Just start to use my latest gift from Mrs Claus. So far, it has been very easy to use. I’ve read that many use it to decide at what point to stop drawing wort from the tun. But different sources give different suggested readings. Any suggestions? 1.01 seems to be the most commonly suggested number.
As always,
Thanks
Does your refrac read in gravity points? If so 1.01-1.015 is pretty standard from what I’ve read. Collect to that point and you’re not losing much sugar. I’d stop before that if I got my needed preboil volume. Just be sure you’re sparging slow enough.
Yes, it’s a dual scale. I stopped collecting at 1.01, I read that beyond that, what little sugars collected are not worth possible off flavored. But again, I’m open to all advice.
Honestly I don’t think off-flavors are going to come shooting out in abundance at exactly 1.009 but certainly you got most of of the sugar that was in there. Did you have the right amount of pre-boil wort? You generally don’t leave much sugar behind with a regular 1.050 beer, when you get into the big beers you tend to see the gravity still up there once you collect your desired volume. thats where a longer boil or a partigyle come in handy, although malt is only a buck or so a pound.
I used the online mash and sparge water calculator and came very close to my pre boil number. I’ve never calculated my efficiency exactly before. Maybe that should be the next step in my process.
Efficiency is a good number to calculate since this tells you how consistent your process is, so you can adjust your recipes to hit your desired OG.
