first runnings OG?

[alfie09]

I am brewing a 4.2% ale 23 litres worth. never ever tested the first runnings before. just tested my first runnings there @ 1050 corrected @ 20oc does that seem ok that was after collecting sayin 15 litres of wort

[Eric]

Typical temperature corrected values of runnings recently here for similar brews by fly sparging are..............

Initial running gravity......................between 1070 and 1080 dependent upon liquor/grain ratio.
At 6 litres collected runnings..............1060
At 8 litres....................................1045
At 14 litres..................................1030

From that point on there is little consistancy in measurement, presumably because most of the sugars will have been extracted and there can be significant variation in what remains to be extracted.
If you are batch sparging, the above will not apply.

[guypettigrew]

Typical temperature corrected values of runnings recently here for similar brews by fly sparging are..............

Initial running gravity......................between 1070 and 1080 dependent upon liquor/grain ratio.
At 6 litres collected runnings..............1060
At 8 litres....................................1045
At 14 litres..................................1030

From that point on there is little consistancy in measurement, presumably because most of the sugars will have been extracted and there can be significant variation in what remains to be extracted.
If you are batch sparging, the above will not apply.

Fascinating, Eric. I've never measured first runnings. I'm brewing tomorrow so might give it a try---if I remember!

Guy

[alfie09]

yes i batch sparge but yes i am somewhere near the amounts you have put cheers

[Wolfy]

I find the "Efficiency-Troubleshooting-Spreadsheet" ( linked at the bottom of this page: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... lculations ) is very useful tracking gravity, efficiency, water usage through the brewing process.
If you were to put in your brew details, it would tell you exactly what efficiency you obtained and hence if what you measured was 'ok' or not.

[Eric]

Typical temperature corrected values of runnings recently here for similar brews by fly sparging are..............

Initial running gravity......................between 1070 and 1080 dependent upon liquor/grain ratio.
At 6 litres collected runnings..............1060
At 8 litres....................................1045
At 14 litres..................................1030

From that point on there is little consistancy in measurement, presumably because most of the sugars will have been extracted and there can be significant variation in what remains to be extracted.
If you are batch sparging, the above will not apply.

Fascinating, Eric. I've never measured first runnings. I'm brewing tomorrow so might give it a try---if I remember!

Guy

Hi Guy,

One value of such historical figures has been awareness of sparging too quickly, as gravity will drop below norm.

Good luck tomorrow,
Eric.

[guypettigrew]

Yesterday's brew went well and I remembered to take the OG of the initial runnings. Sadly, I forgot to check at the intervals you gave above, Eric!

However, 1st runnings were 1.092. This was from a mash with 5Kg Maris Otter, 250 grams pale crystal malt and 15 grams of black malt. Mashed in 13 lites of liquor starting and finisshing (!) at 66.8C.

Next time I'll try to remeber to take readings during the run off!

Guy

[darkonnis]

speaking of sparging how long do you guys take to sparge? I do mine over about 30 minutes usually, efficiency of 80%ish. Not that I care too much for efficiency, I just want to make sure I'm not under doing the sparge as I could water it back or keep sparging for more beer

[guypettigrew]

My sparge also takes about 30 minutes. Approximately 20 litres of sparge liquor going through about 5kg of grain in 13 litres or so of mash liquor. Final collected volume of wort is about 27 litres. Boils down to about 20 litres which is then topped up to 23 litres once it's in the FV.

I fly sparge using a rotating brass arm which just fits my Brupaks mash tun.

The first 0.5 litre or so of wort is run out of the mash tun and tipped back in again before starting to sparge. This is to clear out any debris. Then I start running the sparge liquor in through the rotating arm until there's about 2-3cm of liquor on top of the grain. The tap on the mash tun is then opened. Once all the sparge liquor has run from the HLT I leave the mash tun to empty completely.

How do you do it?

Guy