by EziTasting » Mon Dec 11, 2017 8:44 pm
I think that you aim for as high a pre-sparge gravity as possible because when you sparge you’re getting the last of the sugars out, but there’s a trade off in that you dilute the final starting gravity... if that makes sense?!?
If you start of with a lower gravity and then sparge, your starting gravity will be diluted (Read lower) and you’ll end up with a lower yield. I’ve done 5 AGs now, the first 3 ended up being 1.040–1.043 and we ended up with 1.2-1.3L @ 65% that’s from 15Kgs of grain... so I was not overly excited by that yield.
Taste tests on these are remarkably smooth, tho!
Mtge last 2, we sparked for 5 & 9 hours. The SG were 1.081 & 1.086, these are just about finished fermenting so not sure how much they will yield, but from initial playing around I’m expecting 3-4L @ 65%... so will see.
If they turn out NOT to be as smooth/good then I’ll be working towards a lower SG as suggested above. These guys have been at it a lot longer than me and have been very open in sharing...