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Please review my recipe

jgaepi

Apprentice
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Oct 10, 2018
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Hi, I'd greatly appreciate someone reviewing my recipe. I'm just getting back into brewing and I'm doing half batches these days. So, I used BeerSmith to cut my recipe in half, adding in 5% extra for batch sparging.

The original recipe is attached along with my BeerSmith calculations. I'm particularly interested in opinions about my water chemistry, which I'm a dunce at.

Lastly, I'm not completely sure the total water is going to give me 3.25g pre-boil. Thank you!
 

Attachments

  • ColdSmoke.pdf
    155.9 KB · Views: 230
  • Recipe.pdf
    67.2 KB · Views: 231
Recipe looks fine.  I am not sure why you are adding 5% more malt without first knowing how much of a drop between fly sparging (which I assume you were doing before) and batch sparging.  Worst case is you will end up a bit higher in OG which may not be a bad thing.

As for your water chemistry, just seeing your additions without knowing your starting water or ending mineral/salt values I cannot comment on the appropriateness for the style or value the mineral additions will give you.
 
Thanks. I could have sworn I wrote that I use R/O water. Also, I've only used batch sparging in the past and someone a long time ago taught me to add in about 5% more for loss.

Always learning so I'll take any advice.
 
Back when batch sparging was new there were those who thought that mash efficiency suffered but over time the difference between the two has been found to be so small as to be negligible.
 
Ok, any thoughts on total water amount? I assumed I'd be a little north of 5g but this calculation is showing less. Thanks.
 
So, I brewed my Cold Smoke clone today. The water additions were spot on. Never had that before. So that was cool. But, I didn't hit my original gravity by a bit. Though I can't remember what I need to alter in my profile to compensate. Is it my grain bill or temperatures or both? Advice is welcome.

Target OG: 1.066
Actual OG: 1.051

Target water: 3.4G into boil
Actual water: 3.4G into boil

Target mash temp: 150
Actual mash temp: 144

Thank you.
 
With your volumes being spot on, your gravity being low is a matter of extraction of sugars from the malt (mash efficiency).  If you have entered all your volumes and gravity into the 'session' tab, you will find the 'meas efficiency under the column marked "brewhouse efficiency" along with the current BH efficiency.  Edit your equipment profile to change the brewhouse efficiency to the new number.  Apply (change) a copy of your brewed recipe with the new equipment profile.  Now you can go back to the design tab and adjust the original gravity of the recipe back to your target by clicking on the slider and enter your previous target OG.  This will scale the ingredients to match your new BH efficiency.  Check the bitterness and the color and make adjustments the same way you did the OG.

The next brew you make, use this new equipment profile by "scaling" the recipe from the old equipment profile to the new one, assuming that the recipe is already written.  Otherwise, you can write or enter the recipe using the new equipment profile.  Plan on repeating this process several times over the next few brews to 'dial in' your equipment profile.
 
Oginme said:
With your volumes being spot on, your gravity being low is a matter of extraction of sugars from the malt (mash efficiency).  If you have entered all your volumes and gravity into the 'session' tab, you will find the 'meas efficiency under the column marked "brewhouse efficiency" along with the current BH efficiency.  Edit your equipment profile to change the brewhouse efficiency to the new number.  Apply (change) a copy of your brewed recipe with the new equipment profile.  Now you can go back to the design tab and adjust the original gravity of the recipe back to your target by clicking on the slider and enter your previous target OG.  This will scale the ingredients to match your new BH efficiency.  Check the bitterness and the color and make adjustments the same way you did the OG.

The next brew you make, use this new equipment profile by "scaling" the recipe from the old equipment profile to the new one, assuming that the recipe is already written.  Otherwise, you can write or enter the recipe using the new equipment profile.  Plan on repeating this process several times over the next few brews to 'dial in' your equipment profile.

Advice looks spot on, have been taking beer brewed by my friends and i can hardly lift my head the next day, is there a hang over free beer recipe out there? would do anything to have one,
 
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