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Brewsmith calculates OG different than Northern Brewer says

gvhorwitz

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Hi,

I've brewed a Northern Brewer 3 gallon Dead Ringer IPA kit. Everything seems to be within specifications with Northern Brewer's instructions, other than they called my OG to be around 1.064 and mine came in at 1.060.

I've modified my biab equipment and mash profiles according to how Marshall Schott (brulosopher) did in youtube, which I found to be helpful in understanding the system.

However, when I put in the recipe as is written in the documentation from Northern Brewer, Beersmith says my OG should be 1.074 instead of the 1.064 in the Northern Brewer estimate.

The recipe calls for 7 lbs (3.18 Kilos). If I change my target OG in with the sliding scale the grain weigh drops to 6.08 Lbs (2.76 kilos).

Any idea where I need to change my profiles to match the gravities to the volume and weights?
 
If you want to blindly match the OG and grain bill to the Northern Brewer recipe, you should adjust the brewhouse efficiency until the OG matches for the grain bill indicated.  It sounds as though the equipment profile is set up to a much higher efficiency than what Northern Brewer has designed the kit for. 

If you were accurate in your equipment profile in terms of losses to trub and chiller, boil off rate, and brewhouse efficiency when you set it up and used results from previous brews to arrive at those numbers, then you should come out closer to what BeerSmith predicted than what Northern Brewer predicts. 
 
Is the show that was done at the NB shop in Milwaukee going to be posted?  If so, any idea when?
 
Oginme said:
If you want to blindly match the OG and grain bill to the Northern Brewer recipe, you should adjust the brewhouse efficiency until the OG matches for the grain bill indicated.  It sounds as though the equipment profile is set up to a much higher efficiency than what Northern Brewer has designed the kit for. 

If you were accurate in your equipment profile in terms of losses to trub and chiller, boil off rate, and brewhouse efficiency when you set it up and used results from previous brews to arrive at those numbers, then you should come out closer to what BeerSmith predicted than what Northern Brewer predicts. 

I agree, you need to adjust your efficiency. Many things can impact your OG. From my experience, I have seen and done the following with some success one way or another.

- The grain itself maybe the issue. Some grains are impacted by climate and humidity. It is important to take the temperature of your grain. This impacts your number.
- Are you topping up your kettle? I find sometimes that a measurement from the bottom of the kettle is different from the top of the kettle. Even if I stir like crazy or boil for 30 minutes before my first edition can very.
- Lastly, I remove my back and pour my hot top up water over the grains and let it drain until my kettle comes up to a boil and then pour in the water from my fermenter.
- Set the amount of top-up water with the amount of water you added from the fermenter.

In the end, most of the conversion starts as soon as the grain hits the water and ends about 45 minutes. You still get some, but not as much as in those first minutes.

Once all this is done, I set my efficiency. For me the easier way is to drop my efficiency until my measured and calculated OG match. I get between 65% and 80%, but it depends on grain saturation and the type of day. There maybe an easier explanation and way, but this is where I am right now.
 
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