High Gravity Brew

[Wayward]

Just started up on a new system, first five brews as a startup! We are brewing on an all electric system which regulates the amount of water going into the MT. I had a problem with the first batch because the flow meter was off and this is my first time on the system, mistakes are bound to happen, right? My latest brew was an imperial IPA, starting gravity 1.082 (19.75 plato), when I again had a problem with the flow meter. I'm not sure exactly how much water went into the mash, but it was a very thin, hot mash. As a result, my starting gravity was 1.067 (16.4 plato). A bit off what I'd like to see. After some feet stomping and calling to the manufacturer, I have decided to try making a higher gravity version of the same beer and blend the two (although this time I will not be trusting the flow meter). My plan is to wait for it to fully attenuate to make a corrective batch. Having never blended two beers and also having limited experience with gravity this high, do you have any suggestions/tips?

[Reshafer]

We ran into the same problems when we first started using our flow meter too. It seems that ours only works accurately when there is decent flow. What we have been doing is calculating the tank volume and just measuring down the sides of the kettle. Since we've been doing that everything has been pretty spot on. For what its worth were on a 3.5BBL system and its pretty easy to measure.

[Wayward]

We ran into the same problems when we first started using our flow meter too. It seems that ours only works accurately when there is decent flow. What we have been doing is calculating the tank volume and just measuring down the sides of the kettle. Since we've been doing that everything has been pretty spot on. For what its worth were on a 3.5BBL system and its pretty easy to measure.

From what the manufacturer said, the flow meter only works accurately under certain specific conditions. In my mind, this seems to defeat the purpose considering we'll be using drastically different flow rates depending on whether we're filling to the false bottom, hydrating the grist, sparging, etc. I did measure the out five gallons of water (by weight), graduated (is that the right term?) my site glasses and calibrated the flow meter and thought the issues would be corrected. And for the most part it was until last night, but I think I'll take your advice and disregard the flow meter all together. Did this mess with your gravity? if so, I'd love to hear what you did to correct the mistake.

[Reshafer]

From what the manufacturer said, the flow meter only works accurately under certain specific conditions. In my mind, this seems to defeat the purpose considering we'll be using drastically different flow rates depending on whether we're filling to the false bottom, hydrating the grist, sparging, etc. I did measure the out five gallons of water (by weight), graduated (is that the right term?) my site glasses and calibrated the flow meter and thought the issues would be corrected. And for the most part it was until last night, but I think I'll take your advice and disregard the flow meter all together. Did this mess with your gravity? if so, I'd love to hear what you did to correct the mistake.

Disregarding it helped with our gravity. With the flow meter we were .03 off from target and without it we are within .002 of target most of the time. We measure depth for mash in and then while sparging, we measure headspace in the boil kettle. While not ideal, we've been having good results and efficiency.