Question (im mid brew)

[neil007]

Hi

Im mid way through an all grain (well its in the tun anyway). I am brewing 23 litres, i have lots of treated water.

I am still confused on how to deal with evaporation and the trub to end up with 23 litres. So any help
appreciated.

My boiler holds around 27 litres for safe boiling. As I understand it I need to sparge our as much as poss, but I need to account for evaporation (15%) and the trub (say 4 litres). So I need a wort of of around 23+7.5l = 30.5. I cant fit that in my boiler. Is it a case of simply adding more water at the end or mid boil? Will this dilute the strength? And if I cant sparge 30.5l do I top up with water anyway?

Cheers

(back to the garage :wha: )

 

[Muddydisco]

You don't want to add water, if you can Sparge out the tun your full 32 ltrs then use this to top up the boiler as you loose to evaporation. Store the excess in jugs or your fermentor :thumb:

If you don't get the full amount out of the sparge you can always top up with water but depending on your efficency you may be weakening the ABV.

 

[Dunfie]

Hi Neil

Don't stress

First off you don't need to sparge as much as possible. Simply predetermine the amount you need for the boil and sparge that amount (its easy if you batch sparge). If you have too much wort then you can save some and add as you go but you want to ensure that everything gets a hot break so make sure the additions get at least 20-30 mins.

Depending on your boiler you may have overestimated the trub a wee bit but you won't know your own system until you try it.

Many breweries brew to a higher gravity and ibu and liquor back as required. So you may find that you end up with less than expected but with a higher OG - in that case just add some water until you get the gravity you need.

 

[Swift Pint]

Wait and top up in the fermenter, if at all.

Adding water to the fermentor isn't a problem. Loads of people do a partial boil to create a super concertrated wort which they mix with cold water in the fermentor. This wont dilute the strength or flavour of the beer, assuming that the final mixture of the wort you boil + the water you add to the fermenter results in the starting gravity you were hoping for.

When you've finished your boil, cooled your wort & transferred it to the fermenter see what your volume and gravity is.
I'd be more worried about hitting your target O.G than your target volume, so I'd top up in the fermenter but only if this doesn't result in an O.G which is lower than you were shooting for. i.e if you are brewing a 1.040 beer and you end up with 20l of 1.040 wort, then I'd leave it. Adding the extra water would dilute the strength of the beer in this case.

Are you fly sparging? If you stop sparging when you've collected 27litres then you will have got most of the sweet sugar from the mash, the wort coming out at the end of the sparge will be low lowest gravity and quite diluted so by stopping a few litres short isn't going to be to big an issue.

Hope this helps!

 

[Swift Pint]

hehe, beaten to it!

 

[neil007]

Thanks for the advice chaps. I have finished sparging (fly sparge with perforated tin foil). However, the spargings got very watery so Ive stopped at 24litres. Now in the boiler. So not really sure what this means :wha:

 

[neil007]

ah re-read the thread, I guess boil, will be left with less than 20 litres and then see what the OG is.

5 hours in and im knackered ( i boiled the water first)

need a beer later :

 

[Dunfie]

Thanks for the advice chaps. I have finished sparging (fly sparge with perforated tin foil). However, the spargings got very watery so Ive stopped at 24litres. Now in the boiler. So not really sure what this means :wha:

When fly sparging the recommendation is to keep going until you get a reading of about 1006 (remember to correct for temperature if you are reading with a hydrometer).

 

[neil007]

Thanks to all that helped earlier.

In the end I got 18.5litres.1064 gravity, adjusted for 40C = 1071. I could top up with water, but have none treated, to reach target OG of 1058, but will leave it. According to calcs that should mean final gravity of 1015 = 7.5%. :

 

[Dunfie]

You can always add the treated water at the end of fermentation.