[ckpash88]

So i did my third allgrain yesterday. It was a Raspberry Wheat pretty cool. I am getting the raspberry by adding 5 pounds of frozen raspberry in the secondary. My brewhouse efficiency was 78% is that good?

I have a new brew kettle and i lose around 1.25 gallons of liquid to dead space. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to avoid this. I upped my recipe grain bill to get a 1.5 gallon more wort in the end but its kind of annoying to sit and do the math and try to convert recipes i get from people.

[Hokerer]

1.25 gallons is a crap-ton to leave behind in the brew kettle.  How are you draining it?  If it's just a matter of the drain hole being too high up on the side of the kettle, maybe you could look into adding pickup tube.  Basically, a pipe elbow on the inside of the drain that points to the bottom of the kettle.  Because of the siphon effect, you end up draining all liquid down to the level of the bottom of the elbow.

[ckpash88]

I have 15.5 gallon boil kettle with weldless valve and a torpido tube that sticks straight in as close to the bottom as I can

[ckpash88]

I use the torpedo tube bc I add the hops straight to the kettle and send the hot wort through a counterflow chiller I made an if I don't strain first it may clog my wort chiller.

I am lost on ideas not to lose like 1.5 gallons of wort.

Oh and is 78% decent bedeviled efficiency for mashing?

[morticaixavier]

78 is pretty good. better than I usually get for sure. I think the pickup tube previously mentioned is really the only way you are going to prevent that loss. or fill the bottom of your kettle with something to displace the wort.

[Hokerer]

Maybe try tilting the kettle, once it's mostly drained, almost all the way over onto it's side?

[morticaixavier]

Maybe try tilting the kettle, once it's mostly drained, almost all the way over onto it's side?

That would also work, and with the torpedo tube it should prevent too much hot break from getting through as well, particularly if you use whole leaf hops.

[Caddywhompusbeer]

I use the torpedo tube bc I add the hops straight to the kettle and send the hot wort through a counterflow chiller I made an if I don't strain first it may clog my wort chiller.

I am lost on ideas not to lose like 1.5 gallons of wort.

Oh and is 78% decent bedeviled efficiency for mashing?

Do you have a hose on the end of your valve to drain into your carboy? You won't get the siphon effect without one. My kettle leaves .75 gal in the bottom without a hose, but with its only .125 gal.

[euge]

I use the torpedo tube bc I add the hops straight to the kettle and send the hot wort through a counterflow chiller I made an if I don't strain first it may clog my wort chiller.

I am lost on ideas not to lose like 1.5 gallons of wort.

Hop taco. Not mine but maxiboy's.

[maxieboy]

Not mine but a representative pic I posted of a "hop taco".

[euge]

Oops. But a fine representation all the same!

[ckpash88]

I think I really only lose about a gallon which is fine. The gallon that is left behind has all the left over hops and other crud that don't want to mess with. I think the biggest problem is that I am brewing 5 gallon batches in 15 gallon pot the guy at the LBHS talked me into a bigger pot I should have gone with the 10 gallon. You live an you learn. I can just scale and create 6 gallon recipes like I have been.

[Mark G]

One day you'll appreciate the 15 gallon pot, I promise you that. You'll probably even wonder why you didn't get a 20 gallon pot.