Ok so today I brewed a wheat recipe that I cooked up for my first ever crack at a personal recipe. I am a partial masher with a 2 gallon coleman cooler mash tun. (works well for about 3 to 4 pounds of grain and a partial boil) I have my equipment set up at with 2 gallons MLT with 0.07 gallons (measured) dead space. My kettle 5 gallon aluminum brew pot with 10% evap rate and .26 gallons lost to trub. I brewed a batch prior to this one and hit the O.G. pretty spot on but this wheat beer I missed the estimated 1.044 by 1.039 O.G. I measured the gravity after sparge (before extract addition) and after extract addition pre-boil and it was spot on the estimated gravity into the boiler. I set the top off into the fermenter at 2.5 gallons expecting to get 2.5 gallons of wort post boil. I ended up having to top up with 3 gallons meaning i evaporated off more than expected? is this the reason I missed the O.G.? I am trying to figure out what value to tweak in order to get a good estimate since there are so many to change. the ideal thing would be to change one at a time correct? I think beer smith is great but its got a steep learning curve, and sorry for the long post just trying to post as much info as possible.
Thanks Guys
Thanks Guys