Hi all,
So I've been brewing with my system I built and got operating last Dec. Prior to that I was brewing on a friends system and using his custom made software. Now I'm using Beersmith.
I'm consistently hitting my pre-boil numbers both gravity and volume into the boil kettle. If anything I was finding my gravity before boil was usually higher - so I adjusted the efficiency setting to reflect this. Typically I'm getting around 85% on a 3 vessel herms system. So I'm happy with that. (That's the percentage before boil)
I've done 11 brews to date including today my first attempt at a "double" batch 11 gallons split into 2 fermenters as I keg everything.
Today as this was a my first go at the full capacity of what this system can do I dialled the BH efficiency back down to 75
Today's example: expect - 13 gallons at 1.043 into boil kettle, after an hour boil and a 1 gallon boil off expected OG 1.048
Actual: 13 gallons at 1.047 into boil kettle, actual boil off approx 1.125 gallons and OG of 1.049
So if the yeast does it's job I'll end up at the number I want but I'm concerned that for whatever reason my OG is actually coming out low. In this case if I adjust the software to reflect how efficient the mash process was to reflect 1.047 then it expects my OG to be 1.053 which of course I was no where near to getting.
My gut feeling based on the past years of brewing led me to design the recipe as such to get the actual OG of 1.049 - but I want the software to be able to predict what is actually going to happen.
I should add I'm using a refractometer for readings, I've been careful to make sure the wort is fully mixed to avoid stratification and I've accounted for temp variances.
Bottom line why is beersmith always expecting my OG to be much higher than my pre-boil gravity?
Thanks!
E.
So I've been brewing with my system I built and got operating last Dec. Prior to that I was brewing on a friends system and using his custom made software. Now I'm using Beersmith.
I'm consistently hitting my pre-boil numbers both gravity and volume into the boil kettle. If anything I was finding my gravity before boil was usually higher - so I adjusted the efficiency setting to reflect this. Typically I'm getting around 85% on a 3 vessel herms system. So I'm happy with that. (That's the percentage before boil)
I've done 11 brews to date including today my first attempt at a "double" batch 11 gallons split into 2 fermenters as I keg everything.
Today as this was a my first go at the full capacity of what this system can do I dialled the BH efficiency back down to 75
Today's example: expect - 13 gallons at 1.043 into boil kettle, after an hour boil and a 1 gallon boil off expected OG 1.048
Actual: 13 gallons at 1.047 into boil kettle, actual boil off approx 1.125 gallons and OG of 1.049
So if the yeast does it's job I'll end up at the number I want but I'm concerned that for whatever reason my OG is actually coming out low. In this case if I adjust the software to reflect how efficient the mash process was to reflect 1.047 then it expects my OG to be 1.053 which of course I was no where near to getting.
My gut feeling based on the past years of brewing led me to design the recipe as such to get the actual OG of 1.049 - but I want the software to be able to predict what is actually going to happen.
I should add I'm using a refractometer for readings, I've been careful to make sure the wort is fully mixed to avoid stratification and I've accounted for temp variances.
Bottom line why is beersmith always expecting my OG to be much higher than my pre-boil gravity?
Thanks!
E.