example, your pre-boil gravity was 1.030 when it should have been 1.040, the only way to recover that is to add malt extract. Like you said, you have to dial in your equipment profile. I'm a bag squeezer but once I got my profile dialed it, water volumes were pretty much right on the mark.

 

[beerd]

Thanks all for the input. Agreed that this is pretty trivial stuff that won't really impact final output overall. Just random musings while I'm watching the wort boil...