Too Much Water In The Mash Tun

[urbrainwashd]

So I am making a Smashing Pumpkin Ale and I had to add more water in for mashing cuz the temp was a little cooler, I did batch sparging and dumped in what I needed to. Well when I was draining the pre boil volume, I still had about an inch or two of water on top of the grains in the mash tun, but there was no way I could fit any more...Will this mess up the brew? Is there anything else I can do, right now Im in the process of boiling the hops.

ThankS!

 

[Carllous]

It's happened to me a couple times, and everything still came out perfect. Nothing to worry about.

 

[blizz81]

Probably some efficiency loss due to brewhouse efficiency (or lack thereof), likely pretty minor. Add fermentables if desired after measuring OG when all is said and done.

 

[ncbrewer]

I've read that you can drain more wort, and reduce the volume by boiling longer. I haven't tried it. Don't know the limit on boiling time - maybe 1.5 hrs?

 

[blizz81]

Is there a limit on boil length?

 

[urbrainwashd]

So I ended up with 5.050 and the O.G is supposed to be 1.054 - thats not too bad, correct?

 

[blizz81]

So I ended up with 5.050 and the O.G is supposed to be 1.054 - thats not too bad, correct?

Supposing the calculated OG of 1.054 wasn't starting based on something low like 60% efficiency already, I'd say it's fine / roll with it. Maybe around 0.5% difference in ABV in the end.

 

[ncbrewer]

Is there a limit on boil length?

I doubt if I could find it, but I think the Braukaiser site talks about flavor problems if you boil too long.

 

[blizz81]

I doubt if I could find it, but I think the Braukaiser site talks about flavor problems if you boil too long.

I guess I'll try to take a look around. I know when I read about kettle carmelization for wee heavy / scotch ales, one alternative was people would boil for insane lengths of time - like 8 to 12 hours.

 

[ncbrewer]

Is there a limit on boil length?

I couldn't stop wondering about this, so I went through all my notes. On the site http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Batch_Sparging_Analysis under "Effect of the pre-boil volume": "Assuming a cast out volume target of 5.5 gal, the pre-boil volume could be as large as 7.3 gal. This assumes a boil-off rate of 15%/hr and a boil time of 2 hrs. Neither the boil-of rate nor the boil time should be increased as this can be detrimental to the beer. A higher boil-off rate can "burn" the wort through the increased thermal loading and a longer boil would coagulate too many of the proteins in the wort which hurts head retention and body."

So apparently you can boil longer, but there is a down side.