2nd solo all grain brew. Fixed some issues but..

[Joshua Hughes]

So I did a much better job at keeping a constant mash temp, cooling the wort quickly, and had all my equipment ready to go. Last time I had left over wort. This time I was 24 ounces short....on a 1 gallon batch.

 

[McKnuckle]

24 oz. is 3 cups, so not a lot of liquid overall. It's just that 1 gallon batches have less margin for error because everything is small to begin with. You were 18.75% short. No worries. Take note, tweak your recipe variables, and you'll get closer next time. You're bottling anyway, so a couple more or fewer bottles is just not that important.

 

[VikeMan]

Last time I had left over wort. This time I was 24 ounces short....on a 1 gallon batch.

How are you determining your mash/sparge water volumes?

 

[Joshua Hughes]

How are you determining your mash/sparge water volumes?

Took 2-3 different 1 gallon brewing sites and worked from there. I came to mashing with 3 quarts and sparge with 3 quarts.

If I used 1 extra quart of water then it should have been fine. Assuming boil off is the same of course. I mashed 2 1/2 pounds and had .75 ounces of hops

 

[VikeMan]

Took 2-3 different 1 gallon brewing sites and worked from there. I came to mashing with 3 quarts and sparge with 3 quarts.

If I used 1 extra quart of water then it should have been fine. Assuming boil off is the same of course. I mashed 2 1/2 pounds and had .75 ounces of hops

Basically, you need to know these things to figure out the amount of water to use...

- Desired batch size into fermenter
- Grain wort absorption (volume of wort lost per unit weight of grain)
- Boil Off Rate (volume of water evaporated per unit of boil time)
- Hop/Kettle Trub wort absorption (volume of wort lost per unit weight of hops)
- There are others, but unlikely in one gallon systems

Just using whatever volumes are quoted in recipes will invariably lead to frustration. What matters are the parameters of your system.

 

[rburrelli]

Perhaps read up on the ratio of qts/lb of grain. You might want to increase your ratio to at least 1-1/2 qt/lb or slightly higher even. Then sparge with whatever water is needed to reach your desired boil volume.

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Perhaps read up on the ratio of qts/lb of grain. You might want to increase your ratio to at least 1-1/2 qt/lb or slightly higher even. Then sparge with whatever water is needed to reach your desired boil volume.

That would have made me hit the right amount of water. Thanks I’ll update my recipe

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Question about priming bottles. I have corn sugar for that.
We are talking 9-10 bottles. My calculator said 0.8 Oz.
Any suggestions on how to best prepare this? I’ll use a medicine dropper to prime.

 

[rburrelli]

I use a graduated syringe that will do 10ml max. I work it so that I know how many bottles I am going to get from my batch and then make a solution of water and sugar that will allow me to put maybe 5ml in each bottle.
So if you are going to get 10 bottles, figure the total amount of sugar (10 x .8) put that in 50ml of water and squirt 5ml in each bottle when filling.

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Thanks

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Day 3

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Today
already cleaned and sanitized the air lock once last night. Brewed thurs hopefully the crazy is over. Should have used a blow off tube and will in the future

 

[VikeMan]

Today
already cleaned and sanitized the air lock once last night. Brewed thurs hopefully the crazy is over. Should have used a blow off tube and will in the future

It looks like a fairly small headspace in your fermenter, which increases the risk of blow off.

 

[Joshua Hughes]

deleted

 

[Joshua Hughes]

It wasn’t terrible Friday. Then really started to rise

 

[Stormcrow]

I've been there. I wound up just leaving blow off tubes on my one gallons for the entire process this last time. It's fun to watch the airlock bubble, but it's also nice to set it and forget it sometimes. I drilled some holes in the top of a Mason jar lid big enough to feed the blow off ines into a closed jar with a couple of inches of sanitizer in it. (Make sure the lines fit loose enough that gas can still escape the jar, or drill an extra hole.) This set up is safe, tidy, reasonably compact, and still puts on a show. Mine actually makes quite a bit of noise too, which I find pretty exciting. I might not use an airlock again.

 

[Joshua Hughes]

Cleaned it out and since last night all is normal, think the violent part is over. Still got action.