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Need help dialing in equipment for target gravity

Gilles

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Hi all

I'm Gilles from Belgium, Antwerp, and I've been homebrewing for a year. After reading John Palmer's book, I've started creating my own recipes. So far so good, especially with the help from Beersmith (awesome piece of software!) except for 1 problem: I always miss my Est Original Gravity by quite a few points !

Yesterday, I brewed an American style IPA with Citra & Cascade hops and missed the OG by 8 points (1056 instead of 1064).
Can someone determine the issue? I've attached a screenshot of my equipment profile.

Some extra information:

  • I always brew small bathces of 5 liters (bottled) or 1.3 galon because I drink on my own and have limited space available
  • I use a Bulldog malt mill
  • Unfortunately no pre-boil gravity measurement
  • I use a calibrated refractometer and use Beersmith to convert Brix to gravity
  • After transferring from primary fermenter to secondary I lose about 300ml (0,07 gallon) of stuff. Then from secondary fermenter to the bottle I loose another 100ml (0,03 gallon)
  • I use a large mash tun (cooler) for mashing with a "bazooka" at the bottom. Not sure how much is left after transferring to the boiling kettle

Lot's of missing data, I know, but I'm trying to measure more and more data so complete the puzzle. Not sure how to measure the loss in the mash tun though?

Here's the recipe of my IPA

BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Citra - Cascade IPA
Brewer: Gilles
Asst Brewer: Melissa
Style: American IPA
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (30,0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 2,12 gal
Post Boil Volume: 1,85 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 1,45 gal 
Bottling Volume: 1,32 gal
Estimated OG: 1,064 SG
Estimated Color: 6,4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 51,1 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 63,00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 77,3 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
1,45 gal              Antwerp, Belgium                        Water        1        -           
3 lbs 4,5 oz          Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3,0 SRM)          Grain        2        81,7 %       
8,6 oz                Wheat Malt, Bel (2,0 SRM)                Grain        3        13,4 %       
3,2 oz                Carared (20,0 SRM)                      Grain        4        5,0 %       
0,26 oz              Chinook [14,60 %] - Boil 60,0 min        Hop          5        38,5 IBUs   
0,18 oz              Cascade [6,90 %] - Boil 5,0 min          Hop          6        2,5 IBUs     
0,18 oz              Citra [12,50 %] - Boil 5,0 min          Hop          7        4,1 IBUs     
0,11 oz              Cascade [6,90 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20,0 Hop          8        2,3 IBUs     
0,11 oz              Citra [12,50 %] - Steep/Whirlpool  20,0  Hop          9        3,7 IBUs     
1,0 pkg              Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast        10      -           
0,14 oz              Cascade [6,90 %] - Dry Hop 7,0 Days      Hop          11      0,0 IBUs     
0,11 oz              Citra [12,50 %] - Dry Hop 7,0 Days      Hop          12      0,0 IBUs     


Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge
Total Grain Weight: 4 lbs 0,3 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In          Add 5,29 qt of water at 163,1 F        152,0 F      60 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (0,25gal, 1,09gal) of 168,0 F water

Thanks! :)

Gilles
 

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Read the second pinned topic at the top of the "All Grain/Advanced" section of the Beersmith forum. It will step you through the equipment profile setup. The fourth (and last) pinned topic may also be helpful.
 
Hi

Thanks!

I used that topic for the initial set-up but looking at my screenshot and my own measurements, it looks like a made a mistake in scaling down for my own equipment. I will change the profile based on the measurements I have now.

I'll also boil water for 60 minutes and see what I have left so I know the boil off rate (more or less). Lauter Tun Deadspace will be recalculated based on this topic: http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=1892.0

Looking at my profile, it seems that I would compensate too much water, making the wort more diluted and thus lower OG?

Cheers
Gilles
 
Hi all

So I've made some new measurements including mash tun dead space and boil off rate. I've adjusted this in my equipment probile accordingly but now I get a negative mash volume. Any idea what's wrong? Equipment profile seems OK ...

I've added screenshots:

 

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The issue is in your mash profile.

From the numbers you gave, it appears as though your infusion volume is at 3.1 qts/lb of grain.  At this level, this is more than sufficient to supply all the water for the recipe plus some, hence the negative sparge volume.  You can edit the mash profile and bring your initial infusion down to around 1.25  to 2.0 qts/lb and BeerSmith will calculate the residual water volume into your sparge volume.
 
I disabled the option "Batche sparge using batches that fill: (90%)" and now it looks like this. Seems about right?
 

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