Grahams recipes

[quiff]

I've just got myself a copy of HTBYORAAH and have a quick stupid question before I enthusiastically dive into my first AG attempt.
The recipes call for a mash volume of say 11L. Is this just a simple case of adding my grain to 11L of water then sparging with the remaing 20 or so Litres, or should I be adding dead space and grain volume to that amount?

[Parva]

This may help :- viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19662&p=225407&hilit=parva#p225407

[quiff]

Thanks for that parva, so am I anywhere near correct in assuming that even if I am extremely slack in my calculations, as long as I add enough water to my extracted wort to hit the original gravity the beer willl taste the same.? If my mash is inefficent I will just end up with less total volume than the recipe states?

[Parva]

Thanks for that parva, so am I anywhere near correct in assuming that even if I am extremely slack in my calculations, as long as I add enough water to my extracted wort to hit the original gravity the beer willl taste the same.? If my mash is inefficent I will just end up with less total volume than the recipe states?

That's one way to do it I guess. The thing is, you won't know what your efficiency is until you actually get some brews done and the way it's calculated is expected and actual starting gravity for a given quantity so if your quantity falls short but your expected gravity is better then it's still going to be difficult to calculate what your actual efficiency is. Ideally you want to aim for the quantity specified in the recipe and you can then make adjustments to any future brews given a known efficiency.

I tend to hit between 65% and 70% and I've got into the habit of using 1Kg of grain for every 1% ABV so for a 5% brew I tend to use 5Kg of M.O. Everyone has their own ways of doing it and that's how I do mine, I'm not saying mine's right, it just works for me.

[trucker5774]

My last 5 brews have been 80% to 83% efficient based on the predicted SG and what I actually got. I often fall short on volume (due to a small mash tun) I then dilute the collected wort in the FV after the boil. This way it is easy to be sure you will get the OG you want. You may end up with a greater brew length if you get better than expected efficiency. If the efficiency is a little low, just settle for a shorter brew length. .......................For some reason the brew I did today only hit 70% efficiency. I still had to dilute from 1054 to 1042, but only ended up with 20 litres not 23 as planned!

[quiff]

Cheers guys, much appreciated.

Are there any experianced brewers from the east yorkshire area in the forum that can advise me on our water content?
Judging by the state of our kettle I'm guessing it's high in calcium carbonate. This isn't good right?

[alabaster cheeks]

yea go on yorkshire water page
top right hand corner there is BUTTON n box u put your postcode in which will give yor area results
driffield calcium carbonate = 239mg/l

[quiff]

Cheers AC.
Yeah it says its 305 mg/l. So to treat this I need to add about 50ml of CRS and 1tsp of gypsum to my total water volume of 30L ???
Seems excessive but it might explain why the kits I made last year had a strange aftertast which eventually has almost disappeared now

[alabaster cheeks]

try grahams water treatment calculator tis cool