Need some feedback regarding Beersmith and AG

[rew]

I now have 2 all-grain batches under my belt, both using Beersmith. My first batch was not too good. My second batch (currently in the secondary) tastes really good, but there are some aspects that are bothering me.

Here's my grain bill for a 5 gal. final batch size:

8.75 lb Maris Otter
1.25 lb Munich Malt
0.75 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L
0.75 lb Caramunich malt

Here's my water quality report (hardness and pH near the bottom of page 3). The LHBS says I don't need to add any pH modifier to my water. Is this true?

I hit my mash temp perfect (148F); I hit my mash-out and sparge temp perfect (168F). I didn't take a pre-boil gravity reading. But I collected about 6.8 to 7 gallons and ended up with 5 gallons on the dot.

Beersmith estimated my OG at 1.062. But my actual OG is 1.051.

Does the Beersmith-estimated-OG assume 100% efficiency? Should I assume for future batches that my actual OG is going to be around one one-hundreths low and adjust my grain bill accordingly? Or maybe my Beersmith 'parameters' are not set properly?

Any insight is much appreciated. Thanks!

Bob

 

[GrantLee63]

BeerSmith calculates estimated OG based on what you put in a new recipe as YOUR Brewhouse Efficiency. What did you have punched in as your Brewhouse Efficiency on those two batches you've made? Have you calculated the efficiency on either of those two batches?

 

[knipknup]

Click the Brewhouse Efficiency button on the recipe, enter all the data and it will calculate your actual efficiency. Use this number on future recipes.

 

[Dr Malt]

There are a couple of things in BeerSmith that affects the OG it calculates. GrantLee63 has hit the most important one, the brewhouse efficiency you have entered. Another one is the extract given on your malts in the list of malt ingredients. If I recall from memory, most base malts have a value of about 1.036 - 1.037 per pound of grain. Normal variations in you particular malt can affect this. Like knipknup describes, let it calculate your brewhouse efficiency for you so you can use it in future brews.

I started using BeerSmith a few months ago. Prior to that I calculated my recipes by hand using the guidelines in "Designing Great Beers" and used a brewhouse efficiency of 76% - 77%. This worked well. Then when I got BeerSmith I entered this in for my Brewhouse efficiency and the projected OG for a recipe was lower than what I really got. BeerSmith calculated my efficiency at 85%. Using this figure in BeerSmith gives me better projected OGs.

Dr Malt

 

[Kaiser]

Here's my water quality report (hardness and pH near the bottom of page 3). The LHBS says I don't need to add any pH modifier to my water. Is this true?

Your water is pretty alkaline. Using Palmer's normograph (http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter15-3.html) I get about 250 mg/l residual alkalinity with would be ok for a 25 -30 SRM beer. But I think the beer you are going for is lighter. The other problem is that the water report gives a pretty big range for Ca, Mg and CaCO3 and your water could be just fine the way it is.

Do you have pH test strips?

BTW, the water report shows most of the ions as ppb (parts per billion, which is 0.001 mg/l) which I suspect to be a typo since even my RO water would have more minerals than that and Sodium is given in ppm. (mg/l)

Kai