Beer smith Help

[Hideawayparkbrewery]

So I have been having some consistent problems with my brewing and my recipes through Beersmith.
I have created my equipment and adjusted it over a dozen or so brews to get the temp and volumes correct. I am struggling with my gravities. The last 10-12 batches are missing all of my gravity readings by the exact same amount. My OG is coming in .013 under the recipe but my FG is also coming in low. My ABV is ending up exactly where I want and the beers are turning exactly how I planned.

I am using a refractometer for OG and hydrometer for FG.

Is this something that I have mis-entered into Beersmith or does anyone have any suggestions or remedies.

Cheers
Andy

 

[LLBeanJ]

All-grain, PM, or extract?

If all-grain, I'd suspect that the efficiency you're basing your recipes on is too high.

 

[chickypad]

I was also going to say you probably need to adjust the efficiency setting to your actual efficiency. But your FG's are measuring a whole 13 pts low too? So if the majority of beers finish in the 1.010-1.022 range, yours are finishing like .997 to 1.009? Have you calibrated your instruments?

 

[Oginme]

I would recommend selecting a recipe that you have brewed and have the actual values entered into BeerSmith. Make a copy of this recipe and rename it, so that your original is intact. Adjust the Brewhouse Efficiency on the design page until the program predicts the OG to be equivalent to what you measured. Then check the predicted FG against your actual measured FG, if your OG was .013 lower than anticipated, your FG will be lower by a fair amount also.

As a side note, while I use my refractometer during the brewing to measure quickly my gravity from the mash, sparge (if I do one), and durign the boil at the points of hop additions. I use the hydrometer for my 'official' OG measurement so that the measuring tools for the beginning and end of the ferment are the same.

 

[MaxStout]

If both OG and FG are consistently coming in low, you may want to check your hydrometer to make sure that's not the culprit. Pure water at the cal temp (usually 68F) should read 1.000. You can measure out a small amount of a sugar solution to a certain gravity and check against that to make sure the hydro's readings are accurate at higher gravity (2-point calibration).