Boil off question

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ddrayne10

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I just tried to brew an all grain simple ipa last week and everything went ok except my boil off rate. I used beer smith for the first time and this is the recipe I came up with.

12.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 92.31 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 7.69 %
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (60 min) Hops 20.8 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (15 min) Hops 13.5 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (15 min) Hops 10.3 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] (5 min) Hops 5.4 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 3.5 IBU
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale

Mash
60 min Mash In Add 16.25 qt of water at 165.9 F 154.0 F
10 min Mash Out Add 9.10 qt of water at 196.6 F 168.0 F

I brewed at night and thought that I collected around 6 gallons pre boil. When all was said and done I had 3.5 gallons in my carboy and my OG was 1.065. Then I decided to add 1.5 gallons to bring it up to five gallons. Then the OG was 1.051. Now should I not have added the last 1.5 gallons? Will this make my beer watery? Also next time should I do one more mash out with 2.25 gallons? I assume this problem is my boil off rate cause i use a 15.5 gallon keggle for 5 gallon batches. Any easy solutions?
 
I'm confused, did you actually measure 6 gallons pre-boil or just make an assumption? From the information you've given it looks like you only added a tad over 6 gallons of mash water period. Did you sparge or just mash out. I'm guessing you had well short of 6 gallons when you started your boil.
 
Due to grain abosrption, it sounds like your boil off wasn't actually a problem, its about the usual 15%. It actually sounds like your problem is your efficiency. Based on your #s, I'm getting only like 48%. I'd go with the extra 2.5gallon sparge next time.
Also, it sounds like after topping off you weren't well mixed because your starting OG should have read around 1.046. Compared to what it was supposed to be this will be a little watered down, but it still sounds like it'll make for a good one.
 
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