Factoring in Equipment Losses

[Redwulf]

I've been doing a couple of experiments after my last couple of brews to workout what my losses are and how I factor that in to recipes and I am curious how people factoring in their losses.

So from beginning to end I lose the following.

1L/KG to absorption
1L Mash Tun Deadspace
4L Evaporation
3L Kettle Deadspace /Trub Loss. (I can get this down to 1L if I mess around sieving)

The Mash Tun and Grain Losses are easy enough to deal with, but increasing the mash liquor volume to compensate and get the 27 pre-boil volume in the Kettle.

I'm curious how you factor in Deadspace/Trub Loss without having to fanny about.

Do you rework the recipe for 26 litres and achieve the numbers that way and get 23 litres of clean wort or just write off the 1-3 litre loss as the cost of doing business so to speak and accept that when you brew a 23L Kit you are looking at 21-22 Litres in the FV?

Of course I could just be overthinking the whole thing.

 

[UKSkydiver]

You will no doubt get a better answer, but do you use brewing software?

You're already most of the way there knowing what your losses are.

I use BrewFather and you input all this gubbins in to your equipment profile. You then tell it (for example) the volume you want to put in the fermenter and it works out the strike and (if appropriate) sparge water to start off with.

e.g. for an 11 litre batch my values are:

A little while ago someone ese mentioned that you can't edit the equipment profile on the evaluation version of the software. At that point I had already done about 3 brews using it, I was about to build an iSpindel to link to it, so I just bought the full subscription anyway.

 

[Redwulf]

You will no doubt get a better answer, but do you use brewing software?

You're already most of the way there knowing what your losses are.

I use BrewFather and you input all this gubbins in to your equipment profile. You then tell it (for example) the volume you want to put in the fermenter and it works out the strike and (if appropriate) sparge water to start off with.

I was just having a look at Brewfather....I've been using Brewers friend up to now but it can be a little flaky.

 

[Drunkula]

Put the recipe into Beersmith, compare the efficiency what you actually get then as you do more brews you start homing into a realistic value.

For a while I was lying to myself and using the amount going into the fermenter and had efficiency at 79%, then changed to to the amount bottled and it's about 73%.

If you're doing the same size batches then accounting for it as deadspace and stuff doesn't matter so I just leave them at zero and base it on the efficiency figure.

When you change your brand of base malt you might need to start jiggling things again because their extraction differs.

 

[Stonedhouse]

I base my brews around wanting to get 19 litres in to my kegs and use the following losses for my Robobrew - 1 ltr per kg for grain absorption, up to 1 ltr per 100g hops (I use a hop spider), 3.5l to 4.5l for boil evaporation, 2.5 ltr deadspace in Robobrew below tap (if I'm not tilting it) and then 1 to 2 ltr fermenter trub loss. If I am following a specific recipe it depends on the individual batch qty of that recipe ie if it's a 23 litre batch then that gives enough of a grain bill to allow me to ignore the losses that get left in the vessels, but say if it is a 19ltr recipe I then increase the grain and hop bill accordingly to around a 21-23 Ltr recipe to allow me to up the water quantities. I try not to get too hung up on efficiencies, more so just getting the process consistent and you then get a feel for things.

 

[Zephyr259]

I use the grainfather recipe builder, I tell it my batch size (vol in FV), kettle losses and mash efficiency and it takes it from there. It's working out the OG and IBU based on my batch size + losses.

What kind of kettle are you using that has a 3L dead volume? Grainfather quotes 2L but I always tip it towards the end and generally only have 1.5L left including all the trub.

 

[Redwulf]

I use the grainfather recipe builder, I tell it my batch size (vol in FV), kettle losses and mash efficiency and it takes it from there. It's working out the OG and IBU based on my batch size + losses.

What kind of kettle are you using that has a 3L dead volume? Grainfather quotes 2L but I always tip it towards the end and generally only have 1.5L left including all the trub.

Its a just a peco mash bin. It stops flowing with 3L left I can probably get half of that out of it if I tip it and sieve it.