Wyrmwood
Well-Known Member
I'm sure this is old news to most on here, but if you are a beginner all grain brewer like me (I have 12 under my belt as of Saturday), one of the difficulties is getting consistency in my volumes.
I use brewtarget, and after making some adjustments to my equipment (after about 5 batches in), I reset all the parameters for my equipment back to the defaults, in an effort to just track change until I get some consistency. I have still had some issues with volume though, overshooting or undershooting. Typically, the gravity is correct for the volume however.
My last brew, an EIPA, was ~1/2 gallon over (7.22 g) and under anticipated pre boil gravity (1.053) , so I had initially planned on a 90 minute boil (to increase sparge water since there was ~15lb grain). I just increased it to a 2 hour boil and hit 1.078 for my post boil gravity and 5.17gallons. That actually over corrected a bit, so next time I'll use the following numbers .
Use a 90 minute boil as the starting point (120 for pils), if I hit under volume, I can easily adjust -30 minute (if >>1 gallon under) or -15 minute (if >>1/2 gallon under) or spot on (no adjustment) or +15 (if >> 1/2 gallon over) or +30 (>>1 gallon over).
I'm sure this is probably common practice for some folks, but I thought I'd share since I had been having issues getting consistency from my equipment. I'm sure once I start to understand my equipment better and the reasons for the variations, this will become less and less necessary, but until then, at least I'm not totally stuck when my volumes are off.
I use brewtarget, and after making some adjustments to my equipment (after about 5 batches in), I reset all the parameters for my equipment back to the defaults, in an effort to just track change until I get some consistency. I have still had some issues with volume though, overshooting or undershooting. Typically, the gravity is correct for the volume however.
My last brew, an EIPA, was ~1/2 gallon over (7.22 g) and under anticipated pre boil gravity (1.053) , so I had initially planned on a 90 minute boil (to increase sparge water since there was ~15lb grain). I just increased it to a 2 hour boil and hit 1.078 for my post boil gravity and 5.17gallons. That actually over corrected a bit, so next time I'll use the following numbers .
Use a 90 minute boil as the starting point (120 for pils), if I hit under volume, I can easily adjust -30 minute (if >>1 gallon under) or -15 minute (if >>1/2 gallon under) or spot on (no adjustment) or +15 (if >> 1/2 gallon over) or +30 (>>1 gallon over).
I'm sure this is probably common practice for some folks, but I thought I'd share since I had been having issues getting consistency from my equipment. I'm sure once I start to understand my equipment better and the reasons for the variations, this will become less and less necessary, but until then, at least I'm not totally stuck when my volumes are off.