Beersmith Question

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jayhoz

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In beersmith what do I enter for Boil volume? My first inclination was to enter my total volume prior to the boil (7.5 gal). But since I don't add the hops until there is 60 minutes left in the boil and ~6.5 gallons should I enter that for the boil volume instead? Or does beersmith use the boil off rate and the time of the hop addition to come up with an accurate IBU number?
 
Make sure you have your equipment set with the appropriate boiloff rate, losses, top up water, final volume, etc. Then check the box that says "set boil volume based on equipment" and it will figure out the boil volume for you based on the batch size and the info you entered for your equipment.
 
WBC said:
The boil volume is the total wort collected from the mash to boil.

Well that kinda stinks from a recipe formulation point of view. Since boil off is variable depending on weather conditions how can you come up with a recipe and then reliably calculate the IBU's? One day your 60 minute left mark might be 7 gallons and another day it might be 6 gallons.
 
Do research and learn how to calculate boil off rate. Wait doesn't BS do it for you if you know the conditions?
 
orfy said:
How can you expect the program to know the weather. It's up to you to dial in the evaporation rate.

I don't want it to know the weather. Rather than calculating the volume of wort at the various addition times based on boil off rates I would prefer that I could set the 60 minute mark at say 6.5 gallons.
 
BuffaloSabresBrewer said:
Do research and learn how to calculate boil off rate. Wait doesn't BS do it for you if you know the conditions?

I have done the research and I have found that my boil off rate can be as low as 0.75 gal/hr and as high as 1.7 gal/hr.

Do you know of a way to predict where in that range the process will be on brew day based on weather conditions?
 
I always just my boil volume to 6.25 gallons, after trial and error. That works for me. Unless I'm making a big beer, that is. Or a wort that has a 90 minute boil (like a pilsner). Still, I almost always just use 6.25 gallons.
 
I have found that the weather does not have that big of an impact as does how much heat is on the brew pot. I live in the MN and my boil off stays about the same from winter to summer, if I keep the flame just hot enough to boil the wort.
 
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