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Adding Water to All Grain

Cabin

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Hello
What I am trying to do is add 1gal of water because I want 1 additional gallon in the boil kettle to keep the trub in the boil kettle and not transfer to the fermenter.

When I add 1gal to the Mash Deadspace Loss it does not change anything in BS.  I would have thought that by adding 1gal of water would have lowered the ABV.

Can anyone help with my logic?

tx
Bob
 
I am assuming that you are doing all-grain or partial mash, where the following will apply:

If you want to keep back a gallon of trub and wort in your kettle, this is captured in the 'Loss to Trub and Chiller'.  The loss to mash tun dead space covers losses before the boil and so that volume will not impact the IBU calculation or gravity calculations for pre boil estimates.

Now having said that, adding your loss to trub and chiller will not affect the way the program calculates your original gravity and, hence, ABV.  This value is calculated based upon the brew house efficiency you specify in your equipment profile.  Brew house efficiency (BHE) is a variable in the process that the user fixes as a constant and it determines the amount of sugar from the fermentables bill which make it to the fermenter.  Since this value affects the gravity going into the fermenter directly, any change in volume losses within the process will result in the program forcing more sugars from the grist.  If you look at your estimates for mash efficiency when you add your gallon of trub loss, you will note that this estimated value will increase as you create a greater loss of sugar in the process and the program extracts more sugar from the grains to fix this loss of sugars.

The best way to make the change you are anticipating is to note your post boil volume before you make the change.  Now, make the change in the trub loss and note the increased amount of post boil volume.  Take the BHE from your equipment profile and ratio it based upon the increased boil volume.  So you will end up with the equation:  BHE * old pre-boil volume / new pre-boil volume = new BHE.  Now change the BHE in your equipment profile to match this new value and you will get an appropriate estimation of your OG and ABV due to the change you are making in your process.
 
Not knowing what kind of system you are brewing on the first suggestion that comes to mind for reducing trub is to whirlpool before transferring from the boil kettle to the fermenter.

For the record however - trub into your fermenter doesn't hurt anything. Not flavor and not clarity.
 
Hi Everyone
Thanks for the response

I am doing BIAB with a 15gal pot

Let me look over BS3 again and I will look at loss to true and chiller

thanks a bunch
Bob
 
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