HopHead73
Brewmaster at Jbyrd Brewing, Hophead
Ok hopefully someone has the patients to follow me here cause this going to be long winded.
Quick note, took preboil gravity reading with refractometer with ATC calibrated with distilled water and my original gravity was with a hydrometer @ 65 degrees.
I got this Stone IPA recipe from Mitch Steele's new book.
Now this is only the 2nd all-grain batch on my new equipment and set up and I'm still fine tuning my numbers for Beersmith. I missed my OG in my first recipe by 4, and this time I was off by 9 and I can't figure out why.
Here is the recipe with Beersmith's estimated numbers are in italic and my numbers are in bold
All-Grain: Brewhouse Efficiency 73%
Yeast: White Labs English Ale Yeast - 2L starter
12lbs 12oz - 2 Row Pale Malt
14oz - Crystal 15L
.6oz Chinook - 90mins
.4oz Columbus - 90mins
2oz Centennial - 15mins
Mashed @ 149degrees for 60mins with 5.1gallons and batched sparged with 5.9gallons of 185degree water, which put the grain bed to 168degrees, for 10mins and then drained. Mash Ph was 5.6
Batch Size: 5.7gallons - 5.6gallons
Pre Boil Volume: 9.1gallons - 9.1gallons
Pre Boil Gravity: 1.045 - 1.041
Post Boil Volume: 6.82gallons - 6.4gallons
Original Gravity: 1.063 - 1.054
Now after I chilled it with my immersion chiller the volume dropped to 6.1gallons, which is calculated for in Beersmith, and I only got 5gallons into the carboy, so I ended up pouring the trub into my funnel that has a filter and squeezed out another .6gallons to reach my final batch size of 5.6gallons.
So far you can see that my boil off rate was off. I had it set for 1.5gallons/hr when I actually had 1.8gallons/hr, which you would think would make the wort more concentrated, but as you see that doesn't seem to be the case. And my trub loss was slightly off, but I don't see how either of those would lead to missing gravity points.
I did end up with less volume then expected, but even though I had to filter the trub to make up for some loss I don't see how that effects points either.
My preboil volume had 373points, but my final volume was only 302points. 71points gone?!
And Going back and looking at my first recipe on this set up and I seemed to be missing 45points in the difference between my preboil and post boil gravities.
My only guess is that my refractometer may have been off with my preboil reading or its broken haha. I stirred up the wort before taking a reading.
When I took my gravity reading after I cooled and transferred to the carboy the refractometer was reading only 1.049, but my hydrometer (which I have trusted for awhile) was reading 1.054. So I really don't know what to say about that.
Anyway to test a refractometer with anything else, such as plain sugar water?
I know my final volume was off, but that to me only seems to be from miscalculating my boil off and trub loss. But, my starting volume was right and a lower final volume would make you think I should have a higher OG then I do.
Now I know this will throw off the hop to malt profile of the final beer, but its a Stone IPA clone so more hop bite may not be a bad thing.
But another concern may be over pitching since I made a 2L starter from Mr.Malty's calculator for a 1.063 beer, but I only hit 1.054. I had a krausen forming after only 6 hours and 48hours later the krausen has completely fallen back and there is just some yeast clumps floating on top now.
I know it will still make beer, but this is driving me nuts on why I'm not hitting my numbers.
Quick note, took preboil gravity reading with refractometer with ATC calibrated with distilled water and my original gravity was with a hydrometer @ 65 degrees.
I got this Stone IPA recipe from Mitch Steele's new book.
Now this is only the 2nd all-grain batch on my new equipment and set up and I'm still fine tuning my numbers for Beersmith. I missed my OG in my first recipe by 4, and this time I was off by 9 and I can't figure out why.
Here is the recipe with Beersmith's estimated numbers are in italic and my numbers are in bold
All-Grain: Brewhouse Efficiency 73%
Yeast: White Labs English Ale Yeast - 2L starter
12lbs 12oz - 2 Row Pale Malt
14oz - Crystal 15L
.6oz Chinook - 90mins
.4oz Columbus - 90mins
2oz Centennial - 15mins
Mashed @ 149degrees for 60mins with 5.1gallons and batched sparged with 5.9gallons of 185degree water, which put the grain bed to 168degrees, for 10mins and then drained. Mash Ph was 5.6
Batch Size: 5.7gallons - 5.6gallons
Pre Boil Volume: 9.1gallons - 9.1gallons
Pre Boil Gravity: 1.045 - 1.041
Post Boil Volume: 6.82gallons - 6.4gallons
Original Gravity: 1.063 - 1.054
Now after I chilled it with my immersion chiller the volume dropped to 6.1gallons, which is calculated for in Beersmith, and I only got 5gallons into the carboy, so I ended up pouring the trub into my funnel that has a filter and squeezed out another .6gallons to reach my final batch size of 5.6gallons.
So far you can see that my boil off rate was off. I had it set for 1.5gallons/hr when I actually had 1.8gallons/hr, which you would think would make the wort more concentrated, but as you see that doesn't seem to be the case. And my trub loss was slightly off, but I don't see how either of those would lead to missing gravity points.
I did end up with less volume then expected, but even though I had to filter the trub to make up for some loss I don't see how that effects points either.
My preboil volume had 373points, but my final volume was only 302points. 71points gone?!
And Going back and looking at my first recipe on this set up and I seemed to be missing 45points in the difference between my preboil and post boil gravities.
My only guess is that my refractometer may have been off with my preboil reading or its broken haha. I stirred up the wort before taking a reading.
When I took my gravity reading after I cooled and transferred to the carboy the refractometer was reading only 1.049, but my hydrometer (which I have trusted for awhile) was reading 1.054. So I really don't know what to say about that.
Anyway to test a refractometer with anything else, such as plain sugar water?
I know my final volume was off, but that to me only seems to be from miscalculating my boil off and trub loss. But, my starting volume was right and a lower final volume would make you think I should have a higher OG then I do.
Now I know this will throw off the hop to malt profile of the final beer, but its a Stone IPA clone so more hop bite may not be a bad thing.
But another concern may be over pitching since I made a 2L starter from Mr.Malty's calculator for a 1.063 beer, but I only hit 1.054. I had a krausen forming after only 6 hours and 48hours later the krausen has completely fallen back and there is just some yeast clumps floating on top now.
I know it will still make beer, but this is driving me nuts on why I'm not hitting my numbers.