Wed Jan 25, 2012 8:05 am
I do have a 10 gallon Igloo cooler with a SS braid. I am not sure off hand but the length is probably around 2.5 feet long and I have it wrapped around the bottom of the cooler. When I stir the mash, it comes up to the top of the cooler but it makes it way back down. Do you think it might get bunched up and cause the channeling issue you were talking about?
I have a refractometer with atc. And yes, I was just reading the gravity straight from the boil. I have learned and now, I take a dropper full of wort, then set it aside to read 20 minutes when it has cooled. I was using a hydrometer with all my mini mashes and my first two AG, but not recently. I have calibrated my refractometer.
As for the evaporation rate, I found an equation on byo.com from Mr. Wizard. Evaporation percent = 100 - (post-boil volume x 100 ÷ pre-boil volume). If I put my numbers in ER = 100 -(5.25x100 ÷ 6.5), I get a rate of 19.2%. Is that right? He does not take time of boil into account. Well anyway, that seems really high to me.
So the first and only book I read for brewing was Charlie P, The Joy of Homebrewing. Not that it isn't a good book. I just don't think it prepared me for AG. Therefore, I am in the middle of J. Palmer's How to Brew. Much better...
Last edited by
megDC on Wed Jan 25, 2012 9:11 am, edited 1 time in total.