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Kettle Gravity

S

Shakey_Dog

I have never tried looking at my kettle gravity before the boil.  I have always worked from the first runnings and used that to work tword hitting my OG.  Does anybody take the kettle gravity reading and work off of that instead of first runnings?

And if so does the kettle gravity change much during a 60 min boil?

Dum questions I know :p
 
I take a kettle reading before the boil, with a known volume of wort. Simple ratio to determine gravity at the target volume. Adjust up or down to target gravity by increasing boil time and reducing volume, or diluting with preboiled & chilled water in the fermenter.

For me a 60-minute boil starting at 7.0 gallons ends at 5.5 gallons. That's 27% reduction in volume and increase in gravity. YMMV
 
I don't do it, but I could see where it would have merit (in fact, I made a request of Brad to include it in the next version  of BeerSmith, when printing the brewsheet). I think taking a pre-boil reading is of more use when you're starting out in AG. Until you get into the rhythm of hitting your volumes and mash efficiencies, knowing the pre-boil gravity would help you adjust with the addition of DME or LME. Once you get used to your system, however, I don't think that it's worth the trouble. That's just me, though  ;D
 
adjusting with DME or LME (called a kicker) is ok if you want to adjust a few points but anything more than that will produce a watery beer.

the calculation is good to do because if your extraction is lower than anticipated you can increase your boil time to evaporate a little more.

I would rather have 4.5 gal of beer the way i intenden it to be than 5.5 gal of water.

with a kicker of more than a few points it will produce a watered down beer with the proper ABV.

anyway I also asked if this could be added as a tool, not so much in the recipe field.

I could then use the tool to see if i should add a little DME or increace the boil time, or better yet see what the boil time should be increased too before i start my hop scedual.

I hope that made sence.

have a good one

T





 
I added the "Pre-boil" gravity estimate to the brewsheet for the new update of BeerSmith.  With a little luck I will have it out sometime in late October.

The update will be free to all registered users.

Brad
 
Thanks everybody ::)  I think I just need to make a few adjustments and get used to the system.

Drink real beer,

Don
 
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