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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blonde Update

I kegged up 43 gallons of the Blonde ale last weekend (6/15). Now that I have an idea what my fermenting losses are, I can adjust my future batch sizes accordingly. Eventually I want to get 46.5 gallons out of the fermenter so I can get three full sized standard kegs per brew. For this batch I estimated I'd loose about 1.5 gallons of beer but in reality I ended up loosing 2.5 gallons with the various yeast dumps and another 1 gallon left behind in the fermenter. I didn't have any spare growlers around or else I would have tried to get that out. By then it was after 1:00 in the morning and I was done.

Final gravity was 1.008, which is a little lower than I was shooting for, but not unexpected after the long mash at a low temperature and essentially open fermentation. ABV was 6.07%.

I sampled some of it later in the week and I have high hopes for it! It should be really coming into its own by the time our July 4th block party rolls around.

The pumps are now mounted to the frame and I have made a few other minor adjustments. I have a few more things I'd like to do before getting another batch going. That batch will be an Old Ale and one that ages nicely so it will be nice to have a few extra kegs of it around.

2 comments:

John Little said...

I'm curious about your pre-boil and post-boil volumes and how you manage to avoid boil overs. I'm the worst about boil overs, so I'm only planning for 33 gal batches. But I know more can be brewed. I'm anxious to try my system, but it will be a few months.

Brian said...

Currently I have right around 54 gallons pre-poil and aim for 50 gallons post boil. Between kettle, chiller, and hose losses, I am getting 46.5 gallons in the fermenter. On average so far I am usually dumping around 3 gallons of yeast after fermentation is complete. I eventually want to net 1.5 BBL's, so at some point I'll up my recipes a bit to accommodate the loss (I have a little more room to play with in the kettle) or possibly brew at a little higher gravity. For boil over prevention, I make sure to have a hose nearby when it gets close to that stage.