How to deal with high-gravity beer in Beersmith??

How do you deal with a recipe where the mash volume is close to or larger than the usual boil volume?

For example, a recipe with a OG of 1.103 would need a mash water volume of 7.94 gallons (@1.5 qts per lb.). If my usual boil volume is 8.39 gallons for 90 minutes, it's obvious that I am not going to hit my gravity. First runnings top out at around 1.080, so additional sparging is required to hit my gravity, but obviously my boil volume is going to be much greater.

Is there a way to figure out the additional boil volume and boil time needed in Beersmith??

Thanks!

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Here is what I do for big beers. First of all I reduce the water to grains down to 1qt per Lb. You can go lower, and I have gone as low as .6. Add a Decoction for the Mash Out. Next extend the boil time by an hour (or more).

That should add 2-4 extra gallons of water for Sparging.

Cheers
Preston

Thanks. I've been essentially doing something similar, but it doesn't provide any level of precision. I'd be nice to be able calculate how much additional sparge water and boiling will be necessary.


Michael

So what I think we are talking about here is efficiency on "Big Beers".

There are a few things you can predict, however your efficiency on big beers is more dependent on time and experience than other factors. Other factors do play a part, however experience, time and knowing what your average efficiency on big beers seems to be the only thing I can come up with. To many things come into play like; crush, time, water, temp, and unknown's all play a part.

GO BIG, or small, Your making beer!  8)

Cheers
Preston