liquering back Q

[Andyhull]

Are ther any cons to liquering back.

23lt fermentable volume brew.

Start with 25lt pre-boil and boil for 90mins and end up with approx 18lt end of boil volume
Then liquer back 5lt to 23 litres for final volume.

Will any flavours aromas be lost doing a brew this way?

Andy

 

[andylanc1975]

Will be keeping an eye on this topic as I was going to ask the same question! :thumb:

 

[olriley]

I usually liquor back a bit because my FV and Burco are not big enough to accomodate a large enough pre-boil volume.
Not noticed any detrimental effects but I'm not an expert.
Olly

 

[RobWalker]

at those volumes it doesn't create any issues to my knowledge. the only thing you MIGHT run into is with particularly big IPA's etc, you begin to run low on boiler space with the amount of hops in there. I used to sparge the hop bag into my top up water afterwards to extract some of the good stuff that would be binned :p

 

[jonnymorris]

Put it this way... if you started with 15L, got down to 8L and topped up to 23L what would the beer be like? Thin/watery/no mouthfeel, less bitter/hoppy, less malty, less aroma, lower ABV etc. Clearly I'm exaggerating and adding 5L will be no where as bad though, IMHO, 5L still sounds quite a lot to add to an 18L brew.

In my experience, I've liquored back to reduce the ABV to closer to my target rather than to necessarily increase my volume. If you designed your brew to be stronger at 18L with a view to liquoring back I guess these issues would be less of a problem though you'd have to take hop utilisation into account among other things and it'd be harder to get the malt/bitter/aroma/ABV balance you're aiming for.

 

[JulesRS]

Just add more hops to the boil to allow for the additional water being added, in my experience it works out fine.

 

[RobWalker]

utilization between a few litres will probably be minimal - i sorta assumed he'd be compensating for his OG too, no point liquoring back further!

for the record as well, i've added the extra water in the keg and gave it a good shake. watery at first, tastes great after 3 days.

 

[jonnymorris]

i sorta assumed he'd be compensating for his OG too...

I kind-of realised that half way through but kept going regardless.