Beer smith equipment profile problem ..... or am i missing something?

[SamuraiSquirrel]

So i have been having some trouble hitting my boil volumes and target O.G's using beersmith's equipment profile. I think I may have found the culprit but I figured I would consult the forum to confirm my discovery or explain why I am looking at this the wrong way.

Without writing a novel, I'll try and explain the problem. I think the problem has to do with how I have been accounting for trub loss in beer smith. I have been using the equipment profile and adjusting the "lost to trub and chiller" box according to how much i expect to lose to trub. This varies depending on the type of recipe I am making. For a pale ale i usually figure on .5 gallon loss. For an IPA probably closer to 1.0 - 1.25 depending on amount of hops and if I'm using whole or leaf.

So here is my discovery and what I think is the problem with beer smith.

Scenario 1 - Lets say my grain bill is 15.0 lbs of pale malt, my batch size is 5.0 gallons. My trub loss is .5 gallons (estimate). I enter all this into Beer smith and it tells me my "orig gravity estimate" is 1.076.

Scenario 2 - Now for arguements sake, lets say the I am making an IPA. I am using 12 ounces of leaf hops so I am guessing I will have 1.5 gallons of trub loss. Everything else is the same 15.0 lbs pale malt, batch size is 5.0 gallons. I change trub loss to 1.5 gallons in the equipment profile. Beer smith still tells me my "orig gravity estimate" is 1.076. EXACTLY THE SAME AS ABOVE. HOW? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND

So here is the problem.

Scenario 1 - i need 5.5 gallons of X gravity wort. 5.0 into fermenter and .5 estimated to be lost to trub.

Scenario 2 - i need 6.5 gallons of X gravity wort. 5.0 into fermenter and 1.5 estimated to be lost to trub.

Why does beer smith not adjust gravity for this? it adjusts boil volume and has you add more water but it does not take into account that you technically need to make a larger batch for this to work out right at the end of the day.

My proposed solution:

Scenario 1 - Enter zero into beer smith "lost to boil trub" box in the equipment profile. Enter 5.5 gallons into "batch size" box. 5.0 into fermenter & .5 lost to trub.

Scenario 2 - Enter zero into beer smith "lost to boil trub" box in the equipment profile. Enter 6.5 gallons into "batch size" box. 5.0 into fermenter and 1.5 lost to trub.


Have I really been misled in my previous batches by beersmith or am I completely missing something here?

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

I should have probably posted this in the "brewing software" section........

 

[shortyjacobs]

I've noticed this problem too....Beersmith doesn't seem to take trub loss into account in the final volume. What it should do is calculate OG based on total volume in kettle, not volume into fermenter. But it doesn't. I do "scenario 2" when I feel trub loss will be big, otherwise for average trub loss, I guestimate 0.75 gal, I just leave it as is. It calculates me at 81% efficiency for this. Of course, I'm getting higher efficiency, as it is calculating efficiency into fermenter based on target volume, but it all works in the end, and I get the right OG, so I don't worry.

 

[SamuraiSquirrel]

I've noticed this problem too....Beersmith doesn't seem to take trub loss into account in the final volume. What it should do is calculate OG based on total volume in kettle, not volume into fermenter. But it doesn't. I do "scenario 2" when I feel trub loss will be big, otherwise for average trub loss, I guestimate 0.75 gal, I just leave it as is. It calculates me at 81% efficiency for this. Of course, I'm getting higher efficiency, as it is calculating efficiency into fermenter based on target volume, but it all works in the end, and I get the right OG, so I don't worry.

Exactly!

Beer smith increases the pre-boil volume so that I will end up at the appropriate post-boil volume (assuming evap and everything else is correctly entered).

However, if i use the "loss to boil trub" box and add no additional ingredients it would be the same as making a 6.5 gallon batch with the ingredients for a 5.0 gallon batch ............ diluted by a gallon and half and would fall short of beersmiths estimated O.G.

All beer smiths estimated O.G. does is take the volume of water that you plan on having in your fermenter (5.0 gallon batch size) and gives you expected O.G. based on what ingredients you enter and batch size volume rather than post boil volume in boil pot (which includes trub) as SJacobs said.......... this however is not very useful and somewhat misleading when accounting for a large amount of trub loss.