Max Wort From A 50 Litre Boiler

[Doc]

I got ~47 litres into the boiler pre-boil.
Post boil (2 hours to compensate for slow early boil) and I was down to around 40 litres.
No boilover, and very minimal skimming. I was just really patient bringing it to the boil.

On the unusual side though maxing all my equipment out sent my efficiency through the roof.
I was 7 points over (target OG) in the boiler pre-boil.
Adjusted the hopping accordingly and decided to go for a bigger beer.
The things I changed was a thinner mash (3.2 litres/kg) installed a new water filter and changed the mesh bag arrangement over the manifold in the MLT.
I'm thinking maybe sparge and mash water pH (which I didn't measure) may be the most likely attributor.

Beers,
Doc

 

[Gulf Brewery]

Doc

I gather this is the 1st time you have done a 40 litre batch. I find that my efficiency is better in larger batches (40 vs 20) as there is a greater grain bed depth which means the sparge water picks up more sugars on the wa through the grain.

Cheers
Pedro

 

[Doc]

Doc

I gather this is the 1st time you have done a 40 litre batch. I find that my efficiency is better in larger batches (40 vs 20) as there is a greater grain bed depth which means the sparge water picks up more sugars on the wa through the grain.

Cheers
Pedro

[post="52490"][/post]​

Yes it is the first time I've done a 40 litre batch.
But I've done a number of big beers (up to the same amount of grain) and got the expected gravities during the process which makes it a bit weird.
I'll just have to try and reproduce the same results and try and limit the variables.
Oh just another excuse to brew :lol:

Doc

 

[Wortgames]

I always have skimmed for practical reasons, unless of course the beer I'm making is FWhopped .

Chiller - why does FWH make a difference to your skimming habits?

 

[Ross]

I always have skimmed for practical reasons, unless of course the beer I'm making is FWhopped .

Chiller - why does FWH make a difference to your skimming habits?

[post="52523"][/post]​

i'm guessing because he'd skim all the hops right out the brew (unless using a bag of course) ...

 

[jayse]

snipped>>

But I've done a number of big beers (up to the same amount of grain) and got the expected gravities during the process which makes it a bit weird.
Doc

[post="52491"][/post]​

Hi Doc,
Just a quick comment to say with my double sized brews i get exactly the same increase in effiency from 75% all the way up to 83% ussually.
Like you mentioned here for the same amount of grain into a standard batch you get the ussuall effiency, now this is where i figure we both get the extra effiency. With a double size brew because of the extra amount of water that you pass through the grain to reach your boil volume you are getting more extract from the grain. Peter mentioned it may be the extra grain bed depth but my theory is its simply the extra water that passes through it.
With a double size brew it is not really needed to pass all the water needed through the tun you can simply top the kettle up with plain water, this is common for brewing much larger size brews.
Iam not sure if you get exactly what i mean here, but simply this is what i put down my extra effiency too, the fact that so much extra water passes through the grain.
I nearly posted this may happen with your brew last week but forgot, anyway i think what has happened is perfectly normal and what i have found has always been the case with my big batches.

Jayse
ps..wortgames i believe chillers reasoning there is he doesn't skim if hops have already gone into the boil only before hops go in or else he would be removing hops aswell as 'break' material.

 

[ausdb]

On the unusual side though maxing all my equipment out sent my efficiency through the roof.
I was 7 points over (target OG) in the boiler pre-boil.
Adjusted the hopping accordingly and decided to go for a bigger beer.
The things I changed was a thinner mash (3.2 litres/kg) installed a new water filter and changed the mesh bag arrangement over the manifold in the MLT.
I'm thinking maybe sparge and mash water pH (which I didn't measure) may be the most likely attributor.

[post="52485"][/post]​

Funny that I ended up over on the OG into the kettle as well. I tried to stir the kettle a bit before boiling as it was 1.060 coming out the tap at the bottom and 1.044 taken straight from the top. I thought it was bit weird but time was of the essence. I didn't adjust my hopping but its a weizen so hopefully it will be all right.
I had a reasonably thin mash 3l/kg and also semi flysparged (about 11L of wort was fly sparged) the rest batched. Post boil I had 1.060 into the fermenters in hindsight I should have diluted a bit in the fermenters. At the moment its been fermenting 8 days and its down to 1.016 so I have still got pretty good attenuation.

As for ph I don't have a ph meter to measure it but its on the list.

Ausdb

 

[Wortgames]

Thanks Ross & Jayse - one of those blindingly obvious things that frequently escape me :wacko:

 

[Doc]

Cheers Jayse.

Decided to go with the 1.062 OG that the original planned 1.049 in the hope that the beer will last longer in the keg.
With the chances I get to brew lately greatly dimminished, higher alcohol seems to make the keg slightly slower to evaporate :lol:

Beers,
Doc

 

[ausdb]

Just an update on this thread, last saturday I did a double batch of SFPA slightly modified from discussions I've had with JasonY :beer:.

I had 47L in the fermenter again, no FWH but skimmed the crud and watched it like a hawk with a spray bottle handy, here it is coming to the boil. My blowtorch burner worked a treat set on 100kPA inlet pressure, I might even get a smaller burner head for it as it is still a bi much once the boil is going. Its liek a NASA for heating sparge water tho :beerbang:


A nice rolling boil


I managed to get about 36-38L cast off wort but lost a lot to the hop spooge in the kettle. I havent made my hop stopper yet and went with my pickup tube with a piece of braid on the end, which has worked reasoably well in the past with 23L batches and a mixture of pellet and plug hops, but failed dismally on this brew. In this batch I had used 40G of Northern brewer pellets and 8 plugs of cascades for flavour and aroma, man they take up a lot of space! I lost a few litres of wort in the mud


I have now got two squat kegs which are going to get joined to make a bigger kettle, I think the top profile of the kettle has a lot to do with it, the opening in mine is only 200mm dia and the curve at the top directs the boil inwards more than outwards.

Cheers

Ausdb

 

[Darren]

Ausdb,
I quite often collect the last bit from the kettle into a 2 litre pet bottle, allow the break to settle and then transfer to another pet bottle and freeze. Then you have a starter ready for your next brew. Simply thaw and boil, cool then pitch. Saves on buying extract.
cheers
Darren

 

[BrissyBrew]

Darren, if you are plating or culturing from a small sample the hot break is even good for the yeasts (not good in finished beer in large quanties though)