Missing preboil gravity and amount.

[kcboom10]

I've had my system a couple years and have been consistently hitting all my numbers calculated by beersmith. I've made the same recipe twice with the same results. Higher than calculated preboil gravity and not the starting boil amount. I collected 16 gals @ 1.044 and it should have been 17 gals @ 1.038. I stopped the sparge because it was at 2 brix. The recipe is 11 lbs 2 row and 11 lbs pilsner. Grain from same sacks. Same mill setting. Mashed at 152 through HERMS setup. Same RO water. I made a saison between the two recipes and it's numbers were spot on.
Any ideas what may be happening?

 

[kh54s10]

I don't fly sparge so I don't know all the nuances of the sparge getting too low in sg. But you were one gallon short and still high on gravity, so I would say you could have sparged to the 17 gallons. As to the differences, there are a lot of variables that would make small differences. Maybe a lot of small variables adding to a bigger difference.

 

[doug293cz]

You could just add top up water pre-boil. That way you don't have to over-sparge to get your volume and reduce the pre-boil SG. Sounds like you have better than average lauter efficiency.

Brew on

 

[kcboom10]

I did top up the boil by 2 gals to bring it back to 1.038. I just feel that's cheating a little.

 

[GoeHaarden]

I did top up the boil by 2 gals to bring it back to 1.038. I just feel that's cheating a little.

You're too hard on yourself! It's correctable so still a win...

 

[doug293cz]

I did top up the boil by 2 gals to bring it back to 1.038. I just feel that's cheating a little.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing TOO well on your mash and lauter processes. The right thing to do is take notes to see if this is a regular occurrence, and then adjust your efficiencies in whatever brewing software you use.

Brew on

 

[kevin58]

In order to get accurate estimates from Beersmith you have to create an equipment profile that is specific for your actual equipment and process. Beersmith users who just pluck one of the profiles out of the list that comes with the software often have similar problems. Even Beersmith creator, Brad Smith, recommends that you only use these pre loaded profiles as a starting point for creating your own.

Here are a couple of tutorials for setting up an accurate equipment profile. It may seem like a fiddly task and nothing you want to spend an afternoon doing but it will pay off with accurate results in the end. These tips are labeled for Beersmith 2 but work just as well for BS3.





You may also want to set up customized mash profiles too. Here's a couple of tutorials for that...

 

[kcboom10]

Bam!! What a way to lay it down. Thanks so much for the detailed and great expert advice. I will spend the time and go through this material to ensure my equipment profile is correct. Thanks again.

 

[kcboom10]

I watched all but the Biab video. Very interesting. In one of the videos the guy said he gets a 2-3% increase in efficiency using pilsner malt. The recipe in question is 50% pilsner. I mostly use Rahr 2 row but I was given a sack of pilsner. This could explain the higher gravity I've experienced with this recipe. Thanks for theses videos.