Know Thine Brew House!

[DaveCS]

Today I brewed an IPA via a recipe from Brewer’s Friend (Simple Citra IPA) - using Amarillo and Citra hops (instead of Motueka and Citra).

Things were going excellent. I was brewing 1 Gallon (BIAB) and I milled my grains really well... my conversion efficiency was stupidly high based on my gravity reading pre-boil..... my brew house had 77% efficiency and a wicked 92.5% conversion and a decent 78% efficiency... my issue though... not taking into account my boil off rate BEFORE I even started.

I ended up with 6.6 Litres (aka 1.75 Gallons) after the boil.. so the gravity was low (1.051 vs 1.065 expected)

Regardless, I’m learning and I think it’s important to know your own set up, your own brewery, and how it acts/reacts to the variables that impact brewing. For my next brew, I’m going to take into account all of these aspects and specifically how efficient my personal system is, so that I may not need as much water etc.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[doogster]

You are right Dave... you need to know and "dial in" your own system. Keep accurate records and after a few brews you'll have it nailed. If you use brewing software (I use Beersmith), you can create your own equipment profile, and tweak the volumes and such. Once you get it nailed, the software will do the rest and tell you the correct volume of water for your recipe.

 

[MaryB]

It took me 7 batches to dial in my boil off and kettle loss rates, now I consistently ht 84% efficiency...

 

[65C]

I find the numbers scale for me perfectly too - so even when I'm using a different recipe to my usuals I can hit the numbers I need

I bought a super cheap plastic boiler which has served me really well (except one element meltdown) - I would like to upgrade but I've got my workflow really optimised now and I can't be bothered relearning it all - also I like the fact the beer is getting every cheaper the longer I run the original kit I bought

It's incredible the quality of beer you can squeeze out of some cheap hardware when you've got a handle on how to get the best from it - I completely understand the hardware geeks who like to build great steel homebreweries as part of the hobby - but for me I get that achievement feeling from wringing a great porter out of a £70 boiler, a coolbox and some time

 

[DaveCS]

I've been crunching numbers over the past evening while having a few pints of my first batches I brewed (a chocolate stout) and, based on my set up, how little water I lose to a 60 minute boil (about 0.82 gallons US / 3.160 L), how little is absorbed in the grain (approx 0.05 gallon US/lb) due to my fine grind and I do BIAB, it would seem that my initial water was far too high on this batch - I should have probably used

Wort Target Volume (end of boil) should be about 5 L (4.92 to be exact)
Wort/water Loss to a 60 minute boil is 3.160 L
Water Absorbed by 3.25 lb grain during a 60 minute mash is .567 L (grain weighed 4.5 lb after the mash)
Total Strike Water would equal 8.7 L

I really should have started with about 8.7 L (or about 2.3 Gallons US) based on what my set up is like... even if that seems kind of light, if the gravity is too high after mash out then I can always dilute accordingly...... I'm also going to have to get accustomed to using my measuring equipment (be they thermometers or hydrometer or refractometer) as I'm just realizing that the refractometer reading will be skewed by the fact that I'm trying to measure coloured maltose vs clear sucrose solutions...

All of this reminds me so much of my nutritional science courses from my university days.....I wish I was this interested way back then!! *LOL*

Cheers,
Dave