Top up with H2O

[powderbock]

Did my first all grain tonight. learned a lot about the equipment I'm using. Preboil gravity came out ok, post boil OG came out ok, but ended up 1 gallon down at about 4 gallons. Did not top up to a full 5 gallons with H2O. Will this cause any type of probolem? I'm assuming adding the H2O would just dilute the OG and FG.
Brewhouse total efficiency went to 57% because of low volume. But low OG by topping up would do the same thing.
Ultimately would increasing sparging volume fix this problem, so I would not have to top up after boiling?

 

[Brewsmith]

What was your recipe and mash schedule including volumes of water? It may be that you didn't sparge enough, but it could also be related to a lot of things.

 

[cactusgarrett]

I'm assuming you used a mash ratio of around 1.25qt/gal, so...

Did you account for loss due to cold break and grain absorption? Depending on your system, grain will absorb 0.1-0.2gal/lb. so you're looking at at least 1gal in a normal grainbill right there.

Factor all those in and make up for any losses with sparge water. That'd be the first thing i would look into, but could you possibly give more info? Mash ratio? Sparge volumes? Grain weight?

 

[bwitt]

Yep add about another gallon of sparge water. I had the same problem on my 1st AG batches. I didn't factor in the trub loss.

Efficiency on my 3rd batch was 82%.

 

[menschmaschine]

Remember, too, that topping up will dilute (decrease) your IBUs. So, if you were at the low end of a style for IBUs and came up a gallon short, adding 25% more water might not be a good idea. That being said, when I was still dialing in my efficiency, I topped up a 12 gallon batch with a gallon of water to reduce the OG with no ill effects. But, like the others have said, you need to figure out what went wrong.

 

[intriptik]

bwitt, thats very good for just your 3rd AG batch. Are you getting that kind of efficiency batch sparging or continous? I'm from Baton Rouge as well and am interested in getting into AG brewing.

 

[bwitt]

bwitt, thats very good for just your 3rd AG batch. Are you getting that kind of efficiency batch sparging or continous? I'm from Baton Rouge as well and am interested in getting into AG brewing.

Thanks. I spent the last 6 months reading everything I could find on AG and accumulating or building the equipment needed.

I'm batch sparging right now. I take my total sparge water and split it in 2 batches. I am getting a sparge arm and will try to fly sparge on my next batch in a couple of weeks.

There are a few others on the forum from Baton Rouge. Maybe we could get together and have a mass brew day sometime.

 

[Beer:30]

OK,
Here is a follow up question. And forgive my ignorance of the software - I just got it and still need to learn much: If you are using brew software such as Promash, and you are in the recipe formulation areas and you tweak the water volume up and up until you get the required post boil volume that you want, will it scale up the grain and hops volumes automatically to keep the FG and IBUS true to the recipe ratio? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

-Oops, found it in the FAQs, it's the lock ingredients to batch size check box. Thanks anyway

 

[powderbock]

Here's the info
9 # grain
warmed up cooler with hot tap water prior to start.
Beersmith predicted 5.72 gallon preboil.
Added 11.5 qts water at 166 to mash at 154 for 60 minutes. temp dropped lower than expected so added 2 quart to get temp up to 154.
stirred in another 2 quarts near the end prior to draining to make up for loss in grain to total another 4 qts for grain loss.
Batch sparging, so added just under 3 gallons. Yielded almost 5.6 -5.7 gallons.
Pre boil gravity 1.041, estimated 1.043.
I never counted on losing any in the trub, oops. Also my system seems to boil off a lot more for whatever reason. I noticed this a little with the extract brews, but forgot to account for it in the all grain. Unfortunately tried to follow beersmith to a tee with out entering more specific info on my system. Noticed that part after the fact. I've determined I need to add more water to the sparge, and possible turn the heat down a little during the boil. Any more input would be great.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Also, and this is a biggie, AFAIC, keep hot vs. cold in mind for volume. Roughly i figure 5.5gal hot = 5gal cool finished into the fermenter. BUT, brewing software should take this into account, i believe. So when Promash tells you "post boil volume" that means your boil volume hot, whereas there is "really" (at 70F, for example) about 1/2gal less.

As a general rule, though, for all my 5gal recipes I shoot for 5.5gal to go into the primary.

 

[malkore]

Thanks. I spent the last 6 months reading everything I could find on AG and accumulating or building the equipment needed.

I'm batch sparging right now. I take my total sparge water and split it in 2 batches. I am getting a sparge arm and will try to fly sparge on my next batch in a couple of weeks.

There are a few others on the forum from Baton Rouge. Maybe we could get together and have a mass brew day sometime.

remember that simply switching to fly sparging doesn't guarantee any better efficiency...and in fact it could drop.

Bobby_M hits something like 85% efficiency with his batch sparging. look up some of his posts to see his batch sparging tips. Also some pH 5.2 can help your water chemistry.

 

[bwitt]

remember that simply switching to fly sparging doesn't guarantee any better efficiency...and in fact it could drop.

Bobby_M hits something like 85% efficiency with his batch sparging. look up some of his posts to see his batch sparging tips. Also some pH 5.2 can help your water chemistry.

Yes I have read many of Bobby_M's post about his tests on the different methods. If I remember correctly I think in one of his recent posts he said he was doing a sort of hybrid batch/Fly Sparge.

I just want to try as many options as possible to see what the differences are.

I am already using the PH 5.2 since I don't have a water analysis yet. I figured it wouldn't hurt.

 

[ameadrat]

I measure every quart of water in and do my boil in an 8 gal container and have 5 gals marked. so 8 gal in a one hour boil gives me 5 if I slow the boil down I can get to a 90 minute boil. I am saying you need to know what your equipment is giving you. The same with final gavity from boil, too low raise the grain bill. As you get better your gravity will increase don't worry about efficiency your not brewing a 5 barrel batch. And the grain will very from batch to batch. Frankly I cant tell you what my efficiency is but I know when I dont meet my target. I brew a lot of 1090 to 1100 beers all on the dark side and all ales.