High gravity mashing and pre fermentation dilution

[Bbowzky1]

Gday all,

Considering running my new set up to make high gravity wort. No chill into cubes and then dilute before fermentation.

For example. For a 1.06 OG beer I'll mash it for 1.1 OG, store in 15lt cube and dilute to 25lt for fermentation which will be 1.06 OG. Malt bill and hops will obviously be calculated for full volume even though stored at higher gravity and smaller volume.

Theoretically I cant see any issues with this, however looking for other AG brewers opinions or better yet feed back from anyone who does the same.

Cheers

 

[Wobbly74]

Quite doable, same way fresh wort kits are often made. Not a particularly efficient way of going about it though. Your efficiency will suffer making higher gravity wort (unless you reiterate the mash perhaps) so you'll use more grain vs making full volume batches. But if you're ok with that then probably no significant issue.

 

[Coalminer]

No problem at all
That's what happens when you get a FWK from the LHBS as they are generally 17 - 20 Litres
I filter and boil my dilution water in advance. May not be necessary but I sleep well at night.

 

[Bbowzky1]

Yeah I figured it was more then ok given I'll adjust IBU for the full volume.

My new system will be HERMS and I should easily be able to do up to 60kg grain with 2.5lt/kg. As the herms systems are quiet efficient I thought high gravity brewing would be good. I'll then have the required water at mash out temp to fly sparge as I transfer to the boiler.

I'm going with a 165lt HLT and a 225lt MT. But my boil kettel I already had and it's a 160lt pot belly

 

[Lionman]

Hop utilisation is gravity dependent so you will need to use more hops to hit your IBU targets.

ie, less bitterness will be extracted from hops at 1.1 that at 1.06

 

[Bbowzky1]

Hop utilisation is gravity dependent so you will need to use more hops to hit your IBU targets.

ie, less bitterness will be extracted from hops at 1.1 that at 1.06

Would this be taken care of in brewing software like beer smith?

 

[Gibbo411]

Yes I believe there is a dilution tool

 

[Yuz]

My last batch NC cubed ended up being 1.060 @ approx 22L.
Diluted with 8L of water to 30L @ 1.044 to ferment away.
From another source: (Current Gravity x Current Volume) / Desired Gravity = Final Volume
So, in my case: 60 x 22 / 44 = 30L

 

[Lionman]

Would this be taken care of in brewing software like beer smith?

Yes, any brew software worth its salt will be factoring in hop utilisation.

Remember though that hop utilisation can only be calculated in terms of IBU, that is isomerisation of alpha acids. There is currently no method for calculating the extraction of other flavour compounds from hops, for example those extracted during whirlpooling. I would imagine that a higher SG would also impact this however.

 

[Bbowzky1]

Yes, any brew software worth its salt will be factoring in hop utilisation.

Remember though that hop utilisation can only be calculated in terms of IBU, that is isomerisation of alpha acids. There is currently no method for calculating the extraction of other flavour compounds from hops, for example those extracted during whirlpooling. I would imagine that a higher SG would also impact this however.

Thanks for the awesome reply.
I guess experimentation will prevail