Half The Desired Outcome

[Jack Turner]

Hello everyone,

As a newbie to the world of homebrewing I have currently set my self up with bit of new kit - (3 pot system/HLT/igloo coolbox mashtun/boiler etc) and have been enjoying the graduation process and outcome of a full grain brew after a year of using kits and extract brewing.

I'm following a simple pale recipe just trying to hone the skills down before experimenting further but I cannot seem to achieve more than 15L when I brew even though the ingredients and measurements are set to a 25L.

I suspect that I am not putting enough water into my mash tun to convert all sugars therefore when coming to sparge the sugar level drops quite quickly?

Gravity/PH/ all spot on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

All best,

Jack

 

[Dutto]

Welcome to the Forum!

I just don't do "precision brewing" so with regard to hitting everything but the quantity my solution is easy - just blast more water into the FV after the wort has been boiled and cooled.

I always start off in the Boiler with 30 litres of wort. By the time I have finished the Boil, cooled the wort down to 20 degrees and then transferred it to the FV the original 30 litres can be down to 19 litres. The loss can be accounted for with "boil off" (up to eight litres), loss due to removing the hops (up to two litres) and the wort left behind in the Boiler with the cold-break debris after whirl pooling (up to three litres).

All I do is to fill the FV up to the 23 litres with cold water before taking the OG and then adding yeast nutrient and pitching the yeast.

BTW I recommend that the extra water is "blasted" into the FV so that the wort is properly oxygenated before closing it up for fermentation. This process also creates a foam on top of the wort in the FV which gives any dried yeast sprinkled on top of the wort a little cushion if by any chance it is on the warm side!

Enjoy! :thumb:

 

[chewie]

Every step in your process will incur loss which needs to be allowed for before you begin.

Mash, there will be water loss as grain absorbs water. Then deadspace in the tub.

Boiling, loss of water thru evaporation, deadspace in the boiler.

Fermentation, deadspace in the FV, loss due to spillages, loss due to dry hopping, loss due to evaporation, loss due to trial jar measurement.

Bottling, loss due to spillage.

Your system will be unique to you, you need to figure out what you lose at each step and add that in.

 

[chesters-mild]

Try a thinner mash, I use 3.5 to 4 lit. of water per kilo of grain. Also the loss in the mash tun will be about 4 lit. for the usual (4 to 5 kilo) of grain per brew. I now mash for 90 min. drain the mash tun then dump 12 lit of water at 78c for a 10 min mash out / dunk sparge and get 70% efficiency. Post boil 22 lit including trub ends in the fermenter, from this I'll expect 19.5 to 20 lit. of beer.
Hope this helps & welcome to the forum

 

[Jack Turner]

Thanks everyone!
Much appreciated!

 

[foxbat]

The loss can be accounted for with "boil off" (up to eight litres),

You boil off 8 litres? :shock: Sellafield are on the phone... they want their nuclear reactor back!

 

[Dutto]

This is a "rolling boil" ...

... and with a nice breeze blowing across the top it's amazing how much is lost in just a 60 minute boil.

I would need a much bigger pot if I boiled for the 90 minutes recommended in some recipes!