Brew Day Emergency!

[McUbermensch]

I am in the middle of brewing a Black IPA and I noticed that I did not close the valve on my boil kettle when I was collecting the first runnings of wort from the mash tun. I am trying to figure out how much I lost and if there is anyway to add DME to make up for the lost fermentables. I mashed 4.96 gallons of water into 15.75 pounds of grain and currently have a smidge less than 3 gallons of wort in the boil kettle. I have a pound of Munich DME on hand, should I use some/all of that to add more fermentables so I can hit my SG? What other info do you all need to help me out?

 

[day_trippr]

The problem here is we have no idea how much of your strike liquor remains in the mash.
If you were to completely run out your mash tun, subtract the grain absorption from your initial strike volume, then compare that predicted volume to your actual first runnings, we would then have something to work with.

Beersmith, for example, predicts that first running volume for you.

Cheers!

 

[michaeltrego]

So you lost about 3 gallons on the floor? I assume you were targeting at least 6 gallons in the kettle pre-boil, and if you lost most of the first runnings then your current SG in the kettle is probably pretty low -- did you take a reading? I don't think 1 pound of DME is going to solve this...

 

[McUbermensch]

The problem here is we have no idea how much of your strike liquor remains in the mash.
If you were to completely run out your mash tun, subtract the grain absorption from your initial strike volume, then compare that predicted volume to your actual first runnings, we would then have something to work with.

Beersmith, for example, predicts that first running volume for you.

Cheers!

Does Beersmith mobile have that info? I can't seem to find it. Also, the smidge under 3 gallons is what was left after the mash tun had been completely drained. Between my first post and now I batch sparged to my boil volume, 7.56 volumes, and am only .004 off of my preboil gravity of 1.060. I must not have lost nearly what I thought I did.

 

[day_trippr]

Good deal!
I can't find the predicted "water available from mash" in the mobile version of Beersmith3. Guess it's just another case of it missing desktop functionality.
But if you know your mash tun deadloss (the volume that can't be drained) you can calculate the "first runnings volume" by using strike volume - (lbs of grain * 1 pint each) - deadloss. You can include plumbing losses in that deadloss value as well (pumps and lines)...

Cheers!

 

[McUbermensch]

This beer turned out fantastic despite losing some of the wort.