I Brew the Perfect Beer EVERY TIME - Here's My SECRET to Hitting Your Target ORIGINAL GRAVITY

Hi brewers. In this video, I'm going to show you a technique that you can use on Brew Day to make sure that you hit your target gravity going into the fermentor every single time.
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Have you ever been in the brewhouse on brew day and you found it difficult to hit your target gravity for your beer on a consistent basis? Your original gravity is really important because basically it sets out your alcohol, which is essentially the consistency of your product. And your consumers demand consistent product, it's what helps to grow your brand. But there's so many variables on brew day that can really clutter and create a lot of noise when you're trying to brew consistent wort. There's things like your mash efficiency, your runoff rate, you boil off in the kettle, even the weather can play its part sometimes. So how do you make sure when you're on the brew house that you send your wort to the fermentor and that it's on spec every single time?
And I'll even measure my running's as I go and I can pretty much calculate how much would I should have in the kettle at the start of the boil. Because if I run too much wort off into the kettle, I'm likely to undershoot my gravity and if that happens, the only way to fix that is to lengthen the boil and boil off more water out of that wort so that I hit spec. That's not really efficient in terms of time or energy and it's going to mess with your hop utilization and then send your IBUs out of spec.
Early in my brewing career, I was taught this really neat trick on how to check your wort gravity in the kettle or whirlpool before you send it out to the fermentor to make sure that it's okay, because once it's in the fermentor, you cannot really change it.
Here's how you do it. Run the mash off into the kettle as normal. When you're writing your beer recipe for whatever brewhouse you happen to be brewing on, make sure you set your into boil gravity to be about 10 to 20% over what your product spec should be. Run your boil program as per normal. Now, don't worry that you gravity is slightly high and its potential effect on hop utilization. When you start out doing this, it's pretty much negligible and it's something that you can dial in later with a little bit of lab work. In the last five to 10 minutes of the boil, carefully grab a sample from the kettle. Take a gravity rating of your wort sample from the kettle, and then run it through the dilution calculation. I'll come back in a minute and tell you about that. Then dilute you wort with hot liquor in the kettle or the whirlpool down to your target specification. The dilution calculation will tell you how much water to add. Double check your gravity again to make sure that it's right. Once you're comfortable with it and the wort's in the whirlpool and it's all ready to go, knock it out to the fermentor as you normally would.
So what's the dilution calculation I hear you ask? Well, it's a really neat little cross multiplication formula that helps you to understand what volume you've got and what gravity you've got and where you should be in order to hit your target gravity. Because I'll let you in on a little bit of a secret, gravity is just a ratio of water and sugar in your wort. That's it. So when you think about wort as a ratio of water to sugar, then a simple cross multiplication formula will help you to work out how much hot liquor to dilute your wort with at the end of the boil in order to hit your target gravity.
And the beauty of this formula is it doesn't really matter what unit of measure you use. So if you're Australian like me, a normal person using the metric system, I use specific gravity and hectolitres in the brewhouse. If you're one of my imperial system using American compatriots, you're going to use BBLs and Plato and that sort of thing. But here's the go. You can actually use firkins, litres, hectolitres, specific gravity, Plato, Baume, Brix. As long as you're consistent in units of measure and how accurate you can measure volume and gravity, then this will work out for you.
To make this calculation, you need to know the following. You need to know the current volume in your kettle, you need to know the current gravity in your kettle, and naturally you need to know your target OG for your product.
As you can see whether you use barrels and Plato or SG and litres or hectolitres, it doesn't matter. It's worked out the same. What we've done is we've added a small amount of hot liquor into our wort at the end of the boil and we've wound up hitting our target gravity. And we can be 100% sure that when we knock out and send that wort to the fermentor that it's going to be on spec.

[@knugenjesus2484]

Its so simple and so ingenious, love it!

[@philipbrown7196]

Great video! So glad I found your channel, subscribed, thank you!

[@ronsbeerreviewstools4361]

Good job brewing, thanks for posting, thumbs up.

[@vigneshmuralidharan4692]

Excellent explanations ! Appreciate it!

[@nhender]

Great video. I always end up under shooting and boil off the water you're right it can be expensive with energy.

[@oibal60]

Thanks for this.

[@grm3]

This is a great video! Thank you for boiling it down so well.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Thanks for watching!

[@SailorPilot]

Thanks for the video, very helpful

[@muditmudit007]

Hello sir my name is Mudit Joshi & I m from India , so currently I m doing some research on crafted breweries business perspective, and as I m reading various books so I too have few doubts but your wonderful videos really help me to think, thanks for your knowledge, you are helping in fulfilling my dreams......Thanks Hope for support in future.......

[@charliedalmasso4672]

brilliant ! Thank you !

[@danielpool3636]

I just found your videos and you are a huge help.

[@dwinsemius]

This is perfect for homebrewers as well. Good on.

[@precariousbyte]

Homebrewer here. Definitely using this during my next brew. Cheers mate

[@U812GREEN]

Great trick all brewer's can use from home to commercial. Extended boil changes the flavor.

[@Veritas3553]

Outstanding video! A friend of mine just opened a 3 barrel brewery and restaurant concept, and I was doing a bit of research and "discovered" your video. Great advice! And as an avid home brewer doing 10 gallon batches, I can apply the same formula at home, shortening my day (and using less electricity), and hitting my OG every time. Thanks!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey thanks for watching! I'm glad you found the information to be useful. Don't forget to subscribe as I'm currently working on the next few videos which are due out soon.

[@fpproject4797]

Veritas3553 he takes a gravity reading out the kettle? Is that an accurate reading? Or is the sample cooled first before taking a reading?

[@jwp09]

@@fpproject4797 With a hydrometer, yes. If using a refractometer the wort is cooled quickly enough for it to be an accurate reading because it's such a small amount of wort collected for a reading

[@Charsty]

top tip cheers hendo!

[@carlfarang]

Great trick. Thanks!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey Carl....thanks for watching. I really appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, don't forget to subscribe for more pro brewer tips.

[@murrayhuggins5769]

Best video ever!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey thanks for watching! Glad it helped.

[@jeffnash5691]

A bit late to the party, but great info and love the poster behind you! One of my top three favorite movies of all time. Cheers!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Cheers Jeff - we have some more new content coming out soon so be sure to subscribe!

[@StoneyardVineyards]

Prost we are home brewers and just subscribed , we brew beer make wine and mead grow hops

[@levent7735]

amazing trick. you really are a rockstar

[@RockstarBrewer]

*tips bucket hat*

[@craiggambetta694]

This video has certainly flipped my thoughts on brew day

[@cervezaartesanaldeguadalaj4457]

La densidad en cada una de las cervezas. Muy bien

[@JohnGaltJeep]

I've watched this video so many times. Incredibly brilliant. I've read through every comment and can't find anyone asking this so here goes. Wouldn't the same thing be achieved by artificially underestimating your mash efficiency in your brewing software? Like if you are normally 70% you could use 65% in your software. This would give you a higher prevoil gravity and you could dilute to make it the desired OG? Please help!

[@RockstarBrewer]

YOU HAVE UNLOCKED THE SECRET TO BREWING CONSISTENCY! CONGRATULATIONS!!

[@moosongpark1920]

Really enjoying your videos. So your trick to hit consistency in every brew is pretty much just doing high gravity brewing through wort dilution?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Pretty much. Being a little over gravity means that you can dilute down and hit your target every time. Thanks for watching!

[@TheGhostFilmer]

Totally thought this was Ross Kemp in the thumbnail. Great video

[@ausflo]

I do exactly as you do in my home brews. What I've learned is that no recipe works If you do not focus on the gravity of your wort. As you've mentioned, gravity is the only number you can handle. I use to add water If gravity gets above and increase boil time If gravity is below target. I like your videos, thanks and cheers from Brazil...

[@RockstarBrewer]

Agreed - watching gravity = awesome beer. Thanks for your comment and thanks heaps for watching :-)

[@fpproject4797]

Hey, great video!!! Is your reading from the kettle cooled before taking a reading??? I always understood a hot sample to be inaccurate

[@RockstarBrewer]

I use a home brewing refractometer on the brew deck for hot side samples. Is it accurate? Nope. Is it good enough to hit your number? Yes! Thanks for watching.

[@craiggambetta694]

The penny has just dropped. Hendo from the Black Ops Podcasts. Love your knowledge mate...

[@StoneyardVineyards]

Cheers

[@spartan1man]

When I dilute post boil with hot liquor. Is there a certain temperature the hot liquor should be? Just found your channel while researching for this very issue. Thanks for the Awesome tips. Keep it up.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey spartan1man - thanks for watching. As long as the hot liquor is above 80 celcius then that's generally accepted to be above sterilisation temperature. Some brewers I know use the dilution to lower wort temperature for the whirlpool to preserve hop aroma but as long as you remain above 80C then you should be fine.

[@kgakoh0]

Great video and I will try this. amateur home-brewer here. Im Brewing in a bag . To achieve a 10 - 20% higher gravity at the end of the boil would mean, does that mean I will reduce my mash waster (sparge water volume) to deliver the higher gravity wort?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Not necessarily - just keep an eye on your wort gravity in the kettle at the start of the boil and in the last 10 minutes to calculate your adjustment. Thanks for watching!

[@tobarstep]

It's a clever technique. My only concern with this would be the potential change in pH, since I have to treat my water in the mash tun and at sparge. Treating the entire HLT directly isn't an option for me. Have you ever noticed any concerning shift in pH, or is the ratio small enough that it doesn't matter?

[@RockstarBrewer]

You don't need to treat your HLT. You can simply treat your strike liquor and then the wort in the kettle. pH shift post dilution will happen and will vary depending upon the alkalinity of your water. If this happens, you can simply add more acid or bicarbonate to the kettle to adjust as necessary. I usually do this at 10 minutes. I hope that helps and thanks for watching!

[@AartvanBergen]

We dilute every brewday. But, we do it with cold/lukewarm water at the end of the boil. This way the whirlpool hops are in a bit cooler wort and will add less bitterness than in 100 C wort.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Absolutely nothing wrong with that - hop survivables ftw!!

[@s.ubmarine8202]

May sound little dumb but just to be clear.. :) You brew a beer the first time, its good. when you brew it the second time u start with the same amount of mash water but you multiple your whole grain bill by 1,20 and then dilute with your formula. Is it then possible not all the sugars are extracted from the grains? or doesn't that affect the taste? ps: just found this channel, first video i see, nice work man!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey thanks for watching. There's no reason why the flavour would be affected in any way that I can think of. You could scale up your ingredients but this is more about accuracy than volume 🙂

[@pkmathome1500]

Thanks! How about how a 2bbl brew house fills 4bbl fermentors? How about how/if dry hopping affects FG?

[@RockstarBrewer]

If dry hopping affects FG then you need to adjust your OG down to ensure that you got target alcohol. ABV is the most important number for a commercial brewer because of tax reasons. Thanks for watching!

[@paakss]

Or you can just ferment with high gravity and after fermentation is done you add deaerated water and have more beer :)

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yes of course! This is what the big breweries do but you will need a low-range DO meter to ensure that your water is de-aerated otherwise you will oxidise your beer. Thanks for watching!

[@paakss]

@@RockstarBrewer100% for home brew agree! You could boil water and store it in a purged keg till it cools and then add but seems like too much. Thanks for posting!

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

thanks Hendo for this tip, really helps in getting the OF in place.......cheers

[@limulus61]

This was brilliant! I have a brand new brewery in the US. It is 5bbl or just under 6hl. I brewed a beer last week that should have been 1.052 and it came in around 1.042. It had a little over 125kg of grain. So in order to be 10-20% over my TG post boil I should adjust the grain volume in my mash or is there another way?

[@RockstarBrewer]

The best way to avoid this is to use the dilution calculation during your run off and stop if you hit your target start of boil gravity. That way you'll never wind up that far under gravity. I hope that helps!

[@limulus61]

@@RockstarBrewer Thanks again and I'm now a subscriber. I recently watched your hour long water adjustment video.

[@thewestonfront]

Given that liquoring back will increase the pH of the wort, what is the maximum percentage liquor back you would recommend? If I were seeking to try and boost my capacity by aiming at a (very) high gravity, would I be advised to titrate the pH for high levels of liquoring back dilution? The method that works well for me is to know the expected gravity rise for an 80 min boil for a specific batch size and OG - then I can target the correct pre-boil gravity on most occassions, just so long as I don't let the last runnings pH go above 5.4

[@RockstarBrewer]

If you liquor back and you find that your wort pH is too high, you can simply adjust that down with a small acid addition to bring it back into spec. The great thing is that by doing this hot side, you'll know that when you knock out to FV, you'll be on spec. As far as how much you can liquor back, I've done as much as 40% without issue. Thanks for watching!

[@keelo-byte]

nice, the old C1V1=C2V2. I will use this next brew day.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Exactly! Thanks for watching 🙂

[@dontlikebigbubblesinmyguinness]

I've heard dilution from high gravity brewing works best after fermentation... What's your advice? And another thing I'm struggling with is: Do I have to scale up my recipe to reach a higher gravity? Cheers

[@RockstarBrewer]

Water inherently contains a lot of dissolved oxygen so diluting post fermentation will damage your beer. The mega breweries dilute post fermentation but they have big, expensive de-aerated water plants to remove the oxygen from water. You don't have to scale up your recipe if you don't want to, just don't sparge so much and adjust at the end of the boil! Thanks for watching.

[@MrGingerJez]

G'day Hendo - how does this work with biab given you don't actually have your final volume until after you've removed the bag and you've drained and/or squeezed all the wort out of the bag? Would you maybe remove the bag straight after the mash and collect the wort that drains from it in another vessel so you have some wort for diluting and take your specific gravity then?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yep! That's exactly it. It's all about the boil gravity. Once you've collected all of your wort in the kettle, you can do the dilution calculation. Best done about 10 minutes before the end of the boil though but there's no harm in doing it at the start as well just to see where you're at. Thanks for watching!

[@TheWhiskeyDude]

I use a slightly different method that doesn't require any dilution. I take gravity readings every 15 minutes during the boil which equates to about 2 gravity points. So in a 60 minute boil I check the gravity 4 times and if my TG is low I just how much time it will take to get to my TG.

[@RockstarBrewer]

But doesn't that mean that your boil time might vary from batch to batch?

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

hi there, i want to know to dilute the wort, what should be the ph of the hot liquor. should it be just like sparge liquor with ph within 6....what are ur recommendations on wort dilution......this calculation is quite helpful and has been discussed in palmers - how to brew. thanks heaps for these videos....so many helpful tips to avoid muckup on brewday.... cheers.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Good question! It depends upon your target wort pH which is related to the beer style you're brewing. In pale beers, acidifying your dilution liquor to pH 5.5 is a good place to start. Thanks for watching!

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

@@RockstarBrewer thanks Hendo for replying........I would definitely need your help in setting up my small brewery project......I will get the membership on ur website- Rockstar brewer....cheers

[@vikramjitsingh4538]

Much appreciated....

[@compoundfracture4661]

Enjoyed the video. I’m new to all grain home brewing and I’m doing a lot of research before I start. Is my following takeaway correct? Say I’m doing a 5 gallon batch and I end up with only 4 gallons of wort in my kettle but it’s already at the recipe pre-boil gravity. I stop filling the kettle with any remaining wort/hot liquor, boil, dilute as necessary at the end, and write off the missing gallon as an uncontrollable variable to maintain quality?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yes! It's important to check gravity at the start of boil AND at the end of boil where you can make adjustments. A Pre-boil gravity check will stop you from over-sparging. Thanks for watching!

[@compoundfracture4661]

Rockstar Brewer: Tips & Reviews For Pro Brewers 👍 Thanks!

[@charlesuding8003]

I want the poster!

[@j4nch]

Just curious, to NOT mess what is computed for me(brewhouse efficiency and mash efficiency) in brewfather, what would you enter for numbers in the capacity, ... ?

[@RockstarBrewer]

My advice here is to use Brewfather as a guide in terms of volumes etc but on brew day aka IRL, aim for your target OG :-)

[@walkerrichardson]

Thanks for the video. So is the main downside here that your boil will take longer than standard? You aren't necessarily mashing with 10-20% more grain, just boiling longer to a more concentrated wort and then topping off with hot liquor.

[@RockstarBrewer]

No. You effectively under-sparge and boil for the standard amount of time at slightly higher gravity... then dilute at the end of boil to your target OG. You'll hit it every time this way!

[@walkerrichardson]

@@RockstarBrewer aaah it just clicked. thanks!

[@averysdescent]

Is there a way to calculate the maximum amount of grain for your mash tun which would in turn calculate the maximum amount of OG in the kettle? My issue is trying to find what my "max" gravity beer that I can produce before lowering my kettle volume to make high gravity beers.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey Andrew - I use Beersmith with a well defined equipment profile (with my mash tun volume) to determine the max grain load of my mash tun. This is a good start. From there, it's practice and experience. Thanks for watching!

[@hillblai]

So if Im understanding this correctly. You’re adding dilution water after the boil but before whirlpool. Any concerns about the water from the HLT not being boiled for sanitization?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Nope - not at all! anything above 80 Celcius for 15 minutes is sterile. Thanks for watching!

[@Dhelmet256]

Simplest hack, but the best hack for gravity.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Absolutely! Thanks for watching.

[@clubroot3383]

Do I need to adjust to a standard temperature when taking a gravity reading?

[@RockstarBrewer]

That depends upon your method. If you’re using a hydrometer then yes. If you’re using a DMA35 density meter the it’ll adjust for temperature. Thanks for watching!

[@kimjaecheul]

currently building a 10 HL (2 vessel system) brewery in SeouL, Korea. Could you explain the methodology of scaling up the normal 20 liters (or 5 Gallons) home brew recipe to befitting 10 HL commercial level production? And also, it would mean a lot if you could share some of the recipes for that 1,000 liters brew house set up like we do.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey Christopher. That's a great idea for a future video. Mind if I cover it there?

[@kimjaecheul]

@@RockstarBrewer you are more than welcomed to do so. Actually, it will be my pleasure. Looking forward to check out your videos on the topic.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Funny thing is that up until a few weeks ago, I was due to be in Seoul judging beer at the Korean international beer awards. I hope to get the opportunity to come see you soon!

[@zberteoc]

What if your CG is less that the target one? Just continuing boiling? How does that go with the hop time?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Don't continue boiling - you'll only use more energy and your bitterness will be too high. Instead, use the formula in this video to monitor your kettle gravity during the lauter - say every 15 mins. That way, you'll never undershoot your target gravity. Thanks for watching!

[@nidaltouma]

May I ask if the shrinking / expanding of water affects this method ?

[@RockstarBrewer]

It's negligible. Don't sweat the small stuff. Try it for yourself and let me know. Thanks for watching 🙂

[@jamesleehunter]

I get the compensation, but what about if you're over? Wouldn't you want to make these adjustments before the boil and hop schedule to avoid diluting past the recipe volume and getting x% less hoppiness?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Not really - the way I look at it is I do the dilution calculation and take that volume as a 'virtual kettle volume' and hop according to that size. Get's the hop bitterness and flavour right every time (but you can always to a lab analysis to confirm). Thanks for watching!

[@Timothythebrewer]

Great If you are overshooting OG and need to dilute, what about if you're consistently undershooting OG? Add DME?

[@RockstarBrewer]

If you under shoot gravity, it means that you're not monitoring your lauter and kettle gravity sufficiently. I'm going to make a video on that soon so stay tuned.

[@Timothythebrewer]

@@RockstarBrewer That would be very helpful! Really looking forward to it! 😉🍻

[@doguztv]

Thanks Hendo. Loving your tips. How do you over hit your target OG. Do you add 'extra' grain in the mash? Or take less wort from it. Or sparge less? Because we have our recipes in software that calculates the gravities based on the grain volumes and in turn our software keeps track of our inventory, so we only add what the recipe asks for. Adding extra grain would throw that off the inventory.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Grain and brew length (i.e. volume) are directly proportional so you could either add extra grain or run less wort off to the kettle. The idea in this video is to have about 10-20% higher gravity than your target in order to be able to dilute and adjust your gravity down in the kettle or whirlpool down to your target. So yeah....your choice but both methods would most certainly work!

[@jipjanneke11]

So, is the overall grain utilisation efficiency the same at knockout using this method as compared to the usual method (i.e. trying to hit the pre-boil volume and gravity targets straight out of the mash/lauter tun)? My guess is almost...but I suppose you are foregoing some wort extraction by effectively bypassing the sparge of your mash/lauter tun with the volume of water you otherwise add straight to the kettle at the boil end, thereby extracting a little less sugar from the mash. I suppose the tradeoff is efficiency vs consistency in this case? If so, wouldn't it make sense to minimise the deliberate post-boil OG overshoot and thereby the post-boil dilution as much as possible (yet still take advantage of this adjustment strategy to hit the target knockout OG)?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Hey Greg & Minke. Thanks for your questions. On brew day, mash/grain efficiency is not really important to me - hitting the right OG is because you have little control over a mash efficiency number unlike OG which you have full control over. So I don't really think about mash efficiency and focus purely on OG into the fermenter. Efficiency is important but only after you've dialled in the consistency using the method in this video - but that's a separate topic. You can adjust your post boil wort dilution as you have suggested but I would address this as an efficiency issue after you've dialled in hitting your beer's OG consistently after a few batches. At the end of the day, grain is cheap and only when you've got scale does mash efficiency become a major cost issue. Every brew house is different. Have a great day :-)

[@ericbeardo]

@@RockstarBrewer You say to dilute with hot liquor. Do you mean un-boiled sparge runnings? Where is the dilution liquid coming from. Thanks

[@DMCSerenity]

eric c I was interested in knowing this as well.

[@danielhose4851]

No more eyeballing!!

[@muditmudit007]

Hello sir I want to ask something........I live in area where temperature is around 38 degree C to 28 degree C, So can I grow HOPS in my backyard garden ?

[@RockstarBrewer]

I wish I could help you there but I'm a brewer not a farmer. There's quite a few awesome resources out there so be sure to check them out 😃

[@muditmudit007]

@@RockstarBrewer Ok sure Thanks for your reply

[@matthi9384]

I have similar temperatures. It depens on the rain (because hops need much water), but I have no problems with growing hops.

[@andvil01]

You don't even need to measure the gravity at the end of the boil. You can use preboil volume and gravity. It will still tell you the target volume. Then just check the volume at the end of the boil and add upp to target. Volume x gravity is just the amount of extract you've got. So volume x gravity is the same all through the boil. All extract is still in the kettle. I work in a large brewery where everything is computer controlled. So we hit the target more or less every time. And we do high gravity brewing. All beer is diluted to target with deaerated water after filtration. That is not an option for most home- or small brewers. Then this method is perfect. When doing your calculations set your target slightly above your real target. Then you never overshoot. And if you do, slightly, you can ad up with light extract. Fun fact with large breweries. Transportationtime is not the same when you scale up. Everything take longer time with larger volumes, 20-100 m3. So alot can happen in 20-30 min pump time. When the the last mash in goes to the mashtun the first has allready been there for 30 min! At enzymatic temperature. That changes your calculations alot. And some is just trial and then keep to it when it is good. Every time.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yes this works too!

[@barleyboy13]

When using brewing software for recipes and you want the gravity readings in your recipe to show your target instead of 10-20% higher. Would you just lower your efficiency in the equipment profile to account for the 10-20% gravity increase? Any issue with my thinking here?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Keep your recipe formulations as is but use your skills as a brewer - including using the dilution calculation - to overshoot your kettle gravity during lauter and sparge. On a typical brew day, I do the dilution calculation 20 times or more so I'm constantly keeping track of where my gravity is at. Thanks for watching!

[@barleyboy13]

@@RockstarBrewer Thanks. That brings me to my next question... The water you add, how do you keep your water profile on spec? Should that water be pre-adjusted?

[@RockstarBrewer]

@@barleyboy13 You should have a fair idea of what water adjustment is required. I use Bru'n Water so everything is calculated in g/L so I use that as a guide knowing the volume I dilute with.

[@mickholgate3347]

Does this also dilute flavour?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Absolutely not! It's a very common practice in the commercial brewing space.

[@craiggambetta694]

What if you are trying to hit a specific final volume?

[@RockstarBrewer]

To brew a beer consistently every time, you need to target your OG - not volume. I guess at the end of the day, you're going to get the volume you're going to get. The number you actually have control over is your OG.

[@gomezfriesen]

Great video. Confused by one thing. You said S.G. is metric. I don't see how. Wouldn't Plato be metric, as 1°P is just 1g of sugar per 100ml?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Good obvservation! 1 Plato is 1g of extract per 100g (not mL) of wort so it's a ratio much like all other Imperial/Freedom units such as Vols of CO2 used to measure carbonation. Ratios are not metric because they cannot be broken down into base SI units. SG on the other hand is closely related to (but not exactly) density which is 1kg/m3 or 1 kilogram per cubic metre....lots of SI units going on there and that's what makes it metric. Waaaayy too much to explain in a 60 second YT short but you get the idea....thanks for watching :-)

[@gomezfriesen]

@@RockstarBrewer thanks for that reply! This is the first I have ever heard SG being metric. I switched to Plato, when I started as a head brewer, because all my other Canadian head brewer friends wondered why I was using SG if I love metric so much. One more question to understand you fully. I need to figure out what you mean by SI units?

[@RockstarBrewer]

@@gomezfriesen Every (and I mean EVERY) single unit of measure in metric can be broken down into base SI units such as kilograms, metres, seconds, amperes, kelvin etc. For example, pressure in Pa aka pascals is 1kg/m2 so 1000 kg/m2 is 1kPa. It's what makes metric so elegant! You can read more info on it here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_base_unit

[@mrdespizeme]

Why adjust AFTER the boil, instead of BEFORE?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Your kettle may not be that big! Also energy savings and maybe you don't accurately know your boil off rate which literally changes with the weather.

[@Brockdorf]

why does it work if you use 56 and 60 but the number is off if you use 1.060 and 1.056?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Excellent question!! You need to use gravity points as opposed to actual Specific Gravity. Dividing something by 1.056 will yield a much smaller change than dividing it by 56. It comes down to ensuring you have your significant digits to the right of the decimal point. I hope that helps :-)

[@Brockdorf]

@@RockstarBrewer Thank you, makes 100% sense now, but none the first time. I guess it makes sense to watch all your videos twice.

[@Austographer]

Hendo, What happens to the bittering of the batch when you 'water it down' to achieve the right OG? If we're talking in IBUs wouldn't a batch at say 60IBU 'dilute' to 50~IBU when extra water is added at the end of the boil?

[@mitchellul]

could you add more bittering hops?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yes - but the change in IBU would be negligible. Most commercial breweries have a lab to measure this but if you're a home brewer, let your tongue be the guide!

[@midnightmover2329]

So essentially,aim to overshoot slightly?

[@RockstarBrewer]

Yep!

[@etzmannschnappuleck1181]

Well, what about the IBU?

[@RockstarBrewer]

The difference is negligible - I tested it myself! Might upload this in a future video. Thanks for watching :-)

[@garyballared2077]

my brain hurts!

[@RockstarBrewer]

Then my work here is done 😂 thanks for watching!

[@SebastianGonzalez-nl7rq]

Just looking at the video thumbnail I knew he was gonna have an accent

[@RockstarBrewer]

What! I have an accent? 😂

[@madaxe79]

He doesn’t have an accent to me. 😀

[@JH-qqqqqiim]

So basically, overshoot on purpose, then dilute to your target gravity.

[@RockstarBrewer]

Exactly!

[@dgnkpr2]

Video killed a radio star.

[@AlisterRobbie]

is maths. is simples.

[@forellensepp4182]

If you have problems with hitting your target gravity you are miles away from brewing THE PERFECT BEER EVERY TIME. Gravity control is business as usual for every brewer on every brew. It´s a standard control.

[@RockstarBrewer]

I. AGREE. WITH. YOU!