Hop'n my brew..

Well my first brew on the Clawhammer kettle is in the fridge.. I started with 8.4g thinking I'd lose 1.5g from to grain absorption and .5g to hops but I was off. I lost about 1.1g from a 10.3lb grain bill and post boil ended up with 6.3g - and that was with extending the boil to 75 minutes instead of 60 (adding middle and late hops late by 15 minutes). But by the time i lost some to the pump, tubes etc I ended up having just under 5g into the carboy. My OG turned out to be 1.04 - maybe 1.041 - so my ABV potential is going to be 5.22 to 5.34%. Lower than the target 5.65%. I need to think this through how to dial everything in... I think my grain wasn't milled as well as it should have either. it's going to be a process.. but glad I finally brewed with the system.. Even though I've brewed on the stove, etc. It just seemed so much more involved today. It made me think to be sure and appreciate how much work goes into my next beer - bought or otherwise! Thanks for everyone's help! lots of questions in my head but will save them for another day..
 

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beer1965 said:
Well my first brew on the Clawhammer kettle is in the fridge.. I started with 8.4g thinking I'd lose 1.5g from to grain absorption and .5g to hops but I was off. I lost about 1.1g from a 10.3lb grain bill and post boil ended up with 6.3g - and that was with extending the boil to 75 minutes instead of 60 (adding middle and late hops late by 15 minutes). But by the time i lost some to the pump, tubes etc I ended up having just under 5g into the carboy. My OG turned out to be 1.04 - maybe 1.041 - so my ABV potential is going to be 5.22 to 5.34%. Lower than the target 5.65%. I need to think this through how to dial everything in... I think my grain wasn't milled as well as it should have either. it's going to be a process.. but glad I finally brewed with the system.. Even though I've brewed on the stove, etc. It just seemed so much more involved today. It made me think to be sure and appreciate how much work goes into my next beer - bought or otherwise! Thanks for everyone's help! lots of questions in my head but will save them for another day..
Click to expand...
Awesome stuff.
It'll take a few runs with this new rig to get to know it where to adjust ect on brew day.
Keep brewing as with everything in life practice makes perfect.
 
I've been using the same kit for almost 2 years now and I still am not 100% on my numbers.
 
beer1965 said:
Can you tell me more? What are you having trouble with?
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Biggest one is variability of ingredients, likely. We are dealing with agricultural products - they're not the same year-to-year. At our scale perfect consistency is just not possible so it's best to just accept minor variation batch-to-batch. We can set the ideal of perfect replicability and work toward it but we will not achieve it.
 
beer1965 said:
Can you tell me more? What are you having trouble with?
Click to expand...

Yeah, I don't always get the same brand of grain, hops varying from year to year. Humidity in the air, I'm not 100% accurate with my propane level, etc..
 
I'm not sophisticated enough to be able to tell if my brews are always the same, but do I know they are not.:D
 
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