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Measuring Gravity @ Efficiency into kettle

Post #1 made 15 years ago
by redlegger
Hey guys,
leave it to me to ask the noob questions :)

Boiling away at the moment is Lloydies Krispy Kolsch. Below is a pcture of the liquor i have in the tube (taken from the keggle at the Efficiency into kettle stage)
Questions
1. seems to be a lot of solids and floaties in it...is this normal?
2. When should i take the gravity reading? when it cools to ambient temp?
3. Should i wait till the solids and floaties settle before taking a reading?
01052010(002).jpg
Cheers!

RL

P.S. my first BIAB (Smurto's ale) is crash chilling atm, it tastes real nice, cant wait to keg it :)
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Last edited by redlegger on 01 May 2010, 18:29, edited 10 times in total.
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Post #2 made 15 years ago
by BobBrews
RL,
BIAB is fairly cloudy. It throws most new BIAB'ers off. It will settle out in the primary. In my NC (no chill) cubes the trub (hot break) is deep but only the top layer interacts with the beer. Let it be for a couple of weeks and siphon it off. It will be clear and tasty.
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Post #3 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
That's a great pic RL!

I am overseas at the moment so can't reply in as much detail as I would hope. In answer to your questions though...

1. That is normal if you have just poured hot wort into that vessell. When wort is hot, everything floats.

2. Yes, you need to cool that sample to 15 C or 20 C depending on your hydrometer.

3. Officially, you should actually drain your wort sample through a filter pad to get an accurate gravity reading. No one does this of course.

BB mentions that BIAB wort is cloudier than other worts. It shouldn't be so ask more questions on this. BB probably means BIAB wort is cloudier at boil beginning. It should not be cloudy at boil end.

Spot,
PP
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Post #4 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
Sorry RL, just noticed your original question. PM me what records you have and I will post the results.

Definitely wait until stuff has settled!
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Post #6 made 15 years ago
by dick
1. seems to be a lot of solids and floaties in it...is this normal?
Yes it is normal.

2. When should i take the gravity reading? when it cools to ambient temp?
I would usually wait for the wort to cool to ambient temps then I take the reading, measure the temperature and adjust the reading according to how far it is from the calibration temperature of the hydrometer.

3. Should i wait till the solids and floaties settle before taking a reading?
That's a good question... I took a sample with a bit of break material in it and measured the density. Then I waited for the material to sink to the bottom - no change in density. Then I took the sample to work where I centrifuged the sample, took the clear wort from the top and measured again - no change in density.

I have taken this to mean that a bit of material like you have does not interfere with the density reading. The reason is that this material is suspended in the wort, not actually dissolved, so it is not contributing to the density of the wort.

I am not sure that if you had a considerable amount of break material, that it wouldn't then start to affect the density.
Last edited by dick on 02 May 2010, 20:55, edited 10 times in total.

Post #7 made 15 years ago
by AaronP
dick wrote:3. Should i wait till the solids and floaties settle before taking a reading?
That's a good question... I took a sample with a bit of break material in it and measured the density. Then I waited for the material to sink to the bottom - no change in density. Then I took the sample to work where I centrifuged the sample, took the clear wort from the top and measured again - no change in density.

I have taken this to mean that a bit of material like you have does not interfere with the density reading. The reason is that this material is suspended in the wort, not actually dissolved, so it is not contributing to the density of the wort.

I am not sure that if you had a considerable amount of break material, that it wouldn't then start to affect the density.
Thanks for doing that experiment dick. I always wondered whether having lots of yeast in suspension might also affect gravity. According to your experiment it shouldn't. I'll now sleep better at night :D
Last edited by AaronP on 04 May 2010, 13:57, edited 10 times in total.

Post #8 made 15 years ago
by shibolet
dick wrote:The reason is that this material is suspended in the wort, not actually dissolved, so it is not contributing to the density of the wort.
That actually makes a lot of sense to me. but it's good to see an actual experiment done on this subject.
Last edited by shibolet on 04 May 2010, 16:21, edited 10 times in total.
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Post #9 made 15 years ago
by Stitch
Geez that looks light. I know Kolsch is a light coloured beer, but that seems like water? If you have beer smith it can do a calculation to adjust for temperature. HTH.
:)

Post #10 made 15 years ago
by lespaul
When my burner arrives on Monday im going to do a trial boil with water and everything to calibrate the keggle. I have a brew next weekend with a few friends who are also going in on the brew because im pretty poor and needed the beer subsidised haha

so for this first brew im concerned about the efficiency while im trialing. In terms of trialing and the chance that i might stuff something up, if a few friends aren't massive fans of really hopped beer, should i expect to have an efficiency of 75% or lower because;
if it is 75% then the hop utalization (i think is the correct term) will be spot on
if it is above 75% there will be a lower hop utalization and the beer will be less bitter

Im not sure if im just talking smack or if this is the right way to look at it. Not a massive deal anyway, just thought id try and clarify.

Post #11 made 15 years ago
by PistolPatch
Hi there lespaul,

Use 79% end of boil efficiency for your calculations. Do not worry about the hop utilisation factor. Many other things will effect this more such as boil volume, quality of hops, hop type etc. Most brewers would be hard pressed to pick up these small differences so just make sure you start with a sound recipe and you'll be fine.

Good luck,
PP
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