After a successful first brewday and a brief pause to use up my stock of kits, tomorrow is to be "AG2".
My first attempt was a slight modification to Jim's stock bitter recipe and I plan to do the same again, but to a double corny length. Trouble is by my calculations I will be struggling with capacity which seems strange as 1st time around the boiler looked well under half full (barley a third full in fact), especially as i stopped the sparge earlier then anticipated (more on that later) but I still comfortably filled a single corny.
I want to keg 2 times 19 litres, so 38 litres.
I want 1 liter for testing during the primary / secondary fermenting stages and 2 liters lost to trub in the fermenter, so 41 liters goes into the fermenter. To get that I calculate I need to boil 51 to allow for evaporation and hot trub. This is the target I will sparge to. trouble is that's just over 11 gallons and I have a 10 gallon boiler. Either my calculations are amiss somewhere or the boiler holds considerably more than the advertised 10 gallons.
At first attempt i stopped sparging early as I hit the 1.010 mark, however when I emptied the mash tun the dregs came out much higher, which makes me think I was "channelling" water thru, so I will make changes to try and stop that.
The questions are ....
what should I do to stop the "channelling"?
what is the best way to handle a volume greater than the boiler, can I add wort during the boil, or should I boil in two batches.
If I reach 1.010 on the sparge I will stop, but if at my required 52l I am still sparging above this, should I continue or does it improve the finished product to stop anyway, thus leaving some of the sugars still in the mash tun?
with a grain bill of around 9kg (7.5 pale, 0.75 crystal, 0.75 torrified wheat) what amount of water should I use when doughing in?
42l brew
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steve_flack
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Chiltern Brewer
This is actually near enough the brew length I have switched to... I have a 50 litre boiler, a 36 litre MT, and aim to fill two cornies which I call 2 x 18 litres = 36 litre batch length.
I went with Ray Daniel's calculation for how much water to use - just remember his workings are in US gallons. I allow 4 litres for trub/hop/standing water losses which means 40 litres final boil volume, then allowing for evaporation and shrinkage means I start off with ~46 litres. In my boiler that's ~4cm from the brim:
For a typical brew I'll use 9Kg of grist too so the water left behind in the MT:
160% x 9kg = ~14 litres
Total starting water ~60 liters
The size of my MT dictates a stiffer mash say ~20 litres.
Anyway, I find this works for me - starting with 60 litres (or a few litres over) and stopping sparging when I run out or have collected 46-48 litres in the boiler. You seem to be allowing more for shrinkage and evaporation than I do? Even so there is a simple solution - work to the capacity of your boiler and top up/dilute the wort in your FV.
I went with Ray Daniel's calculation for how much water to use - just remember his workings are in US gallons. I allow 4 litres for trub/hop/standing water losses which means 40 litres final boil volume, then allowing for evaporation and shrinkage means I start off with ~46 litres. In my boiler that's ~4cm from the brim:
For a typical brew I'll use 9Kg of grist too so the water left behind in the MT:
160% x 9kg = ~14 litres
Total starting water ~60 liters
The size of my MT dictates a stiffer mash say ~20 litres.
Anyway, I find this works for me - starting with 60 litres (or a few litres over) and stopping sparging when I run out or have collected 46-48 litres in the boiler. You seem to be allowing more for shrinkage and evaporation than I do? Even so there is a simple solution - work to the capacity of your boiler and top up/dilute the wort in your FV.
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confused
Thanks folks
being able to lean on your experience is a massive help.
CB - good to get a take on your volumes, I may be accounting for too great a loss based on my experience with a single length, theoretically the loss as a % should be less with the greater volume in the boil. I had also worked out that the volume in the mash tun would allow me a ratio of 2.2 at best (though the lit says it can mash up to 10kg, I think that must be at 2)
I'll run that up the flag pole and see if lightning strikes.
being able to lean on your experience is a massive help.
CB - good to get a take on your volumes, I may be accounting for too great a loss based on my experience with a single length, theoretically the loss as a % should be less with the greater volume in the boil. I had also worked out that the volume in the mash tun would allow me a ratio of 2.2 at best (though the lit says it can mash up to 10kg, I think that must be at 2)
I'll run that up the flag pole and see if lightning strikes.