All Grain Water Top Off Question

[MrOrange]

So today I was brewing a Dusseldorf Alt Bier and made a mistake when working in beersmith and picked the wrong equipment profile. I generally do six gallon batches and have a pre-boil volume some where allitle over 8 gallons (90 min boil). I don't know how I didn't realize the recipe volumes but essentially what happened was that I boiled off way to much wort. I know I hit my pre-boil gravity spot on (1.042) but by the end of the boil I was around 4 gallons into the fermenter. I topped up with water until I reached a gravity of 1.052 which is what my i was orginally aiming for. My question is will this affect the flavor of my beer even though I added my bittering and flavoring additions based on my pre-boil gravity or will it just dilute it back to where it should have been?

 

[Northbanu]

I guess it depends on what volume Beersmith was calculating going into and coming out of the boil.
If you correct the recipe in Beersmith, does the hops schedule change?
And how much water did you add? My guess is a gallon will make difference but not a huge one.

 

[MrOrange]

Beersmith calculated a 6.99 gallon pre-boil volume at 1.042 and I ended up with somewhere around 4 gallons at close to 1.060. I added enough water (probably close to 2 gallons) to get my beer down to 1.052. What I am wondering is if I had based my IBU's and BU:GU on my pre-boil gravity will this beer still turn out similar to if I had not messed up the volumes?

 

[Northbanu]

So I'm going to guess (thats all it is), that if Beersmith was calculating pre-boil 6.99, it sounds like you really had about 5 gallons pre boil. So I'm thinking yes, your hops related additions will be off. Probably your bittering addition more so than the flavor/aroma additions.

I'd also be willing to bet that most folks would only be able to tell the difference in a side by side comparison.
I think your final beer will give you a pretty good representation (but not perfecta) of that recipe.

 

[MrOrange]

Maybe i wasn'y clear in my previous post. According to my Bilichman site glass i hit my volume just fine, right at 7 gallons the only problem was that i had picked the wrong equipment profile so instead of 7 gallons for a 90 min boil it probably should have been over 8 gallons. I was just curious if adding top up water to account for that was going to change the flavor profile even though i added my hop based on the pre boil gravity of 1.042, which i hit.

 

[Northbanu]

LOL. It may just be my reading comprehension skills. Right, you hit your pre-boil gravity, with a pre-boil volume that Beersmith accounted for in it's calculations. Pre-boil gravity and pre-boil volume determine hops schedule so the correct IBU, gravity, and volumes are hit at end of boil. Beersmith will will take into account losses during boil, and losses left behind in the kettle due to trub and dead space to decide how much you're going to put in the fermenter.

But you prolly know all that. You say you boiled off too much wort. But did you boil off more than Beersmith was accounting for, or did you boil of more than YOU were accounting for? You said you added water to get the gravity you were expecting, but did that then lower the gravity that Beersmith accounted for? My assumption would be that if, after adding your top-off, you hit the final gravity and volumes Beersmith was looking for you're golden.

But if Beersmith was calculating for different volumes and gravities, your just going to be close.


I think if you rework the recipe with the correct equipment profile or try and see if you can account for top-off water in Beersmith, you will be able to see the hops amount change (or not change) and that will give you an idea of how close it was.


But I still stand by this:
I'd be willing to bet that most folks would only be able to tell the difference in a side by side comparison.
I think your final beer will give you a pretty good (but not perfect) representation of that recipe.

 

[MrOrange]

You say you boiled off too much wort. But did you boil off more than Beersmith was accounting for, or did you boil of more than YOU were accounting for? You said you added water to get the gravity you were expecting, but did that then lower the gravity that Beersmith accounted for? My assumption would be that if, after adding your top-off, you hit the final gravity and volumes Beersmith was looking for you're golden.

HAHA it was a little hard for me to put into words what i was trying to say. This is the answer i was looking for. I think i am in the clear since i boiled off more than i was accounting for. I hit the numbers per the recipe that beersmith had, i just didn't have the right equipment profile setup. I appreciate the help/advice you gave. Its always good to have a place to turn to for help (homebrewtalk.com)

Thanks again

 

[HumulusHead]

Just a FYI, you can delete all the equipment profiles that come standard with beer smith so all that would be left would be your custom profile. If you don't want to do that, you can also set the default profile to always be your custom profile.

You may have known this. But once I had the same thing happen to me that happened to you, so now I just have my one custom equipment profile that I always use.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[MrOrange]

Good idea I think I'm going to do that to avoid all possibility of this happening again, even though I should have noticed before I started brewing

 

[Northbanu]

It's funny how these things can quickly just lead to talking in circles, like a brewers version of the old "Who's on first" routine.

Hope the beer is turns out well.

Who's On First?... http://youtu.be/kTcRRaXV-fg

 

[ScottG58]

So today I was brewing a Dusseldorf Alt Bier and made a mistake when working in beersmith and picked the wrong equipment profile. I generally do six gallon batches and have a pre-boil volume some where allitle over 8 gallons (90 min boil). I don't know how I didn't realize the recipe volumes but essentially what happened was that I boiled off way to much wort. I know I hit my pre-boil gravity spot on (1.042) but by the end of the boil I was around 4 gallons into the fermenter. I topped up with water until I reached a gravity of 1.052 which is what my i was orginally aiming for. My question is will this affect the flavor of my beer even though I added my bittering and flavoring additions based on my pre-boil gravity or will it just dilute it back to where it should have been?

I have done it more than once. I think hitting OG post boil is more important than boil volumes.