Beware Burco false promise

[pms67]

It might just be me,probably is but I did my fourth BIAB last night,poured 21 litres into my 30l (supposedly) boiler and added 5.5kg if grain,it was filled to the brim almost,overnight mash,took out and dunk sparged with 5litres of water and added this,again filled to the brim,boiled for 45 mins and poured into my FV, left with 18.5 litres? I added 4 litres of water (don't even know if you can do this?)
OG is 1055 so happy with that but it's not a 30l boiler. I'm making concentrated wort(I think?) to compensate.
Any comments on this welcomed 👍

 

[Breameister]

It might just be me,probably is but I did my fourth BIAB last night,poured 21 litres into my 30l (supposedly) boiler and added 5.5kg if grain,it was filled to the brim almost,overnight mash,took out and dunk sparged with 5litres of water and added this,again filled to the brim,boiled for 45 mins and poured into my FV, left with 18.5 litres? I added 4 litres of water (don't even know if you can do this?)

OG is 1055 so happy with that but it's not a 30l boiler. I'm making concentrated wort(I think?) to compensate.

Any comments on this welcomed [emoji106]

I have a 20 litre burco and tried a biab but could not get the quantity I needed. So now just use it as a means to heat sparge water.


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[chewie]

Your grain has a dry volume of around 13 litres, approx 400g of crushed grain is about 1 litre volume, it has absorbed in around 5 litres overnight with also probably a bit of evaporation in that. With the short boil probably around another 2-3 litres lost. You need to allow more water in your total to take the place of the grain (not just what it would absorb), typically i have around 32-34 litres after the grain is removed 17litres for mash with another 15-17l put in for sparging.

 

[aamcle]

Have a look at https://www.rackers.org/calcs.shtml mash volume calculator and remember if your vessel is a bit small you can make wort with a higher SG and dilute it to get more volume.


ATB. aamcle

 

[Gerryjo]

I calibrated my 30 litre Burco recently and what you also need to bear in mind that it has a 30 litre capacity for hot water but only a 27 litre capacity for boiling plus your boil off and this also has to be taken into consideration.

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[Ajhutch]

It might just be me,probably is but I did my fourth BIAB last night,poured 21 litres into my 30l (supposedly) boiler and added 5.5kg if grain,it was filled to the brim almost,overnight mash,took out and dunk sparged with 5litres of water and added this,again filled to the brim,boiled for 45 mins and poured into my FV, left with 18.5 litres? I added 4 litres of water (don't even know if you can do this?)
OG is 1055 so happy with that but it's not a 30l boiler. I'm making concentrated wort(I think?) to compensate.
Any comments on this welcomed 👍

I might be misunderstanding some of this because it doesn't seem entirely consistent, can I clarify my understanding?

You said that 21 litres of water plus 5.5kg of grains filled the Burco to the brim*. You then said you dunk sparged in 5 litres of water and added that and the boiler was full to the brim again. So you've used a total of 26 litres of water (of which some will be lost to the grains) but your boiler is full. Have I understood that right?

*This sounds reasonable to me based on my experience, I do 15 litre batches of full BIAB which use 21-23 litres of water depending on the grain bill, in a 30 litre (verified by weight of water) boiler so I'm with you so far.

 

[pms67]

I might be misunderstanding some of this because it doesn't seem entirely consistent, can I clarify my understanding?

You said that 21 litres of water plus 5.5kg of grains filled the Burco to the brim*. You then said you dunk sparged in 5 litres of water and added that and the boiler was full to the brim again. So you've used a total of 26 litres of water (of which some will be lost to the grains) but your boiler is full. Have I understood that right?

*This sounds reasonable to me based on my experience, I do 15 litre batches of full BIAB which use 21-23 litres of water depending on the grain bill, in a 30 litre (verified by weight of water) boiler so I'm with you so far.

Yes,apologies if I'm making it sound a bit muddled! Mine seems to be filled to the top almost with what's left after the mash and 5 litres added.
I used 21 to mash, was maybe left with 18? Then added the 5 so by my reckoning the thing was almost full with 23 litres!
I must test it by filling my fv to 30l and trying to fill it 🙄
No way can mine take 30 litres

 

[pms67]

Can anyone tell me something I should know anyway?
Was it ok that I topped my fv up from 18.5 litres with cold water?
I ended up with 1055 so surely it's just diluting a stronger wort?
Don't all laugh at once if this is wrong 👍

 

[Ajhutch]

Can anyone tell me something I should know anyway?
Was it ok that I topped my fv up from 18.5 litres with cold water?
I ended up with 1055 so surely it's just diluting a stronger wort?
Don't all laugh at once if this is wrong 👍

That's absolutely fine.

 

[Ajhutch]

Yes,apologies if I'm making it sound a bit muddled! Mine seems to be filled to the top almost with what's left after the mash and 5 litres added.
I used 21 to mash, was maybe left with 18? Then added the 5 so by my reckoning the thing was almost full with 23 litres!
I must test it by filling my fv to 30l and trying to fill it 🙄
No way can mine take 30 litres

Yep, it sounds like a calibration exercise is in order.

The other thing I can't quite get my head around is that your soaked grain bill seems to have a volume of 5 litres (you pulled that out and replaced it with 5 litres of sparge water and the boiler was full before and after). I'd have thought the soaked grains would take up more space than that. I'm brewing a full BIAB batch this weekend which will pretty much fill my boiler so I'll take some photos and send them to you for comparison.

 

[pms67]

I should take pictures,I made the recipe up last minute stuff (I know)
It was 5kg of Golden Promise
500g Carapils
200g of Oats
10g Citra and 10g Mouteka at 45 mins
40g Citra and 40g Mouteka at 5 mins
It's a Mangrove Jacks lager yeast
I was going to dryhop with 50g Mouteka and 50g of something else as I have ran out of Citra, maybe Amarillo maybe?
I have no idea if this will work,could be the worst thing ever, I was hoping for something like a Long White Cloud taste but could end up with a bitter Carlsberg 😂
I must get better organised and get some brewing software

 

[BeerCat]

I should take pictures,I made the recipe up last minute stuff (I know)
It was 5kg of Golden Promise
500g Carapils
200g of Oats
10g Citra and 10g Mouteka at 45 mins
40g Citra and 40g Mouteka at 5 mins
It's a Mangrove Jacks lager yeast
I was going to dryhop with 50g Mouteka and 50g of something else as I have ran out of Citra, maybe Amarillo maybe?
I have no idea if this will work,could be the worst thing ever, I was hoping for something like a Long White Cloud taste but could end up with a bitter Carlsberg 😂
I must get better organised and get some brewing software

Personally i would drop the oats, half the carapils and mash low. If you keep getting a short volume you could top up with boiling water or cold water at the end. I have a 32l pot and often only get 20l due to boil off.

 

[Cwrw666]

It might just be me,probably is but I did my fourth BIAB last night,poured 21 litres into my 30l (supposedly) boiler and added 5.5kg if grain,it was filled to the brim almost,overnight mash,took out and dunk sparged with 5litres of water and added this,again filled to the brim,boiled for 45 mins and poured into my FV, left with 18.5 litres? I added 4 litres of water (don't even know if you can do this?)
OG is 1055 so happy with that but it's not a 30l boiler. I'm making concentrated wort(I think?) to compensate.
Any comments on this welcomed 👍

I've got a 30L Ace boiler. I add about 4 gallons of water and bring it up to mash temp. Then in goes the bag and add grains for a full 23L BIAB brew. After the mash I hoist up the grain bag and squeeze it out, then dunk sparge the bag in an FV with enough hot water to cover the bag. This then is added back to the boiler. I need at least 2 inches less wort than the top of the boiler to avoid a boilover. During the boil I add occasional kettlefuls of boiling water to keep the volume up and when I transfer to the FV I usually have near enough 5 gallons (23L) of wort. If it's less I top up with boiled water.
So yes, I'm using a concentrated wort and diluting to get the volume right. The beer it produces is great and currently my efficiency is way better than what Greg Hughes gives for his recipes using a 3 tier system.
For best results grind your own pale malt - the difference is amazing.

 

[pms67]

Cheers guys,thanks for the tips,as far as the hops go I just guesstimated 🙄
Brewing software is a must for me.
Anyone recommend an idiot proof one?

 

[Badseed1974]

Cheers guys,thanks for the tips,as far as the hops go I just guesstimated 🙄
Brewing software is a must for me.
Anyone recommend an idiot proof one?

Brew Mate seems the easiest of the ones I've tried.

 

[Ajhutch]

I like BeerSmith mobile.


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[pms67]

I bottled this last night,it came out at 1010
What's the call again for abv?
Started at 1055

Filled and capped 10 bottles then remembered I hadn't added any priming sugar 😡

 

[Zephyr259]

%abv = (og - fg) × 131.25

In your case it's 5.9%. Pretty good attenuation, 82% so maybe stronger than intended?

 

[pms67]

%abv = (og - fg) × 131.25

In your case it's 5.9%. Pretty good attenuation, 82% so maybe stronger than intended?

Yes,I thought I would end up with maybe 5% , probably my 24hr mash 😳
Ive filled two minikegs so must be careful 👍
Thanks

 

[Zephyr259]

No worries, you're welcome. Yeah, I guess such a long mash could lower the dextrins in the wort. How much does the temp fall in that time?