first all grain: pliny! hops water retention questions

[drummer4gc]

hey everyone,

compulsive browsing in this forum has convinced me to go all grain. built up a mash tun last week and got a killer deal on a 44qt turkey fryer. i'm going to brew my first AG on saturday, and I want to take a crack at the Pliny recipe that has been discussed throughout this forum.

i think i have a pretty decent grasp on mashing, batch sparging, checking gravities, etc. Two things are still a bit unclear to me though:

1. the recipe says that an 8 gallon volume in the kettle will result in 5 gallons of beer, post fermentation. I'm guessing that a 90 minute boil will evaporate about 2 gallons give or take (not sure since it's my first AG!), and there will be ~half gallon of trub, but that leaves 5.5 gallons. I'm guessing that the extreme hop nature of this beer means that they will absorb another half gallon or so. However, this recipe uses leaf hops, and i will be using pellets. Will pellets absorb less water? should i shoot for 7.5ish gallons pre-boil instead?


2. Why is checking pre-boil volume important? i can't seem to figure out how to use this information in the software ive downloaded (beersmith, brewtarget).




thanks for your help! i'm excited and think this is going to go well.

 

[smizak]

The hops will certainly eat up a lot of wort. I usually have a pre boil vol of 7.5 gallons or so and end up with 6. Most times I have to top off with water to end up with 6, so boiling off 2 gallons in 90 minutes is pretty easy with a propane setup. The preboil gravity is important to know to calculate your efficiency and final post boil gravity. Check the brew house efficiency calculator in Beer smith