First time using BeerSmith and I want to make sure my numbers are lining up.

[Scottackerson]

Brewing an IPA this weekend with a 16 gallon Bayou pot. This will be a full-volume BIAB process. Do these numbers look appropriate? I used a water volume calculator previously and I think my water volumes were a little off so I'm a little timid here. I'm looking for confidence or configuration errors.

Equipment:
16 gallon pot, 2 gal/hr boil off.

Grain:
12.5 lbs Maris Otter
2.5 lbs Crystal Malt - 40L

I'm estimating 70% efficiency

Mash in volume is 9.5 gal
Estimated pre-boil gravity is 1.051 (Does this seem high with this grain bill?)
Estimated pre-boil volume is 8.45 gal
Estimated post-boil volume is 6.45 gal
Estimated post-boil gravity is 1.07

This feels right, but my last experience had me dumping my product.

 

[McKnuckle]

I don't use Beersmith, but I have a very good custom calculator that's proven itself over many batches. I also do full volume mash BIAB.

With that grain bill and volume of water, I'd need 79% mash efficiency (about 77% brewhouse) to hit a pre-boil of 1.051. It would then hit 1.067 OG with 2 gal boil-off. My calc gives me the same post-boil volume (6.46 gal). I use 0.06 gal/lb absorption - I think you're going with 0.07, which is a trivial difference in the pre-boil volume but worth noting.

Do you really evaporate 2 gal/hr? That's a lot, so just checking.

If I lower my mash efficiency so that brewhouse is at 70%, I show a pre-boil OG of 1.047 with the same volume of water.

 

[CascadeOK]

I agree, 2 gal/hr looks like a lot of boil off. I'm doing full vol biab in a 20 gal pot w/ 5500 watt element. I too use beer smith. After measuring my starting and ending volumes on a couple brews I've figured out mine is 1.5 gal/hr (large pot, large surface area you lose more...but not 2 gal). Perhaps an extremely vigorous boil could do it.

You should be able to get much better efficiency too. My local shop wouldn't adjust the gap or double grind so i bought a mill and allow them to do the first grind, my 2nd grind is even finer. I use a Wilser bag and they are fantastic. I consistently hit 80%+. I care about the % not for bragging rights, but because I can buy any 5 gal kit or follow a 5 gal recipe I like to brew, scale it to an anticipated vol in fermenter of 5.5 gal so that after my losses I can net a full 5 gals into my 5 gal keg. 4.5 gal is a 90% fill and seems like I wasted that kegs full potential to be all it can be

 

[chickypad]

I like Beersmith a lot but I don't use it for water calculations for BIAB. I don't like the way it doesn't allow for a sparge, among other things. I highly recommend priceless brewing's calculator if you want to check your numbers.

Also, I know you didn't ask about your recipe but at almost 17% that seems like an awful lot of crystal for an IPA. Unless you've brewed this before and like it, then of course ignore me.

 

[enkamania]

I have a 15 gallon pot, here are some of the numbers I use (full volume, no sparge)

1.25 boil off rate
2.353 water/grain ratio qt/lb

 

[Scottackerson]

Thanks for input guys. I did another boil off test this morning and I am at 1.5 gallons/hr instead of two. I'm not sure if I had too vigorous of a boil first time around.

I'll play around with the efficiencies and look for a more suitable recipe. I have Brewing Classic Styles but pulled that grain bill off the internet (with no real feedback on the original recipe).

Thanks again!

 

[McKnuckle]

Well, there's nothing too controversial about the grain bill - it's only two ingredients: 83% UK Maris Otter base malt and 17% medium crystal. Some people have a problem with crystal malts in that quantity, but I don't. With the right IBU (fairly bitter) and OG (fairly high) - it's an IPA after all - it would be great.

 

[fun4stuff]

I like Beersmith a lot but I don't use it for water calculations for BIAB. I don't like the way it doesn't allow for a sparge, among other things. I highly recommend priceless brewing's calculator if you want to check your numbers.

Also, I know you didn't ask about your recipe but at almost 17% that seems like an awful lot of crystal for an IPA. Unless you've brewed this before and like it, then of course ignore me.

I second this. Beer Smith makes things overly complicated and maybe I'm the only one, but I'm not really impressed with it... Other than it will tell you amounts of minerals for water adjustments.

Use priceless or simple biab calculator for water volumes and brewers friend for the recipe builder (and scale recipe according to efficiency). I store screen shots and organize info (regarding entire brew process) in Google keep app on my phone.

I have a 19 gallon pot. At first I thought 2 gal/hr was boil off rate... And that is if you leave propane cranked. But you don't need a roaring boil... Just a mild rolling boil which when I retested I found that is closer to 1.5 gal/hr.

 

[sailsaway]

Beersmith certainly does allow for multiple different sparging options for BIAB. Beersmith in my opinion is one of the most useful apps if you get it updated and set up correctly. It does take some getting used too but i can turn out recipes and hit my numbers dead on using beersmith any day.

 

[chickypad]

Beersmith certainly does allow for multiple different sparging options for BIAB. Beersmith in my opinion is one of the most useful apps if you get it updated and set up correctly. It does take some getting used too but i can turn out recipes and hit my numbers dead on using beersmith any day.

Can you point out how you do this? The only option for BIAB where it will use the correct grain absorption that I see is for full volume mash. You can use another profile for batch sparging not specific to BIAB but then it will use the regular grain absorption value. The only work around I can see is to change your default grain absorption to a BIAB value. That is fine if you only do BIAB but since I do some BIAB and some with a regular tun it's a pain to switch back and forth.