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Beersmith varies drastically from recipe

cripplecreek

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Hi all!
I'm attempting to create a recipe in Beersmith from the book Beer Captured by Tess and Mark Szamatulski. I have created an equipment profile for my BIAB sessions. The problem is that Beersmith is projecting a much lower OG than the book calls for. Book says = 1.078 to 1.079
Beersmith = 1.059

I have the same problem with hops
Book says = 25 IBUs
Beersmith =20.9

I've watched the videos and have searched the forums but still cant seem to understand what I'm missing.

Any help is much appreciated.
 
There are a number of reasons why it'd be different. Batch sizes, boiloff and efficiency are the first three that come to mind.

For instance, are they proposing a 5 gallon batch as measured in the kettle? BeerSmith is measuring the fermenter, which is often less volume than the kettle because of trub.

Can you please post the recipe?
 
Sure!
Its a Fantome Saison Clone
It calls for 10.25lbs Belgian Pilsner and 1lb of Belgian Wheat to be mashed at 150 for 90mins.
.5oz Hallertau 60mins
1oz East Kent 60mins
.25oz East Kent 15mins
.5oz Bitter orange 15mins
.5 tsp Coriander
.25 Grains of Paradise
1 tsp Irish moss

Wyeast 3463

Add 1 quart each Strawberry and Rasberry juice into secondary

Yield = 5 gallons
OG: 1.078 - 1.079
FG: 1.014 - 1.015
SRM: 7
IBU: 25
ABV: 8.1%

Its listed as an extract recipe but lists the adjustments for all grain
 
cripplecreek said:
It calls for 10.25lbs Belgian Pilsner and 1lb of Belgian Wheat to be mashed at 150 for 90mins.

Yield = 5 gallons
OG: 1.078 - 1.079

Well, right off the bat I'm going to say that the recipe is missing something: sugar. You have to achieve over 90% efficiency to get to the target gravity.

Look at the description of the beer to see of they mention sugar additions (other than the fruit juice). Otherwise, you'll need another 4 to 5lbs of grain to achieve your gravity.

Here's why:

When 1 lb of grain is mashed to make 1 gallon of wort, homebrewers can usually count on the gravity being 1.026. For simplicity, we call that points per pound per gallon (ppg) and drop the 1. So, most homebrew systems get 26 ppg.

The recipe has 11.25lbs of grain. That's 26*11.25 for 292.5 potential gravity points. Divide that by 5 gallons and you get 58.5. That's a starting gravity of 1.059 when rounded and exactly what BeerSmith calculated. This means the recipe is missing about 4 lbs of grain.
 
Ahhh. Bit new to all of this so I didn't think to check the math.  Thank you so much.  I just sent the authors an email because there is no mention  of sugar in the recipe.  I really enjoy beersmith, the technique emails,  and the pod cast. Keep up the good work,  it's very well appreciated!
 
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