Just chill, man.

[alb]

Ok, so I tried again. And you were right, I learned. I did a no-sparge full boil batch yesterday. Actually it was a BIAB, since I used a bag instead of the false bottom. I had to mash in my cooler because thanks to Screwy's BIAB calculator, I knew I would have overflowed my 9-gal boiling kettle.

http://www.thescrewybrewer.com/2015/04/ ... lator.html

Everything went much more smoothly this time but I still ended up light on my gravity, fixed with some DME. I also ended up under-volume. 2 reasons: First, I ended up doing a 90-minute boil instead of 60 because by eyeballing the kettle I actually thought I was over-volume. Apparently not. Second, after chilling with an immersion chiller, I had a HUGE cold break. So I took out the chiller and whirlpooled, waited 15 minutes, and the wort was wonderfully clear. Except the cold break was loose at the bottom of the kettle and I lost more than the usual amount of wort with it. I know, cold break isn't necessarily bad but it's a lot of gunk in a conical fermenter. I like clear wort. I like clear beer.

So, if I got a counterflow chiller so the cooling is outside the kettle, would that help? Or does the cold break just stay in the wort as it runs through the chiller then, and still end up turbid?

[mashani]

As far as I am aware, with straight up use of a counterflow chiller, the break is just flowing through the thing and into your fermenter.

You would need to use the chiller to recirculate it into a vessel other than your fermenter and whirlpool it in that vessel anyways to get the break to drop out.

It's the same with a plate chiller if you don't have some sort of filter system, or a brite tank setup.

In any case I've had no trouble with turbid wort not dropping out clear in my LBCs. I just sometimes have to do the old LBK trick and stick shims under the front legs to keep the extra trub out of my spigots if there is a lot of it and it "overflows beyond the cone" as such.

[HerbMeowing]

PROTIP:
Next time you're short on clear wort for the fermentor ... put the kettle trub in the fridge overnight.


.
The fill level on both 1/2G containers was turbid trub 12 hours prior.
Over 1 QT clear wort was recovered and added (post-short boil; cooled) to fermentor the day Hi-K fell.

[mashani]

Yes, I can attest to that. The "wit juice" that I made and froze is very turbid. The batch that I had defrosted and left half of it in the fridge, cleared nicely like the pics above.

[FedoraDave]

As far as the pre-boil volume, I never eyeball it. I know I'm going to lose about a gallon during a 60-minute boil, so I've got that going for me. But I measured out gallon increments in my brew kettle and took a dowel and notched it at every gallon. Now I know pretty much what my pre-boil volume is. It's worked out very well for me.

[alb]

I actually have the gallons marked with a sharpie on the outside of the kettle, but maybe my depth perception is off. The notched stick is a good idea, I'll try that.

I calculate and calculate but the actual values of most everything I do ends up different than expected. I guess math gives me problems. See what I did there? Math? Problems?

Actually, I can hold my own with math. But it doesn't make my life any easier.

[bpgreen]

As far as the pre-boil volume, I never eyeball it. I know I'm going to lose about a gallon during a 60-minute boil, so I've got that going for me. But I measured out gallon increments in my brew kettle and took a dowel and notched it at every gallon. Now I know pretty much what my pre-boil volume is. It's worked out very well for me.

I read everything after "I've got that going for me" in Bill Murray's voice.

[Inkleg]

Water/wort will expand when boiling and shrink when chilling. Keep that in mind when eyeballing kettle volumes. Don't know what measurable percentage it can be, just something I've notice in my own pots.

The Great Trub exBEERiment might change the way you look at trub into the fermenter.
I did 11 gallons of an ESB, the first fermenter received almost all the trub the other very little. Pouring each side by side now there is no difference in clarity.

[alb]

The Great Trub exBEERiment might change the way you look at trub into the fermenter.

Huh, look at that. Thanks, Inkleg.

[HerbMeowing]

You can easy get an accurate measure of how much pre-boil wort is needed in the kettle by using:
1) a ruler / yard stick and
2) the equation to calculate the volume of a cylinder.

---
Numerator = desired pre-boil volume (US gallons) * 231 (cubic inches per US gallon)
Denominator = Pi * radius ^2

Wort depth (inches) = (numerator / denominator) * 1.04 (accounts for 4% volume loss from cooling)

[Pudge]

I prep water the night before a brew day to lighten the work load a bit when brewing. I also convert that needed volume to liters and use my 2L flask to measure it out. Overall, it makes things a tick more accurate without geeking out.

6 gallon recipes with the intent to collect 5 gallons of wort keeps me from worring about leaving any behind.

[Beer-lord]

Pretty much what I do. Many times I have the grains crushed and hops measured the night before as well. Things seem to go smoother that way.