Question on hitting boil volume

[alsch890]

Hi there,

This post might win some awards for dumbness but here goes...

I have been brewing a while now and overall I am pretty satisfied with my progress. I didn't brew anything I had to pour down the loo yet anyway. However seems like every brew I do I end up approx 5 litres short of the boil volume, e.g. for standard recipes after sparging I end up with about 21-22 litres of wort, not the 27 the recipe calls for. So my beers often end up (quite) a bit stronger than intended. I stop sparging when the hydrometer reads 1.010 (after adjusting for temperature) or thereabouts.

To be honest I don't mind having this amount of finished product, I'd just like it to be at the strength intended. :whistle:

Any ideas. Should I pre-empt it by reducing my grain bill? would you add water to the wort?

Cheers,

Allan

 

[IainM]

How do you calculate your volumes? Perhaps you are missing out grain absorption, or overestimating your sparge water and stopping the sparge with 5L leftover liquor? At any rate, you can dilute at any stage.

 

[alsch890]

Thanks Iain. I always measure the sparge water but generally stop when the hydrometer hits 1.010 even though I have 5l left in the tank so to speak. Should I be adding that water to the wort then?

 

[chewie]

I always measure the sparge water but generally stop when the hydrometer hits 1.010 even though I have 5l left in the tank so to speak. Should I be adding that water to the wort then?

I'm not following you about hitting 1.010 gravity when sparging, you need to sparge with the full amount of water for two reasons, 1st to get you to your correct amount to allow for boil/grain absorption/dead space so that you hit the desired batch quantity. 2nd to ensure you get as much of the sugars washed out of the grain to hit the desired/expected gravity.

After you have added the full amount of sparge water take a small sample pre boil for a gravity check and again after the boil once the wort is down to pitch temps. If you are still short after the boil just add a kettle or two of boiled water.

 

[alsch890]

I have always been under the impression I should stop sparging once the hydrometer reads approximately 1.010 (adjusted for temp) in order to prevent astringency from tannins from being extracted from the grain into the wort.

http://beersmith.com/blog/2015/10/2...ains-oversparging-and-hot-sparging-your-beer/

 

[stigman]

You could always just batch sparge. That's what works for me.

 

[Thumper]

If you're 5l short of your Pre boil volume, and you're leaving 5l of sparging liquor in the tank, then I think the mystery is solved.

I admit to being something of a novice, but I've never heard of oversparging in the sense you use it. And on reading that article, the issue seems to be sparging too hot or too alkaline, rather than the Pre boil SG of the wort.

I'd just sparge with the full volume of water, regardless of the SG.

 

[chewie]

Read on down just below the part where the author says about reading the runnings, sparging with water that is to hot is the thing to be avoided. Just mash and circulate (if possible) then drain and start to sparge (most folk sparge a few degrees above mash temp) the correct amount as quickly as possible to avoid temp drop, try to keep the flow of sparge water out at the same rate as the run of until the sparge water has gone.

 

[alsch890]

Ah OK, I'll give it a try then. To be honest I first read about the over-sparging thing in the Greg Hughes book before brewing my first batch, he also notes not to let the runnings go below 1.010. Hence, I simply assumed it was standard practice.

 

[photek1000]

Not my video but I found this very handy when working out how to set my water calculations for my equipment.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8mEJ_WTJ2o[/ame]

I now have the basic calcs in an excel sheet for a quick and easy water volume check

 

[Ciaran12s]

I'm a bit confused about all this myself. Next brew I plan to mash at say 65. So after an hour or two that's going to be 63 say. I plan to add water at 90ish just a litre maybe a half litre at time. Stir and check the temperature throughout the bed. Repeat until the temperature gets up to 77/78. Once I'm there I'll probably have to cool my boiler contents down a bit so I can then start sparging with water at 82ish.

The aim here is to get the grains to 77/78 and keep them up there for the duration of the sparge. Its going to be tricky with the ambient sitting a degree or two either side of 0 at the minute but I'm hoping I'll get an effeciency boost as it's been quite poor of late.

I've found that using the volumes which are right for my system I'm finished sparging and the runnings are at 1.010 or above and that's without a temp correction so it's going to be considerably higher.

It's getting the balance of time sparging and exposing everything to cool ambient and not sparging too fast at the minute. Which is making me consider batch sparge at the minute to confuse matters further.
Brewing two this week so I'll maybe try the first method first and see how it goes. If it's no use or can't see any further tweaks that'll help I'll go for a batch for the second.

I'll be glad to get all this process malarkey ironed out and nailed down! I'm losing sleep over it haha

 

[MagnusTS]

Are you fly sparging?
I often lose track of how many jugs of sparge water I have poured through the grain. But it’s not a problem, I just keep going until I hit my boil volume.
And as others have said: if you find yourself short of volume or over OG you can top up with water at any point - pre-boil; post boil; in the FV; in the bottling bucket.