Maxi Biab High Sg

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lukasfab

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hi guys

put down my first maxi biab last night going with DSGA using the exact grain bill for 20l batch


end of boil SG is high something like 1.081, sort of guessing as my refrac only goes to 18brix and its reading above that
as im writting this i just thought i should have checked with the hydro

so anyway its in the cube now so by my calcs i will need about 9l to get 1.048, should i dilute with say 5l first and get a more accurate reading to finish the dilution?



cheers
 
Incremental dilutions are a great idea. Just make sure you homogenise the wort before taking readings.
 
homogenise??

can you clear up for me about the dilution water, i just boil amount required in pot leave the lid on and let cool then use?

thanks mate
 
Not wanting to step on NickJD's toes, but it looks like he's signed out....i believe he is talking about making sure that whatever dilution's you put into your wort, make sure it is mixed well to give you an accurate reading of the gravity before putting a second or third or fourth (whatever quantity) of dilution water into it.

happy to be corrected.
 
Concur with Nick and Nath, you could add water to reach the desired SG bit by bit, however between those additions you'd want to stir it up well so that it is homogeneous, i.e. the water is evenly distributed thought the concentrated wort. For stock MaxiBIAB a 6L plain water addition would be routine/ normal, you must have had a tremendous boil to reduce the wort volume to around 11L and a higher SG? If it were me I'd just put the majority in to begin with (say 2/3), measure, verify calcs and top up with the remainder. Don't sweat over a few points or a litre or two either way though, its not worth the hassle.
You certainly do want all of the water added to the fermenter to be sanitary too, just as you've described is fine, however my tip is to pour it in from a height to help with oxygenation.
BTW, congratulations on your maiden MaxiBIAB! :icon_cheers:
 
Or an awesome mash efficiency :)

Hehe, I'm still doing maxi triples :)
 
Or an awesome mash efficiency :)
Maybe both! :beerbang:
Hehe, I'm still doing maxi triples :)
Haven't brewed for months myself, always pleasing to see the Maxi flag flying high and folks continuing to succeed with the method. :icon_cheers:
 
i had 15l at end of boil, by the time i cubed there was about 2.5l left in the pot left to trub-is this normal?

from cube to FV it was 10.2l, more trub in cube-not really having luck with this trub loss
so i diluted and had a total of 18.2l in FV

i sparged once with about 5l boiling water so didnt leave me much to keep topping up through out the boil, next time maybe sparge second time so i can keep topping up? didnt get sg reading of the sparge
 
i had 15l at end of boil, by the time i cubed there was about 2.5l left in the pot left to trub-is this normal?

Yes but you could reduce this somewhat, did you use whirlfloc or Irish moss and whirlpool at EOB? This will help eliminate trub loss. Also drain slowly so your trub cone isnt pulled into the tap outlet.

i sparged once with about 5l boiling water so didnt leave me much to keep topping up through out the boil, next time maybe sparge second time so i can keep topping up? didnt get sg reading of the sparge

I assume you mean added boiling water to the bucket that you had your grain bag sitting in and sparged with that?

A second sparge is good to compensate for evaporation loss but if your going to have such a high eob gravity your probably better off just adding boiled water.
 
To get the most wort for your buck, with that last 2.5 l in the pot you can line a colander with some voioe/ cheesecloth and filter into a pot. Reboil to kill any bugs.

Most likely the cube stuff is cold break, you can pour the lot into the fermenter as it will settle out during fermentation.
cheers
sean
 
To get the most wort for your buck, with that last 2.5 l in the pot you can line a colander with some voioe/ cheesecloth and filter into a pot. Reboil to kill any bugs.

Most likely the cube stuff is cold break, you can pour the lot into the fermenter as it will settle out during fermentation.
cheers
sean

+1

Using this technique (pain in the arse, but) you can reduce your losses down to "zero" - by which I mean you are only losing the barley tofu (pretty much what it is) at the bottom.

But again, with a bit of practice and a good floc, and containing and removing your hops (most important in high grav trub loss equations) you should be only losing about 0.5L of actual wort.

I usually recover this and like seamad, but instead of returning it to the fermenter I pour it into a 1L yoghurt container, label it and put it in the freezer. They're perfect for making starters - just defrost and boil.
 

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