BIAB - Irish Coffee Stout with a couple surprises

[BongoYodeler]

I brewed what I'm calling an Irish Coffee Stout (1.25 gallons) today using mostly leftover grains, and this was the first time formulating a recipe from scratch. I think I must have mis-measured my grains because I ended up with a couple anomalies - my Measured Mash Efficiency was 102.1% and my Measured Brewhouse Efficiency was 108.6% according to Beersmith. I was shooting or an OG of 1.069 and ended up at 1.070, so I'm happy about that.

** Edit: I found my mistake. I originally entered 2 Lbs 14 oz of Marris Otter as 2.14 lbs. Fixing that changed my efficiencies to Brewhouse: 87.2% and Mash efficiency to 82%. Of course it also changed my estimated OG to 1.084, so I was of there as well. I'm crushing at .025" so I think I'll tighten it up to .022 for my next brew.

 

[JohnSand]

I liked the first story better: perpetual motion beer. Start a batch and never run out.

 

[IslandLizard]

Take a good look at how you measured your final (after boil) volume. Especially with smaller volumes, measuring errors are more noticeable. Boil off rates don't scale linearly either.

For example, 20% more boil off would have given you your estimated after boil OG of 1.084. In a 1.25 gallon batch that's 1 quart, which is easily left behind with the kettle trub.

I would definitely measure gravity and volume right after the mash (and sparge). Then you know how many points of total gravity you have to work with.

 

[BongoYodeler]

Thanks I think you're probably correct regarding volume measurements. For my smaller 1.4-ish gallon batches I'm using a 4 gallon kettle win no markings. I do use a metal 24 inch metal ruler to help in that regard. I think I just need to brew more often to get things all dialed in.

 

[McKnuckle]

Brewhouse efficiency is always the lowest efficiency percentage, because it includes all losses in the entire process until you fill the fermenter. So it can’t be higher than your mash efficiency. Maybe you’re switching the two up by mistake?

 

[BongoYodeler]

Brewhouse efficiency is always the lowest efficiency percentage, because it includes all losses in the entire process until you fill the fermenter. So it can’t be higher than your mash efficiency. Maybe you’re switching the two up by mistake?

I guess that makes sense but I'm just reading the info off the Beersmith session tab.

The "measured pre-boil volume" was a close estimate, since it was a shade under my 2.5 gallon marking using my ruler.

If you see anything obvious I'm messing up I'd welcome any observations or suggestions.

 

[McKnuckle]

BeerSmith generally confuses me, but I’d guess it’s related to your actual batch size being 1.85 gallons when you estimated it to be 1.25. Check your evaporation rate value in the program.