NYJayhawk
Member
I've had an issue with a couple of batches where I've either done a partial mash batch, or recently when I used fresh hops, where the grain and/or hops are absorbing a lot of my wort. In the first case, I made the mistake of rinsing the leftover grain in a strainer until I got to the 5 gallon mark in my fermenter. I obviously left/lost a ton of sugars in the grain as my initial gravity number was lower than it should have been. Beer turned out ok, but it was about 1/2 the ABV the recipe called for and tasted a little thin.
Most recently I brewed a batch with my own homegrown hops. Since I was using fresh (not dried) whole hops, the quantity that I needed to use was pretty large (2 freezer bags full) based on the conversion ratios I found on the web. Needless to say, these whole hops absorbed a TON of wort and rather than fill the fermenter to 5 gallons with wort and water, I only added enough water to get to the target initial gravity.
The beer is in the keg carbonating now, but from what I've tasted along the way, it's going to be great. Unfortunately, however, I only netted out with 2.5 gallons rather than the 5 I was hoping for.
So here's my question: what can I do to get more beer out of these batches (thinking my rudimentary sparging isn't cutting it) or do I just need to factor in that I'm going to lose a certain percentage of beer and increase the amount of ingredients accordingly?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Most recently I brewed a batch with my own homegrown hops. Since I was using fresh (not dried) whole hops, the quantity that I needed to use was pretty large (2 freezer bags full) based on the conversion ratios I found on the web. Needless to say, these whole hops absorbed a TON of wort and rather than fill the fermenter to 5 gallons with wort and water, I only added enough water to get to the target initial gravity.
The beer is in the keg carbonating now, but from what I've tasted along the way, it's going to be great. Unfortunately, however, I only netted out with 2.5 gallons rather than the 5 I was hoping for.
So here's my question: what can I do to get more beer out of these batches (thinking my rudimentary sparging isn't cutting it) or do I just need to factor in that I'm going to lose a certain percentage of beer and increase the amount of ingredients accordingly?
Thanks in advance for your help.