Figuring out why I overshot OG

[radwizard]

I just finished up a Pale Ale on my new system. I just upgraded from a 3 gallon system to 6.5 gallon system. I also made many upgrades to better my process (new bags, better chilling, o2 kit, temp control system) ---

The beer turned out absolutely fantastic. Probably my best ever.
The only issue I had was that I overshot my OG. Beersmith had my OG at 1.052, but mine was 1.06. I at the time I wasn't to worried about it and figured I'd make an adjustment on my next brew. The beer finished at 1.01

Now I'm trying to figure out how I can correct this. On beersmith the mash eff. setting was at 73. The beersmith defalts always seemed to be spot on with my old system, so I never had to deal with this.

Im not sure what caused this or if it was just a setting issure I need to fix with beersmith. I checked gravity with a hydro, and refract and the correct temps.
Grain bill was two row 11#, vienna 1#, and crystal 10 .5# batch size was 6.25.

What should I do before my next brew date?

 

[SanPancho]

I just finished up a Pale Ale on my new system. I just upgraded from a 3 gallon system to 6.5 gallon system. I also made many upgrades to better my process (new bags, better chilling, o2 kit, temp control system) ---

The beer turned out absolutely fantastic. Probably my best ever.
The only issue I had was that I overshot my OG. Beersmith had my OG at 1.052, but mine was 1.06. I at the time I wasn't to worried about it and figured I'd make an adjustment on my next brew. The beer finished at 1.01

Now I'm trying to figure out how I can correct this. On beersmith the mash eff. setting was at 73. The beersmith defalts always seemed to be spot on with my old system, so I never had to deal with this.

Im not sure what caused this or if it was just a setting issure I need to fix with beersmith. I checked gravity with a hydro, and refract and the correct temps.
Grain bill was two row 11#, vienna 1#, and crystal 10 .5# batch size was 6.25.

What should I do before my next brew date?

adjust software to use same efficiency %. try to keep process the same each time you brew and you'll see if that's just the number on your new rig or whether you did something "different" this last time.

also check volume measurements.

 

[kh54s10]

.008 difference. I would not do anything yet. If your next one is a bit high also adjust the BH efficiency a bit higher. For me I keep it the same. I get some variance but I am not too concerned because it varies both above and below predicted.

When you change things in BS inputs, make small adjustments or you will be chasing the numbers for a long time.

 

[RM-MN]

I just finished up a Pale Ale on my new system. I just upgraded from a 3 gallon system to 6.5 gallon system. I also made many upgrades to better my process (new bags, better chilling, o2 kit, temp control system) ---

The beer turned out absolutely fantastic. Probably my best ever.
The only issue I had was that I overshot my OG. Beersmith had my OG at 1.052, but mine was 1.06. I at the time I wasn't to worried about it and figured I'd make an adjustment on my next brew. The beer finished at 1.01

Now I'm trying to figure out how I can correct this. On beersmith the mash eff. setting was at 73. The beersmith defalts always seemed to be spot on with my old system, so I never had to deal with this.

Im not sure what caused this or if it was just a setting issure I need to fix with beersmith. I checked gravity with a hydro, and refract and the correct temps.
Grain bill was two row 11#, vienna 1#, and crystal 10 .5# batch size was 6.25.

What should I do before my next brew date?

A better job of milling? I had to reset the efficiency setting to 85% and I still overshoot a bit.

Overshooting the gravity isn't uncommon with BIAB. Unlike some people's ideas, BIAB does not get you reduced efficiency with the same type of process. If you do a no-sparge BIAB with the same milling of the grain and compare it to a typical mash tun wih sparge it will. Put the sparge step back in like you would for the mash tun and it is likely to be higher.

 

[dmtaylor]

Volume measurements are everything. Did you nail your pre and post boil volumes? If not, this might be an easy way to explain the discrepancy.

 

[radwizard]

Thanks for the replies.
The pre and post volumes looked pretty close, although my boil of rate was a tad higher then expected. I Concluded that I need a ss ruler to take better volume measurements, my kettle has etching every 2 gallons, so there was some guess work invovled in getting spot on readings.
Im gonna do a cream ale tomarrow and prepare extra water to add if needed. Ill leave the software settings as is and will see if things remain consistent. Thanks!

 

[EJay]

I had basically exactly the same problem this weekend. I went from a 2.5G biab batch to my first 5g batch, and overshot a 1.056 brew by 10 points. Since I couldn't do a full volume match, I mashed with as much strike water as I could, then did a series of small pour-over sparges. My efficiency calculated around 81% vs the low-70s I was used to.

I added a little water to bring it down a bit, but could have done much more. I had my 2.5G setup so tuned in (30+ batches) that I hardly thought about it. The new system is a lot of new learning curve.

 

[radwizard]

I had basically exactly the same problem this weekend. I went from a 2.5G biab batch to my first 5g batch, and overshot a 1.056 brew by 10 points. Since I couldn't do a full volume match, I mashed with as much strike water as I could, then did a series of small pour-over sparges. My efficiency calculated around 81% vs the low-70s I was used to.

I added a little water to bring it down a bit, but could have done much more. I had my 2.5G setup so tuned in (30+ batches) that I hardly thought about it. The new system is a lot of new learning curve.

Yeah, There is more to brewing on a new system then I thought. My efficiency difference is nearly identical to yours. I opted to not add more water and leave mine as it was. The beer tastes good, just a little less sessionable as planned. I was more concerned about losing IBU's with the additional water.
On the next brew I am going to make a few procedure changes to get some more options for dealing with a higher OG. For one I am going to have more treated water available post-mash. Also I'm gonna make sure and have extra bittering hops on hand so I don't have to make a sacrifice on IBUs. Also I think I'm going to undershoot my preboil volume estimate and just do a little pour over sparge to make hitting my targets a lot easier.

I do love having a bigger system again. I'm also enjoying the process of fine tuning it.
Cheers!