Using longer boil times to hav e flexibility

[Wyrmwood]

I'm sure this is old news to most on here, but if you are a beginner all grain brewer like me (I have 12 under my belt as of Saturday), one of the difficulties is getting consistency in my volumes.

I use brewtarget, and after making some adjustments to my equipment (after about 5 batches in), I reset all the parameters for my equipment back to the defaults, in an effort to just track change until I get some consistency. I have still had some issues with volume though, overshooting or undershooting. Typically, the gravity is correct for the volume however.

My last brew, an EIPA, was ~1/2 gallon over (7.22 g) and under anticipated pre boil gravity (1.053) , so I had initially planned on a 90 minute boil (to increase sparge water since there was ~15lb grain). I just increased it to a 2 hour boil and hit 1.078 for my post boil gravity and 5.17gallons. That actually over corrected a bit, so next time I'll use the following numbers .

Use a 90 minute boil as the starting point (120 for pils), if I hit under volume, I can easily adjust -30 minute (if >>1 gallon under) or -15 minute (if >>1/2 gallon under) or spot on (no adjustment) or +15 (if >> 1/2 gallon over) or +30 (>>1 gallon over).

I'm sure this is probably common practice for some folks, but I thought I'd share since I had been having issues getting consistency from my equipment. I'm sure once I start to understand my equipment better and the reasons for the variations, this will become less and less necessary, but until then, at least I'm not totally stuck when my volumes are off.

 

[Beernik]

If you are measuring your water volumes off of a premarked bucket, you might have a badly marked bucket. You might want to get a sharpie and a gallon of bottled water and double check.

Or conversely, you might just have some bad assumptions in your brew software settings. I have to overestimate water additions for step mashing because at my elevation, water boils at 200F.

 

[Wyrmwood]

If you are measuring your water volumes off of a premarked bucket, you might have a badly marked bucket. You might want to get a sharpie and a gallon of bottled water and double check.

Or conversely, you might just have some bad assumptions in your brew software settings. I have to overestimate water additions for step mashing because at my elevation, water boils at 200F.

that is the one thing I have down https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/container-volume-calculator-393328/

Although, for my last two batches (one was spot on, the other was .4 gal high), I also racked to my kettle (rather than filling directly from the tap) to get a "still" reading.

Yeah, water boils at 199.6F here

My other variables are - which grain mill I use (mine or my neighbors or the homebrew store's, going to try to stick to mine in order to remove this), boil evaporation (probably my biggest variable), temp and humidity, elevation (sometimes brew at different locations, but normally at my house, so should be pretty constant)

 

[Beernik]

I think the two variables I'd focus on would be evaporation % per hour and dead space in your system that can't be drained.

The variables I use are: evap = 16% per hour. Mash tun loss = 14 ounces. Boil kettle loss = 35 ounces.

I probably have more evap and less physical losses, but that combo puts me +/- 12oz of beer when bottling 5 gallons.

I wouldn't think the mill would matter a lot for grain absorption unless one is set way too coarse. If that's the case, it would also show up as a low OG even if you boil the wort down to the volume you want.

Is your mash open air or closed lid? If its open air, you could be loosing volume to evap there too.

 

[Trippel-A]

If I'm using a rule of thumb (1.25 qts mash water + 2 qts sparge water per pound of grain), am I just screwed on getting boil volumes right?

My second AG batch is on Saturday, and I'm not ready to get software, yet.

 

[nmenninga]

Grain mill will definitely have a big impact. I gained 10% efficiency switching from my corona to my kitchenaid.

 

[Calichusetts]

I do longer boils to ensure I hit my numbers. No sight gauge so I use a lab thermometer and measured out what each temp equals in water amount. Usually 75-100 boils so that I can take a reading 30 minutes in and ensure I'm getting the right boil off. I can adjust from there. I am hitting my numbers spot on and get exactly the amount I want for my carboy