Water quantity calculations

[Matt]

I recently fitted a hop filter - the copper manifold type from H&G and was surprised at what seemed like a lot more wort sacrificed to the hop bed in my bv. So I'm scratching my head about what to allow for this, and my general calculations seem a bit hit and miss.

Papazian has a breakdown of water calcs, but I wondered if anyone has a simple equation I can adopt?

Cheers,
Matt

[Matt]

Hi DaaB,

Fly. With a spinny.

OK. For sparge water quantity, is it correct to start with the equivalent of your desired post-boil volume?

Are there any sanitation considerations when adding the cold water for gravity adjustments - cooled boiled water, or straight out the filter jug?

[tubby_shaw]

I recently fitted a hop filter - the copper manifold type from H&G and was surprised at what seemed like a lot more wort sacrificed to the hop bed in my bv. So I'm scratching my head about what to allow for this, and my general calculations seem a bit hit and miss.

Papazian has a breakdown of water calcs, but I wondered if anyone has a simple equation I can adopt?

Cheers,
Matt

To recover the extract that is trapped by the hops use your spinny sparger with boiling water to wash the extract out of the hops, this way you don't need to use any calcs

[Doingatun]

I'll usualy collect a few litres more than required which get added during the boil.

The extra wort added to the boil replacing evaporation loss, is this added as collected from MT at sparge temp or boiled separately in a pan and added as required boiling.

If added at sparged temp will it slow/stop the boil and affect the hot break?[/quote]

[Matt]

Fill up the HLT with 3L of water per kg of grain plus a little extra because I can't fully drain my boiler. (2-3L/kg is fine).

For sparging I always heat the same quantity of sparge water as my final volume, this allows for the water I cant drain and lets me keep enough of a head of water to keep the spinny spager going.

Roger that DaaB. I'm using this method for a brew tomorrow.

I'm scratching my head a little about hop sparging though - I'll need to remove the immersion chiller, and will have fv full of chilled wort below, so won't the sparged water bring the temp back up once added to the fv? Or is it negligable? Any advice on that Tubby?

Cheers,
Matt

[tubby_shaw]

I remove my immersion chiller before I drop into the FV, I've been stirring the bitter wort for better heat extraction, so everything is turbid any way.
Removing the coil also gives me an idea of how much volume I have in the boiler and how much hop sparge liquor I need.
I don't do water requirement calcs.
All the hop sparge is, is a method of rinsing/diluting the extract trapped in the hops/break material.
As for raising the temp. of the bitter wort that is desirable
For an efficient cold break you need to cool the wort to below 20 C, to give the yeast a good start it should be pitched at 22 to 24 C.
Adding 2 or 3 litres of liquor at 75 - 80º C(it will cool significantly between kettle and FV) to 20+ litres of bitter wort at <20º C will raise the temp. by around 2º C.
Job's a good un as they say

[Matt]

As for raising the temp. of the bitter wort that is desirable
For an efficient cold break you need to cool the wort to below 20 C, to give the yeast a good start it should be pitched at 22 to 24 C.
Adding 2 or 3 litres of liquor at 75 - 80º C(it will cool significantly between kettle and FV) to 20+ litres of bitter wort at <20º C will raise the temp. by around 2º C.
Job's a good un as they say

Got it.

Very neat TS. I'll use this tomorrow.

Cheers,
Matt

[tubby_shaw]

Glad I could help
Good luck with the brew tomorrow

[Matt]

[tubby_shaw]

Did you get to brew today Matt ? If so how did it go ?

[Matt]

Hi TS,

I did indeed, and it went very well. I've got a static 3 tier set up, and I couldn't work out how to supply the water to rig up my spinny over the top of the bv, so I er 'batch' sparged it by just rinsing the hops with a kettle full of water. (Sound OK?).

It sorted out my volume woes and I am a happy man with 22 litres @ 1052 in the fv tonight.

Thanks for your help mate

Matt

[tubby_shaw]

Nice work Matt
Thats pretty much how I sparge my hops, I just pour the hot water down the side of the boiler and try not to disturb the trub too much