Watering down AG brews prior to fermenting

[stquinto]

Hello fellow brewers,

I brew both KnKs and also All Grain, using a Grainfather G40. Both have their place in my brewing activities

As a brew day on the GF is about 5 hours, I have started to brew double batches. My GF never gives me the equivalent of two cornies, more like 32 to 35 litres max.

I think @Shamus O'Sean , you often water down brews after the boil and before putting into the FV if I'm not mistaken ?

I'm thinking of brewing a stronger brew, putting it into my 50 litre stainless steel FV, then adding a few litres of boiled then cooled water to bring the volume up to about 40 litres. That way I would get a full two cornies, the extra litre or two would be trub.

Does this sound OK ? I'm not quite sure how to calculate the grain bill /water to get to around 5%, and also if it is necessary to boil the water or just use tap water (this would be just before pitching) as I just use tap water for my KnKs after all.

Any input would be appreciated, cheers

Edited February 2 by stquinto
typo

[Shamus O'Sean]

2 hours ago, stquinto said:

Hello fellow brewers,

I brew both KnKs and also All Grain, using a Grainfather G40. Both have their place in my brewing activities

As a brew day on the GF is about 5 hours, I have started to brew double batches. My GF never gives me the equivalent of two cornies, more like 32 to 35 litres max.

I think @Shamus O'Sean , you often water down brews after the boil and before putting into the FV if I'm not mistaken ?

I'm thinking of brewing a stronger brew, putting it into my 50 litre stainless steel FV, then adding a few litres of boiled then cooled water to bring the volume up to about 40 litres. That way I would get a full two cornies, the extra litre or two would be trub.

Does this sound OK ? I'm not quite sure how to calculate the grain bill /water to get to around 5%, and also if it is necessary to boil the water or just use tap water (this would be just before pitching) as I just use tap water for my KnKs after all.

Any input would be appreciated, cheers

You are right.  I do the slightly concentrated wort with a top up in the FV very often.  Do you use Brewfather?  Below is part of my Equipment Profile using my Grainfather G30.  Including the "Fermenter Top-Up" amount is what seems to make the grain bill/hop schedule work.  It accounts for the dilution of the wort and the lower/dilution of the IBU and EBC.  My aim is to keep the Pre-Boil Volume within the capacity of my G30.  You will need to adjust to your system parameters, like Mash-Tun Deadspace, Trub/Chiller Loss, etc.

 

See how we go from a post boil gravity of 1.072 to an original gravity of 1.055 having added the 7 litres of water.  Without the top-up, the Post-Boil Gravity should be our Original Gravity

I put the fermenter top-up water from the tap into a sanitised cube into a fridge overnight at 1°C.  This helps to get the pitching temperature a bit lower.  I also add enough Sodium Metabisulfite to neutralise the Chlorine/Chloramines.

It would be best-practice to boil and cool the top-up water.  But, as you note, we do not go to that trouble with our kit beers, so why do it with all grain?

Fire away with any questions you may have.

Edited February 2 by Shamus O'Sean

[stquinto]

Thanks Shamus, greatly appreciated! I use Brewfather and the Grainfather software.

I wanted to knock up a double-cornie worth of COPA this weekend, I’ll have a play around with both sets of software and  report back !

[Shamus O'Sean]

15 hours ago, stquinto said:

Thanks Shamus, greatly appreciated! I use Brewfather and the Grainfather software.

I wanted to knock up a double-cornie worth of COPA this weekend, I’ll have a play around with both sets of software and  report back !

All the best with it.

I do all my recipe creation in Brewfather.  Then I export the recipe to the Grainfather software for brew day automation on the Grainfather G30.

I have no idea how the Grainfather software handles fermenter top-up.  When I export a recipe from Brewfather to Grainfather, the fermenter top-up does not seem to come across.  However the GF app knows the batch size and seems to increase the sparge volume to achieve that volume.  Our problem, or at least my problem, is that I cannot fit that total volume in the boil.

[stquinto]

Thanks Shamus. I often do the same, from BF to GF, but also use GF for making recipes.

I went for 35l with 9kg Marris Otter, and 600g wheat. It ended up at 1.060. The GF gravity ajustement tool on GF suggested adding 7l. I added 5 and checked, it needed the 7 to end up at 1.050 so was accurate.

The brew ended up around 40 - 42 l (my SS FV don’t have a volume scale unfortunately) at 1.050 so I’m sure I’ll get two full cornies.

I also thee in an out of daye pack of yeast in as a nutrient

Thanks a lot for your advice! I’ll call it the Shamus Brew

[stquinto]

Here’s the recipe. I added 7 litres of water as I mentioned (forgot to boil it) and didn’t add all the chemicals, they’re from someone else’s recipe.

6 hour brew day all the same …

Coopers-Original-Pale-Ale---2-cornie-watered-down---Duplicate.pdf

Edited February 5 by stquinto
Typo