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Author Topic: Water Volumes 2  (Read 3582 times)

Offline flbrewer

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Water Volumes 2
« on: February 08, 2015, 02:59:12 pm »
I posted something similar recently, but wanted to check something. Using this...
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

I came up with 10.73 gallons of water needed, call it 10.75. Using a mash thickness of 1.5 I used 6 gallons for strike water and 4.75 for the sparge. (Batch size was set at 6.25 gallons, 16 pounds of grain, everything else left alone)

I ended up getting 4.5 gallons of first runnings, added another 3.5 gallons from sparging giving me 8 into the boil kettle.

This seemed ok because I figured a gallon or so for boil off, another half for trub loss getting me back to the 6.5 gallon figure.

The confusing part is that the total amount of wort produced was 9.5 gallons total (another 1.5 than I needed, which I dumped).

« Last Edit: February 08, 2015, 03:09:05 pm by flbrewer »

Offline Frankenbrew

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2015, 03:01:02 pm »
How many pounds of grain?
Frank C.

And thereof comes the proverb: 'Blessing of your
heart, you brew good ale.'

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2015, 03:08:47 pm »

Offline Frankenbrew

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2015, 03:21:43 pm »
Okay, it seems like your figuring was right, but you didn't get the absorption  that you were supposed to. How was your crush? Did you have a lot of uncrushed kernals? How was your efficiency? That might lead you to where things went wrong.

I think that your decision not to use the extra wort was a good one. Did your gravity end up where you wanted it?
Frank C.

And thereof comes the proverb: 'Blessing of your
heart, you brew good ale.'

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2015, 03:27:29 pm »
Okay, it seems like your figuring was right, but you didn't get the absorption  that you were supposed to. How was your crush? Did you have a lot of uncrushed kernals? How was your efficiency? That might lead you to where things went wrong.

I think that your decision not to use the extra wort was a good one. Did your gravity end up where you wanted it?
Crush seemed fine, not sure what my efficiency is yet! I posted this elsewhere, but ended up with 1.065 vs. 1.060 that the recipe called for (post boil OG).

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #5 on: February 09, 2015, 05:05:51 pm »
I posted something similar recently, but wanted to check something. Using this...
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

I came up with 10.73 gallons of water needed, call it 10.75. Using a mash thickness of 1.5 I used 6 gallons for strike water and 4.75 for the sparge. (Batch size was set at 6.25 gallons, 16 pounds of grain, everything else left alone)

I ended up getting 4.5 gallons of first runnings, added another 3.5 gallons from sparging giving me 8 into the boil kettle.

This seemed ok because I figured a gallon or so for boil off, another half for trub loss getting me back to the 6.5 gallon figure.

The confusing part is that the total amount of wort produced was 9.5 gallons total (another 1.5 than I needed, which I dumped).

something doesnt make sense. you say you used 10.75 gals water, and collected 8 gals wort. how did you come up with 9.5 gals collected

edit: you collected 8 gallons from 10.75 gals water...that's about .17 gal/lb loss to grain absorbtion and dead space.

8 gals collected with 14% loss per hour for boil would leave you about -1gal or 7gal post boil. subtract .5 gal for trub loss and you have 6.5 gals in the fermenter.
« Last Edit: February 09, 2015, 05:10:17 pm by Wort-H.O.G. »
Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
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Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
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Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #6 on: February 09, 2015, 05:14:19 pm »
I posted something similar recently, but wanted to check something. Using this...
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

I came up with 10.73 gallons of water needed, call it 10.75. Using a mash thickness of 1.5 I used 6 gallons for strike water and 4.75 for the sparge. (Batch size was set at 6.25 gallons, 16 pounds of grain, everything else left alone)

I ended up getting 4.5 gallons of first runnings, added another 3.5 gallons from sparging giving me 8 into the boil kettle.

This seemed ok because I figured a gallon or so for boil off, another half for trub loss getting me back to the 6.5 gallon figure.

The confusing part is that the total amount of wort produced was 9.5 gallons total (another 1.5 than I needed, which I dumped).

something doesnt make sense. you say you used 10.75 gals water, and collected 8 gals wort. how did you come up with 9.5 gals collected

edit: you collected 8 gallons from 10.75 gals water...that's about .17 gal/lb loss to grain absorbtion and dead space.

8 gals collected with 14% loss per hour for boil would leave you about -1gal or 7gal post boil. subtract .5 gal for trub loss and you have 6.5 gals in the fermenter.

+1.  The 16 lbs of grain  X .12 absorption =  1.92 gallons absorbed , not even counting dead space.
Jon H.

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #7 on: February 09, 2015, 05:19:06 pm »
I posted something similar recently, but wanted to check something. Using this...
http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

I came up with 10.73 gallons of water needed, call it 10.75. Using a mash thickness of 1.5 I used 6 gallons for strike water and 4.75 for the sparge. (Batch size was set at 6.25 gallons, 16 pounds of grain, everything else left alone)

I ended up getting 4.5 gallons of first runnings, added another 3.5 gallons from sparging giving me 8 into the boil kettle.

This seemed ok because I figured a gallon or so for boil off, another half for trub loss getting me back to the 6.5 gallon figure.

The confusing part is that the total amount of wort produced was 9.5 gallons total (another 1.5 than I needed, which I dumped).

something doesnt make sense. you say you used 10.75 gals water, and collected 8 gals wort. how did you come up with 9.5 gals collected

edit: you collected 8 gallons from 10.75 gals water...that's about .17 gal/lb loss to grain absorbtion and dead space.

8 gals collected with 14% loss per hour for boil would leave you about -1gal or 7gal post boil. subtract .5 gal for trub loss and you have 6.5 gals in the fermenter.

+1.  The 16 lbs of grain  X .12 absorption =  1.92 gallons absorbed , not even counting dead space.

right that would be 1.92 gallons for grain absorption and another .8 gallon dead space.....that's a ton of loss.
Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #8 on: February 09, 2015, 05:36:25 pm »
So, a total of 2.7ish gallons of loss subtracted from the 6 gallons used to strike = 3.3 gallons of mash runoff. Add 4.75 gallons to sparge, it doesn't seem like much more than 8 gallons got into his kettle. Except he says he collected 9.5 gallons.   :o 

EDIT - I realize I'm rephrasing what you said. Just trying to piece this together in my mind !
Jon H.

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #9 on: February 09, 2015, 05:39:16 pm »
So, a total of 2.7ish gallons of loss subtracted from the 6 gallons used to strike = 3.3 gallons of mash runoff. Add 4.75 gallons to sparge, it doesn't seem like much more than 8 gallons got into his kettle. Except he says he collected 9.5 gallons.   :o

exactly...something needs to be reconciled here. either he collected 8 gals or 9.5......if its the later, he may have used more water than called for (by accident) or topped off.
Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline HoosierBrew

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #10 on: February 09, 2015, 05:42:24 pm »
So, a total of 2.7ish gallons of loss subtracted from the 6 gallons used to strike = 3.3 gallons of mash runoff. Add 4.75 gallons to sparge, it doesn't seem like much more than 8 gallons got into his kettle. Except he says he collected 9.5 gallons.   :o

exactly...something needs to be reconciled here. either he collected 8 gals or 9.5......if its the later, he may have used more water than called for (by accident) or topped off.

I wonder if he uses a calibrated stick, or if the 8 and 9.5 are WAGs. Yet he says he dumped 1.5 , kept 8 and was .005 OVER his target OG. I think my brain hurts.
Jon H.

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #11 on: February 09, 2015, 05:43:59 pm »

So, a total of 2.7ish gallons of loss subtracted from the 6 gallons used to strike = 3.3 gallons of mash runoff. Add 4.75 gallons to sparge, it doesn't seem like much more than 8 gallons got into his kettle. Except he says he collected 9.5 gallons.   :o

exactly...something needs to be reconciled here. either he collected 8 gals or 9.5......if its the later, he may have used more water than called for (by accident) or topped off.

I wonder if he uses a calibrated stick, or if the 8 and 9.5 are WAGs. Yet he says he dumped 1.5 , kept 8 and was .005 OVER his target OG. I think my brain hurts.

Yeah I need a beer to continue...


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Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline Wort-H.O.G.

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #12 on: February 09, 2015, 05:45:33 pm »
16 lbs of grain is a ton, so even if he did use more water by accident (leaning this way) he very well could have had higher OG with decent extraction.


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Ken- Chagrin Falls, OH
CPT, U.S.Army
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Harveys-Brewhaus/405092862905115

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=The_Science_of_Mashing

Serving:        In Process:
Vienna IPA          O'Fest
Dort
Mead                 
Cider                         
Ger'merican Blonde
Amber Ale
Next:
Ger Pils
O'Fest

Offline flbrewer

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #13 on: February 09, 2015, 05:50:42 pm »
Let me re-type what I initially said in clearer terms...

-16 pounds of grain.
-I came up with 10.73 gallons of water needed, call it 10.75 using one of the online calcs.
-Mash thickness was 1.5, 6 gallons of water for strike, 4.75 for the sparge.
-4.5 gallons of first runnings
-5 gallons of sparge runnings (not sure what to call this)
-Total of 9.5 gallons of wort produced
-I only needed 8, so I didn't use 1.5 gallons at all


Offline 69franx

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Re: Water Volumes 2
« Reply #14 on: February 09, 2015, 05:51:47 pm »
My thoughts are he used the whole grain bill, and the recipe calls for a 6.25 batch. If he mashed and sparge with proper levels for the 16 pounds when he was only making a 5G batch, that would explain part of the OG overage. But like you Noth said: how much did you collect, what was the preboil, how long did you boil, how much into fermenter. If these were answered earlier, I missed them
Frank L.
Fermenting: Nothing (ugh!)
Conditioning: Nothing (UGH!)
In keg: Nothing (Double UGH!)
In the works:  House IPA, Dark Mild, Ballantine Ale clone(still trying to work this one into the schedule)