Equipment Profile Loss to Trub and Chiller

To preface, I mash and batch sparge in a cooler, move it to a kettle, and then siphon into my fermenter after boiling and cooling.

I brewed a week ago and there was a significant amount of trub left over in my kettle after transferring. That isn't anything new; however, I haven't been diligent in keeping up with those details in BeerSmith. So, I check what I have in my equipment profile and under Loss to Trub and Chiller, its set to 0.1 gal. I bump it up to 0.35 gal and check one of my recipes to see how it affected my numbers.

The IBU's went down a few, which I expected, and to compensate for the volume loss to trub, my sparge volume increased. The thing I don't understand is why the estimated original gravity didn't go down, it stayed the same. Since I'm adding more water, wouldn't I be diluting my wort and lowering the expected gravity? Am I missing something here?

Brewhouse efficiency is the percentage of sugars that make it to your fermenter. If you add volume, you'll see a corresponding increase in your mash efficiency, because the percentage going to the fermenter has stayed the same. Therefore, the ONLY place to get that needed gravity for the added volume is by increased mash efficiency.

When you add volume, and IF your certain of your mash efficiency, then you'll need to lower the brewhouse efficiency by roughly the same percentage of volume you add. This will keep you in the ballpark.

That makes sense. Thank you.

That percentage I'd be subtracting would be (volume added)/(new total volume)?

mattinglym2 said:

That percentage I'd be subtracting would be (volume added)/(new total volume)?

Click to expand...

Yep! Exactly!