Pre-boil wort volume for 11 litres brew in a bag

[davidgrace]

I recently brewed an 11 Litre all grain kit (brew in a bag). The instructions gave 11 Litres Strike water, 4-6 Litres Sparge water and a Pre-boil wort volume of 14 litres. When I bottled the beer I only got 18 500ml bottles rather than the 22 500ml bottles (11 Litres). It looks like 14 Litres for Pre-boil wort volume is wrong or I have done something wrong in losing so much liquid during the process. Any thoughts?

 

[terrym]

I suggest you look at what you have done in two stages.
Before you pitched and after.
After could include volume of trub left behind in the FV, and are you putting more than 500ml into your bottles, even 50ml extra per bottle is nearly a litre over 18 bottles
Then before could include are you accurately measuring your wort make up volumes, how much did you lose in the grain, how vigorous was the boil, and what was the final volume of wort in the FV
Only you know the answers to these sort of questions.
Others can only guess why you have ended up with less beer than planned given what you have said.

 

[jMac]

I recently brewed an 11 Litre all grain kit (brew in a bag). The instructions gave 11 Litres Strike water, 4-6 Litres Sparge water and a Pre-boil wort volume of 14 litres. When I bottled the beer I only got 18 500ml bottles rather than the 22 500ml bottles (11 Litres). It looks like 14 Litres for Pre-boil wort volume is wrong or I have done something wrong in losing so much liquid during the process. Any thoughts?

How much sparge water did you actually use? Is this as simple as the difference between 4 and 6 litres Sparge water being the 2 litres you seem to be missing?

Even if you did make the 14L pre-boil, it doesn’t seem impossible that your system losses from boil-off, kettle and fermenter trub losses might make up close to 5L (though admittedly this would be high).

I’m assuming the sparge water is given as a range so as you can achieve the correct preboil volume, taking into account your own mash losses. If you didn’t make some attempt to measure how much wort you collected after the mash, I don’t think there’s anything anyone can recommend beyond at least estimating what your pre-boil volume is in future. As you’re doing BIAB I’m not sure how you would measure this, maybe mark the inside of your kettle somehow? I sparge into an FV and just use the volume scale on that to give me a rough idea of pre-boil volume.

 

[obscure]

Speaking as someone who brews similar sized batches it’s worth seeing how much you loose to trub as well, BIAB just seems to produce a lot more trub than other methods. Throw in losses during the boil to both the atmosphere as well as to hop absorption, personally I came to the conclusion that my 11 L batches are actually yield 9L and live with it.

 

[davidgrace]

Speaking as someone who brews similar sized batches it’s worth seeing how much you loose to trub as well, BIAB just seems to produce a lot more trub than other methods. Throw in losses during the boil to both the atmosphere as well as to hop absorption, personally I came to the conclusion that my 11 L batches are actually yield 9L and live with it.

Thanks. This is very helpful.

 

[davidgrace]

Speaking as someone who brews similar sized batches it’s worth seeing how much you loose to trub as well, BIAB just seems to produce a lot more trub than other methods. Throw in losses during the boil to both the atmosphere as well as to hop absorption, personally I came to the conclusion that my 11 L batches are actually yield 9L and live with it.

Sorry, another Peco question. What is the total volume of water you use for both mashing and sparging in your 11L Peco brews? And can you also tell me how much liquid you lose during the mashing and sparging process?

 

[obscure]

Sorry, another Peco question. What is the total volume of water you use for both mashing and sparging in your 11L Peco brews? And can you also tell me how much liquid you lose during the mashing and sparging process?

Should properly say I use a 20L pot on the stove not a peco boiler so my boil off may vary, from yours,

I typically mash in 11L of water then dunk spare with 5L typically this gives me 14-15L of wort at the start although this is typically On a 4-4.5% bitter, so if you have a lot more grain you will likely have more lost to grain absorption (and if it’s a highly hopped beer to hop absorption). Typically I end up with 10.5-11L in fermentor but loose a litre or more to trub and the fact that I don’t try very hard to get the last few drops out. If I’m doing a 1.5 hour boil I tend to top up the water part way through (probably not what you should do but it works for me and I am largely happy with the beer I brew).

I have no doubt if I paid more attention and took a bit of care I could up my yield but honestly for me personally it is not worth it.

 

[davidgrace]

Should properly say I use a 20L pot on the stove not a peco boiler so my boil off may vary, from yours,

I typically mash in 11L of water then dunk spare with 5L typically this gives me 14-15L of wort at the start although this is typically On a 4-4.5% bitter, so if you have a lot more grain you will likely have more lost to grain absorption (and if it’s a highly hopped beer to hop absorption). Typically I end up with 10.5-11L in fermentor but loose a litre or more to trub and the fact that I don’t try very hard to get the last few drops out. If I’m doing a 1.5 hour boil I tend to top up the water part way through (probably not what you should do but it works for me and I am largely happy with the beer I brew).

I have no doubt if I paid more attention and took a bit of care I could up my yield but honestly for me personally it is not worth it.

Thanks again. Very very helpful.