Adjusting Equipment profiles for different styles and beers.

[dtapke]

So, I've had a long hiatus from brewing frequently, and just started back up recently. I recall running into this issue in the past and I'm not so sure what I did (if anything) to remedy it, and I'm curious how others have.

Say I brew a "boring" beer. Simple profile, minimal hop additions, I get X amount of trub loss in my kettle, and Z amount in my fermenter.

Now if if a brew some crazy IPA with a couple pounds of hops in the kettle and a pound in the fermenter I obviously lose more, and my recipe estimated numbers start missing the mark. I noticed this the worst on my last 20g batch with 3lbs hops during the boil and whirlpool and a pound in the fermenter. I ended up with only 16g in kegs, being 2.5g short into the fermenter and 1.5 short into kegs.

Would the best solution for this be to create a second equipment profile allowing for these losses and use that profile when building hoppy beers? Or is there some magic way I'm unawares of that compensates the recipe based on the hop additons?

TIA Dave @ SCB

 

[Oginme]

There are two basic approaches to handling the difference between brews with low hop additions versus those with massive additions. The first is exactly how you described it above. You will need to dial in each profile to account for the difference (possibly not so large as one might think) between the recipe with large trub left from the hop additions and one without the large trub loss.

I chose to target a final volume at the end of the boil at 11 liters, with the target to the fermenter at 10 liters. This additional liter at the end of the boil gives enough buffer for an IPA with 50 grams of hops and a simple pilsner with around 10 grams. Either way, one liter is left behind in the kettle, but it keeps the brewhouse and mash efficiency somewhat predictable.

 

[BeerSmith]

I would also add that I keep a second equipment profile for very high gravity beers due to the lower efficiency achieved:
https://beersmith.com/blog/2022/07/22/high-gravity-beer-brewing-with-beersmith-software/

 

[GigaFemto]

I use 0.05 gallon/oz for the absorption of hop pellets. For pellets that go into the kettle (boil and whirlpool) I add that amount into the trub. For dry hops I increase the batch volume to account for the hop absorption. I agree that it would be nice if there was a way for BeerSmith to do this automatically.

--GF

 

[BeerSmith]

I agree - I will look at adding a variable for hop trub loss based on hop amount added.

 

[dtapke]

I agree - I will look at adding a variable for hop trub loss based on hop amount added.

_THAT_ would be amazing.

 

[dtapke]

I use 0.05 gallon/oz for the absorption of hop pellets. For pellets that go into the kettle (boil and whirlpool) I add that amount into the trub. For dry hops I increase the batch volume to account for the hop absorption. I agree that it would be nice if there was a way for BeerSmith to do this automatically.

--GF

I'll have to see if those amounts seem to match up with my brewing. Theory would say that 1oz of hops holds the same amount of water no matter the brewing setup, however I think the losses I experienced were more than that, perhaps double. I'll have to track this a bit better, thanks for the idea! Once I get it figured for the hot side hops one could transfer that theory to the dry hop additions and see if there's any more fine tuning required on the cold side.

 

[FatherSonBrew]

We had a similar concern where we discovered after we fine tuned BS equipment profile for our Brew In A Bag system, we could no longer squeeze the bag without extending boil to get correct/speced SG. While there are other ways to address this issue, We elected to reducing boil off volume to correct this discrepancy. We did create, so far two BS equipment profiles. One for dark beers where we did not want to squeeze bag and then a common equipment profile for all other brews. If we have a heavy hopped brew, BS equipment profile selected can be tweaked easily in each individual recipe, without effecting the default equipment profile. Just open up profile in BS recipe and make those small changes for each recipe. This is our approach so far, because we know if we created a bunch of equipment profiles we would some time down the road select the wrong one. Just sayin.

 

[dtapke]

I have no clue where this came from, but a friend sent me a picture discussing the "Impact of dry hopping on losses"

	Pilsner	IPA	NEIPA
Beer Losses	6%	20%	35%
Hop Losses (gr/hl)	3	119	643
Grain losses (kg/hl)	1.2	4	7
Total Water Losses (hl/hl)	15	55	110

I find it oddly specific and non-specific at the same time...