Beer Forum

I am looking to collect about one gallon of first runnings from a high gravity strong ale to boil down and add back to the main boil kettle for a 5.5 gallon batch. Do I need to increase the amount of runoff I collect to compensate for the condensed wort I will be boiling down and adding back to the kettle so I reach my post boil volume?

brewinhard wrote:I am looking to collect about one gallon of first runnings from a high gravity strong ale to boil down and add back to the main boil kettle for a 5.5 gallon batch. Do I need to increase the amount of runoff I collect to compensate for the condensed wort I will be boiling down and adding back to the kettle so I reach my post boil volume?

Depending on your efficiency you might want to compensate with whatever water you're using to brew. There's no sense in over sparging your grains and collecting shitty 1.005 runnings just for the sake of volume.

Someone who has experience can correct me, but from a theoretical standpoint kettle caramelization (as opposed to melanoidin formation, they're different things) is very hard to achieve. Sugar caramelization requires temperatures above 212 and conditions of low moisture. As you can imagine, that's a bitch and a half to get going in a pot of boiling water. Brewers can get actual caramelization though by cranking that fucker to 11 and creating hot spots in the kettle for the reactions to occur. The bottom line is to boil the Jesus out of your first runnings, the more wigarously the better.

brewinhard wrote:I am looking to collect about one gallon of first runnings from a high gravity strong ale to boil down and add back to the main boil kettle for a 5.5 gallon batch. Do I need to increase the amount of runoff I collect to compensate for the condensed wort I will be boiling down and adding back to the kettle so I reach my post boil volume?

I've played with the idea of doing that with my blonde to make a... copper? Personally I would run off like normal & chalk the 2nd kettle evaporation as a loss. With a high gravity brew I highly doubt you'll be running into dangerous territory with the sparge, so you could, in theory, get your full volume... but then you're still watering down the wort (slightly). Take the loss. Buy the hose. Ride the tricycle. Drink the kool-aid. (or just write the recipe for a 1g larger batch size, but only after the hose, tricycle & kool-aid)