Trying to understand

[smitty8202]

Not really sure if this is the right section for this but here we go. I am waiting for my new kettle and mash tun to arrive to venture into the all grain world for the first time. My plan is to make a 3-4 gallon batch of a Kolsch. Want something nice and refreshing for the remainder of the summer.

I have beer smith and watched the videos how to use it. But when making my equipment profile there are a few thing unknown at this time ie: boil off rate trub loss etc. in order to find this out I'm guessing just boil some water and track how much is lost?

 

[d3track]

That's the best way to get initial data points

 

[kombat]

Yup. You've got to dial in the settings for your specific equipment. And be aware that they can change, too (for example, my boil-off rate is higher in the cold, dry winter than in the hot, humid summer). But most of them are pretty easy to figure out. You don't have to boil a whole pot of water for an hour. Just boil 2-3 gallons for 15 minutes, measure the loss and multiply it by 4. And the "dead space" in your mash tun and kettle will be easy to figure out. Just dump in some water, then drain as much as you can from the outlet port, and measure however much is left in the mash tun/kettle. Hop and trub loss will depend on the recipe, but I leave mine at 0 because I dump the whole thing into the fermenter and contain my hops in a hop spider.

 

[bobeer]

I usually just pick the default 5 gallon all grain with cooler mlt profile and put in my recipe. I don't really tinker much with the profile settings because I've found I can hit most of my numbers without messing with it too much. The beer is good and the numbers are pretty damn close so it's good enough for me.