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I am not sure I am putting this in the right post but to me mashing is the main culprit for fluid loss so I chose here. If it is the wrong spot, please advise.
My question is, if you are going with a 5 gal. recipe of AG, say bourbon. ( a lot of corn) do you bump up the recipe totals in order to get 5 gal in to the still?
I guess a better question is how much loss can you expect before a recipe is ready for distillation?

Oak Pollen wrote: My question is, if you are going with a 5 gal. recipe of AG, say bourbon. ( a lot of corn) do you bump up the recipe totals in order to get 5 gal in to the still?

more than 5 gallons. I usually make at least 5 full still charges of mash. thats because i get 20% of the original volume back, around 38% abv.....x 5 i have a full still charge for the spirit run.

there is a guesstimate around here about how much water the grain sucks up. it's alot - maybe 15% of the volume? 1/8 is stuck in my head somewhere. (make with 8 gallons water, get 7 clear beer back)

Do you “ferment on the grain”? Or, do you lauter...like when making beer? Brewhouse efficiency also affects the amount of “distillers beer” collected.

If you’ve brewed enough before to understand YOUR processes, then you can (or should be able to) adjust the recipe to produce the volume of beer for your boiler.

I lauter, so I don’t ferment “on the grain”. When I ferment, I make enough for 3 boiler charges. Then, I strip the 3 charges, collecting the low wines for a single spirit run. Variance in the extract and “squeezings” will be amortized throughout the process, so it is not such a big concern.

It’s easy to adjust the recipe to your brewhouse efficiency once you’ve done it enough times that you know the benchmark. The experience will answer the questions for you.
ss

Stirring and B, Thank you so much. That makes so much since a dump ass (like me) should have thought of it. That goes to show you this new venture is not getting into my head

Or use a thumper and dump the liquid in the boiler and the strained out grain in the thumper.
No need to spend lots of time and effort in separating out the grain, either. Near enough is good enough.
A certain amount of liquid in the thumper at the start should be beneficial...
Haven't tried any of this as I don't yet have a thumper set up but it seems logical, no?

Geoff

I target 5-6 gallon liquid yields from a ferment for an 8 gallon boiler. To get there, I mash roughly 16 pounds of grain in total, with about 8 gallons of water. I follow a very similar process as SS, repeating this three times. After three stripping runs, I end up with around five gallons in my spirit run.

The Baker wrote:Or use a thumper and dump the liquid in the boiler and the strained out grain in the thumper.
No need to spend lots of time and effort in separating out the grain, either. Near enough is good enough.
A certain amount of liquid in the thumper at the start should be beneficial...
Haven't tried any of this as I don't yet have a thumper set up but it seems logical, no?

Geoff

I do just that! Saves me a lot of sqeezing and rinsing.

Thanks, Kareltje.

Nice to know it works.

Geoff