Brewing decent beer, but...

[peteplus1]

.. more by luck than judgement maybe!

My last brew fell way short of the (volume) mark and I simply need to know if I could have topped up with pre boiled water (is the technical term 'liquor back'?)

I forgot to measure the pre boil gravity and I'm guessing it was way off given my ridiculously high OG. Hence instead of a 23L batch of 5% amarillo pale I have ended up with a mere 15L of 7.5 (Hopefully still drinkable of course but not what I planned).

Been following guides on here and learned so much up to this stage (5 AG brews). Is this liquoring back a simple step that I've missed to get the desired volume?

 

[Covrich]

Every day is a school day. the difference in water will be why its so strong... You "may" find the balance isn't quite what you want and you may also find it takes a longer time to condition as you may get an aloholic taste early doors.. 8 Liters is quite a way out though, do you know where the defecit comes from??

 

[peteplus1]

8 Liters is quite a way out though, do you know where the defecit comes from??

Im not taking time to write down my figures as I go through the process so need to rectify that! I presumed it fell short when I didn't top up (liquor back) after sparging? To achieve the correct BG reading ? If this figure was way off and was corrected by the additional water, the volume would more than likely been up at 27L or something. Then through boil off losses, dead space, hops etc I would maybe have come out with somewhere near the desired 23L ?

 

[Covrich]

Im not taking time to write down my figures as I go through the process so need to rectify that! I presumed it fell short when I didn't top up (liquor back) after sparging? To achieve the correct BG reading ? If this figure was way off and was corrected by the additional water, the volume would more than likely been up at 27L or something. Then through boil off losses, dead space, hops etc I would maybe have come out with somewhere near the desired 23L ?

Yes pretty much, the thing is everyones setup will be different have differnet boil off rates ect.

I don't do a sparge as I do full volume BIAB .. For this I add all the water to my pot before I start and this is mashed in and mashed out and then boiled..

Depends on teh grain bill but for a 5% beer I need roughly 32liters of water altogether.. I will loose around 4-5liters in the mash through grain absorbtion this gives me 27 or so liters which after boil I get somewhere between 23-25 liters.. I accept I loose a liter or so to trub.

So what I would suggest is splitting up and looking at how much water you mash and sparge with.. but it depends on your equipment. What equipment do you use?

 

[Cwrw666]

My boiler is too small (30L) so I do my boil with 23L of wort and while it's boiling I keep topping it up with occasional kettlefuls of boiling water so I finish with 23L of wort. Works well for me and reduces the risk if a boilover.

 

[peteplus1]

I'm at a very basic set up! Peco boiler and converted cool box mash tun . Sparge through a shower hose and head. Worked well enough for these first 5 brews, efficiency now I use brewers friend's calculator seems to be between 70 and 75%

 

[geetee]

I usually check the gravity after the boil and the volume of beer in litres. if the gravity is high you can liquor back in ratio to the present gravity/target gravity. Use previously boiled water to do this. This method corrects for any shortages of water used in teh sparge.
It's more difficult if your gravity is low than the only option is continue to boil but you will lose hop flavour doing so