17 replies to this topic

[SchwanzBrewer]

I'm using a Bayou Classic and a converted sanke keg for my kettle. I'm boiling off about a 1.5 gal more than I'm estimating. I was really careful tonight making my measurements while collecting my wort so I would have the exact amount to start the boil. I measured about a 1/3 gal of dead space in my kettle and that is already accounted for in my calculations.Thank god I have beersmith because I'm boiling some more water to top it off and hit my OG. Any one else have trouble controlling their boil with a setup like this?When I was doing extracts on the stove I was getting 1 gallon per hour like clockwork. The last 2 brews I have done have come up short.I collected 6.25 gallons of wort and ended up with 3.25. I did a 60 min boil. Am I really getting 3gal/hr boil off? Or am I just crazy?I'm gonna brew again next weekend. I'll try and turn the burner on low and maintain a decent boil. I guess I'm still tweaking.Cheers,Rich

[MyaCullen]

I'm using a Bayou Classic and a converted sanke keg for my kettle. I'm boiling off about a 1.5 gal more than I'm estimating. I was really careful tonight making my measurements while collecting my wort so I would have the exact amount to start the boil. I measured about a 1/3 gal of dead space in my kettle and that is already accounted for in my calculations.Thank god I have beersmith because I'm boiling some more water to top it off and hit my OG. Any one else have trouble controlling their boil with a setup like this?When I was doing extracts on the stove I was getting 1 gallon per hour like clockwork. The last 2 brews I have done have come up short.I collected 6.25 gallons of wort and ended up with 3.25. I did a 60 min boil. Am I really getting 3gal/hr boil off? Or am I just crazy?I'm gonna brew again next weekend. I'll try and turn the burner on low and maintain a decent boil. I guess I'm still tweaking.Cheers,Rich

with a similar setup Rich I usually collect 7.5 gallons to boil down to 5.5 leaving about .5 in the kettle, if that helps

[Deerslyr]

with a similar setup Rich I usually collect 7.5 gallons to boil down to 5.5 leaving about .5 in the kettle, if that helps

Sounds about dead on with what I'm doing, except I usually aim to have 5.5 in the fermenter, so I'm collecting 8.

[SchwanzBrewer]

It looks like I ended up with 4 gallons and I topped it off with 1 to hit the OG. So I need to collect around 7.25-7.5 gal to get 5, which is what you guys are seeing too, so I'm not crazy.I just finished. Other than not knowing my boil off correctly the only snafu I had was that I went inside and watched tv while the cooler was filling with water for the chiller set up. Oops. Well, I guess I don't need to clean the porch now, it got a nice mopping. :frank:Started at 8:30 would have been done an hour and a half ago if I didn't mess up the calc and the spill. 6.5 hours total and I still gotta put stuff away in the morning.Cheers,Rich

[BarelyBrews]

Interesting situation there.I call my batches 5.5 gallons,however my preboil is 6.5 gallons.My boil is usually not real vigorous,just a small rolling action too it.Depending on hops/(if i use leaf or not)i may end up with less in my fermentor.I lose around 2quarts to the yeast.I find i end up with five gallons for the keg every time.

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

I boil off around 1.5 gallons per hour.

[MakeMeHoppy]

Boil off is effected by the amount of surface area. I had about 1 gallon per hour on the aluminum pot that came with my bayou burner. It is tall and slender. I then got a 15 gallon kettle that is significantly wider and my boil off went to at least 1-1/2 gallons. They key is to know your boil off rate and account for that with your sparge. You can always top up with plain water prior to during your boil.

[dagomike]

Assuming all your measurements are right, you also could just be boiling it too hard. It's easy to do with the high pressure propane burners. You only need some surface agitation to churn everything.

[KSUwildcatFAN]

I don't seem to have consistent boil offs. I know the last time I brewed I ended up with 8.5 instead of 10. The good thing was that my efficiency wasn't very good so it left me with a good OG.

[BrewerGeorge]

Assuming all your measurements are right, you also could just be boiling it too hard. It's easy to do with the high pressure propane burners. You only need some surface agitation to churn everything.

Definitely this. If your boiloff rate is too high, turn down the burner.

[MtnBrewer]

Sounds like you don't have the correct boil-off rate entered into Beersmith. A higher boil-off rate is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means you have to collect more wort (which means you'll get better efficiency). Also, as others have said, if you feel like you're boiling off too much, just turn down the fire.

[realbeerguy]

Assuming all your measurements are right, you also could just be boiling it too hard. It's easy to do with the high pressure propane burners. You only need some surface agitation to churn everything.

ThisI boil off 1.5/hr for a 10 gal batch on my Sanke, which is a converted Keg, a little more bell shaped than the straight walled ones. I loose 2 gal /hr on my 9 gal kettle. Had less loss on my last bach when I scaled back the flame.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Sounds like you don't have the correct boil-off rate entered into Beersmith. A higher boil-off rate is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means you have to collect more wort (which means you'll get better efficiency). Also, as others have said, if you feel like you're boiling off too much, just turn down the fire.

I thought I was turning it down. This is my fourth AG beer and I'm still figuring out my system. So I took careful measurements for the sparge water and wort collection. 10 pounds of grain absorbed 1.25 gallons (8# pale ale malt, 2# Flaked Maize). I batch sparged with 4 gal and got 2.75 out of the first run, I figured I needed 6.25 (I cant remember exactly) gallons of wort collected to get 5 gal (because I didn't know what my boil off was and I was guessing). So I calculated that I needed 3.5 more gallons of wort and I added it and collected it on the second run. So I had 6.25. After the boil I actually had 4 gallons (5.5 gal carboy and I was guessing before). I boiled some more water and added 1 gallon to get it to my 5 gal line. So my boil off was actually 2.25 gal +/- .25 gal because I threw in a little extra that was left over in the second run into the kettle. The OG for 4 gallons was 1.073. I added a gallon of water and the final OG was 1.058. At 75% eff. I was supposed to get 1.055 So I'm around 79% mash eff.Cheers,Rich

[MtnBrewer]

What was the length of boil? An hour? If so, that evaporation rate is pretty high. I'd turn down the flame more. You need a good solid rolling boil but it doesn't need to be violent. Generally once you hit boil, you can maintain a good boil with much less (<50%) fire than it took to get to boiling in the first place.Also, 6.25 gallons of wort seems like way too little. Let's say you had a more normal rate of about 1.5 gal/hr. Plus your kettle losses are probably around .5 gallon. That means you need to start with 5 + .5 + 1.5 = 7 gallons for a one hour boil.

[SchwanzBrewer]

What was the length of boil? An hour? If so, that evaporation rate is pretty high. I'd turn down the flame more. You need a good solid rolling boil but it doesn't need to be violent. Generally once you hit boil, you can maintain a good boil with much less (<50%) fire than it took to get to boiling in the first place.Also, 6.25 gallons of wort seems like way too little. Let's say you had a more normal rate of about 1.5 gal/hr. Plus your kettle losses are probably around .5 gallon. That means you need to start with 5 + .5 + 1.5 = 7 gallons for a one hour boil.

I think you're right. I did turn it down, but not until after the protein skim, which was huge - the foam was around 5 inches higher than the wort. I skimmed it off, and then turned down the burner, but it might have been boiling like that for around 5 minutes. I'm still tweaking. I'm gonna do MLPA in 2 weeks so we will see how that goes.Thanks all!Cheers,Rich

[dagomike]

My burner is very low. A vigorous boil is emphasized way too much for home brewers because most of our stoves are under powered for boiling big pots. Turkey fryer though is a lot of energy. A added plus is a propane tank lasts a lot longer.After a while my ear became calibrated. I could tell if it was too high or too low based on the sound of the burner.

[lowendfrequency]

I boil off 1.5 gallons per hour in the summer and 2 gallons per hour in the winter. Temperature and humidity plays a big factor.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Its hot as hell already, but I brewed last night when it cooled off. I dunno, it might have been lack of sleep (i brewed until 3:30am) and I could have boiled longer too and not noticed. I can hear when the burner is working overdrive too and I tried to set it low, but with so many things to keep track of I could have burned harder than I wanted too.Cheers,Rich