Volume way off!

[madonion]

I have been getting some all grain kits from Get er brewed for using in my grainfather and so far all 3 fell way short of final volume. My last (tonights) required 28l at boil stage but I finished with just 17l. Never had issues with other kits such as brewolution. Are these kits not suitable for the Grainfather or is it me??

 

[Slid]

I have been getting some all grain kits from Get er brewed for using in my grainfather and so far all 3 fell way short of final volume. My last (tonights) required 28l at boil stage but I finished with just 17l. Never had issues with other kits such as brewolution. Are these kits not suitable for the Grainfather or is it me??

Could you please outline the volumes that you are mashing / sparging and then boiling with?

The numbers you quote seem so odd that any advice will have to be consequent on some more specifics, I fear.

 

[madonion]

Could you please outline the volumes that you are mashing / sparging and then boiling with?

The numbers you quote seem so odd that any advice will have to be consequent on some more specifics, I fear.

Mashing with 18l and sparging with 10l as per instructions. Looked low after sparge so added another 2l of sparge water.

 

[Grizzly299]

It depends on your boil time, which should be 1hr for most brews ( 90 minutes for recipes containing a high percentage of pilsner malt).

I have read that the grainfather boils off between 2l and 2.5l/hour.

 

[madonion]

Yes it was a 60 minute boil. Nothing fancy. Just a bit fed up wasting money now. If its down to me then fair enough but I'm not sure it is. 18l strike plus 10l sparge and another 2l sparge is 30l - taking into account boil off and water retention in the grain I should easily end up at 23l!!!

 

[chewie]

Grainfather usually needs about 33l combined total to hit your 23l target, use the GF calculators https://www.grainfather.com/brewing-calculators

 

[Grizzly299]

Yes it was a 60 minute boil. Nothing fancy. Just a bit fed up wasting money now. If its down to me then fair enough but I'm not sure it is. 18l strike plus 10l sparge and another 2l sparge is 30l - taking into account boil off and water retention in the grain I should easily end up at 23l!!!

Give me a grain quantity in kg and hop quantity in grams( if you're using whole leaf) please

 

[Grizzly299]

Grain will absorb approx 1.04 times its own weight in water and whole leaf hops will absorb around 12ml/gram.

Those are the figures that I use in the Grizzly Brews Excel brew calculator and I consistently hit volume targets.

Other than that I can't offer any advice as I'm not familiar with the dead space and wastage characteristics of the grainfather.

 

[madonion]

Give me a grain quantity in kg and hop quantity in grams( if you're using whole leaf) please

7.2kg of grain and I was using hop pellets. Ta

 

[Grizzly299]

Okay, so that's 10L gone, between the boil and grain absorbtion. So, we're down to 20L. Only 3 more litres. Add another 2-3 Litres or so for dead space losses and your down to 17L

 

[Slid]

7.2kg of grain and I was using hop pellets. Ta

That is great information guys.

The answers are here in the numbers. As regards the original question, the basic answer is that 7.2kg of grain is going to absorb pretty much 6L of water, especially first time out.

Totally agree that these details are in there in the instructions, but they are easy to miss first time around.

So you need pretty much a total of 36L of water for 25L in the FV for a Grainfather brew. (This is my rule of thumb).

(Add another litre if you get bored with dribbling the last bit out or bung in loads of hops.)

Returning to question of the brew - bung in some more water if you want it as per recipe. Add some cane sugar - 200g for instance - all will be fine.

 

[madonion]

That is great information guys.

The answers are here in the numbers. As regards the original question, the basic answer is that 7.2kg of grain is going to absorb pretty much 6L of water, especially first time out.

Totally agree that these details are in there in the instructions, but they are easy to miss first time around.

So you need pretty much a total of 36L of water for 25L in the FV for a Grainfather brew. (This is my rule of thumb).

(Add another litre if you get bored with dribbling the last bit out or bung in loads of hops.)

Returning to question of the brew - bung in some more water if you want it as per recipe. Add some cane sugar - 200g for instance - all will be fine.

Thanks for the reply - I have put the fermenter in my fermenting fridge now so when should I add more water? Asap? Presume I need to boil it and cool it first. My fermenting fridge will take care of the rest.

 

[MagnusTS]

Just checking, but are you using the mash and sparge water volumes from the instructions that came with the grain kit, or are you using the volumes that the Grainfather app calculates based on grain weight etc.

 

[madonion]

Just checking, but are you using the mash and sparge water volumes from the instructions that came with the grain kit, or are you using the volumes that the Grainfather app calculates based on grain weight etc.

From the kit. Wasn't even aware of the calculator until this post!

 

[chewie]

From the kit. Wasn't even aware of the calculator until this post!

Post number 6 in this thread

 

[MyQul]

You can add top up water whenever you like. Just do it at bottling time for convience (just make sure you give it a thorough but gentle stir after you add it)

Ideally you should boil and cool the top up water but I never do for my maxi-biabs cuz I'm too lazy to do it and have never had a problem

 

[MagnusTS]

From the kit. Wasn't even aware of the calculator until this post!

The volumes from the GF calculator that Chewie linked to will get you closer to correct final volume as they take into account all the factors specific to the Grainfather for example the deadspace and boil off rate.

I'm still coming up a bit short on final volume, but I think that might be my incompetence rather than the calculated water volumes being off.