Wort shrinkage

sn00ky

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Over the last few brews I am changed things around alot and caused my attention to focus on smaller detail.

I drained to kettle until reaching my pre-boil volume, adjusted boil time to ensure gravity/evaporation. 10 min left I circulated through counterflow chiller, back to kettle. At flameout, recirculated back to kettle until output temp was 80 then into fermenter (trub and proteins included).

So, theoretically I have more volume going into my chiller than coming out, 4% seems to be very close.

Where does this "loss" in volume get accounted for? I use Brewers friend brew day exclusively.

Also, using bottom drain, but I still get some decent volume of settled trub in the kettle, however a lot of it goes to fermenter. Are the trub absorption losses calculated incorrect because of that?

None is this is critical, easily accounted for with 2 additional quarts of runnings, just curiosity picking at me

Thanks !
 
Other than shrinkage you've measured out your volume of losses in trub? I also think of losses in fermentor to get that kegs worth of final volume.
 
Didn't see it going there but well played JC

Well really I account for 2 extra quarts to fermenter to ensure I get full keg, same principle just accounted differently.
 
There is shrinkage included in the calculations , as for other losses you have to dial it in to your equipment and methods .
I know my simple system well enough by now that its rare for me to be out by more than +/- 2 points .

I also drive a friends system so have a separate equipment profile set up for his that I now have dialed in pretty well for same accuracy and consistentcy
 
Makes sense, I agree with knowing the equipment, better than any formula for sure.

Just wondering if you know where or when it is considered with how brewer friend tracks the brew day?
It seems logical that it can change based on type of chiller used since it asks every brew day and not just in equipment profile.

Thanks!
 
Type of chiller will have no effect on shrinkage , it's a law of physics so is constant and predictable
1000 l of pure water at ~4 C will weigh exactly 1000 kg and have a volume of exactly 1 cubic metre
1000 l of pure water ( @~4C) brought to the boil (100 C at sea level) will still weigh 1000 kg ( not including boil off ) but will now have a volume of 1.04 cubic metres
^^ This is why i love the metric system so much , so do my squirrels
Changing chiller type may effect losses and time at above isomerisation temps , as far as i'm aware it comes into play on the brewday calcs when inputting the pre boil volume ect , there'll be an extra checkbox marked Temp correction below kettle/FV volume in your Brew log entry which will correct back to a volume at 20 C the same as for hydrometer temp corrections
 
"So, theoretically I have more volume going into my chiller than coming out, 4% seems to be very close."

It could be that I'm misunderstanding you, but 4% is pretty much dead on target for the reduction in measured volume from boiling to ambient temps. That percentage can be adjusted in the equipment profile.
 
"So, theoretically I have more volume going into my chiller than coming out, 4% seems to be very close."

It could be that I'm misunderstanding you, but 4% is pretty much dead on target for the reduction in measured volume from boiling to ambient temps. That percentage can be adjusted in the equipment profile.

thr default value in profile is what I use, I checked it a few times when I was using immersion chiller and it was just about perfect.

in the case of an immersion chiller, my example would be at flame out having 6 gal volume , as per recipe. once chilled I would now have 5.75 gal. under water requirements there is a breakdown including trub absorption but nothing that I see that inclueds the shrinkage volume.

I haven't checked but what pirate days might be what I'm looking fof regarding the check box. ..
 
Found that it actually states, right in the water requirements tab, that all volumes are corrected to 68F - meaning you need to take the volume difference into account manually during the mash, as far as I can see anyway.

Thanks everything for the thoughts and brainstorming!
 

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