Gravity Issues

CornyKegs 728
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DarthBrewer87

DarthBrewer87

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I have brewed two batches of beer all grain with my new equipment. I use a dual scale refractometer to get my gravity readings. My problem is that all of my gravity readings are far off from where BeerSmith estimates them. My Imperial Pumpkin Ale had an estimated OG of 1.106 and my actual reading was 1.075
Please help me get this figured out
 
My guess is lautering efficiency. With a big beer like that you need either a very large tun, or lots of sparging and significant boil off. Search my blog for "more grain less sugar"

My book has some nice tables that can be used to trouble shoot this type of problem.
 
To add: are you getting a good crush? Are you fly or batch sparging? Are you meeting the estimated pre-boil gravity? Are you hitting all your volumes?

Lots of variables to consider and typically efficiency will drop a bit as the grist goes up in weight
 
We are batch sparging, the first batch we did was a dry stout and the est pre boil gravity was 1.038 and our actual was 1.028. we are hitting our volumes pretty close (a bit high by about .5 gallons). Also the temps for the mash came out spot on to what Beer Smith said they should be.
 
I've had trouble with taking hit wit samples pre boil even when compensating for temperature. Could temperature be an issue?
 

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