Getting Frustrated with Beersmith

[Gustatorian]

Where do I start? Let me just say that if anyone has a Blichmann Breweasy set up to brew 10 gallons (15 G MT and 20G BK) I will PAY YOU to help me figure out this crap. I've been trying to calculate my Blichmann Breweasy over probably 10 batches and I'm about to lose my mind. I know the Beersmith software has pre-set stuff for Breweasy, but there is no way they are correct. Additionally, when I attempt to modify what I think the ACTUAL specifications are, other numbers are changed and I'm back where I started, confused af. Additionally, when you change the boil time on the recipe, the post boil gravity (OG) doesn't change...how does that work? I hate to ask for someone to hold my hand through the process of figuring this out, but I'm getting desperate...

 

[day_trippr]

Jeeze, if you're going to pay someone to set BS up, get Brad to do it

Cheers!

 

[Gustatorian]

Jeeze, if you're going to pay someone to set BS up, get Brad to do it

Cheers!

I seriously would. The tutorials aren't helpful with my system and changing the boil time while still maintaining the same OG is never addressed.

 

[Stillraining]

Brad may or may not be helpful...He has preconceived Ideas as to what beer smith should and shouldn't do...after all its his program so he has that right. I have reached out to him a few times and its not been very productive. Nice guy though and he is very busy I suppose. The Beer Smith Forum would be a better choice IMHO

 

[dzlater]

I use two different equipment profiles one for 60 minute boil, and one for 90 minute boil.

 

[Gustatorian]

Brad may or may not be helpful...He has preconceived Ideas as to what beer smith should and shouldn't do...after all its his program so he has that right. I have reached out to him a few times and its not been very productive. Nice guy though and he is very busy I suppose. The Beer Smith Forum would be a better choice IMHO

Reached out to the Beersmith forum, as well...not to helpful yet.

 

[Bobby_M]

..Additionally, when you change the boil time on the recipe, the post boil gravity (OG) doesn't change...how does that work? I hate to ask for someone to hold my hand through the process of figuring this out, but I'm getting desperate...

I'm not a beersmith cheerleader by any means. I have a list of peeves with it. however, the reason the OG doesn't change when you modify the boil time is that it's adjusting the starting water volume to compensate for the increased boil off. When you're designing a recipe, it's for a target OG. I don't think it would be practical for software to assume you want to adjust boil time to modify the OG.

 

[CA_Mouse]

I'm not a beersmith cheerleader by any means. I have a list of peeves with it. however, the reason the OG doesn't change when you modify the boil time is that it's adjusting the starting water volume to compensate for the increased boil off. When you're designing a recipe, it's for a target OG. I don't think it would be practical for software to assume you want to adjust boil time to modify the OG.

^^This^^

As you increase the boil time, it increases the wort volume to maintain the Starting Gravity. Likewise, lowering the boil time will decrease the wort volume.

These are based on the expected boil off rate for your system profile. You need to do a little work on the equipment profile to dial it in to match your normal brewing session. You need to calculate *your* boil off rate, dead space and volume losses due to chilling and transferring. The pre-canned profiles should only be used as a reference. There are lots of variables to brewing. Your elevation, temperature in your brewing area (wind and humidity will, also have an impact), how hard you boil the wort, grain temperature and mash tun temperature before you start mashing... All of these have a least a small impact on how your system will handle any changes.

 

[Bobby_M]

Indeed, with all the variables between systems and nuanced process differences, the software has to be very flexible. That flexibility translates to complexity and a learning curve. It's frustrating for sure.

The breweasy is a two vessel full volume no sparge system. The model that most closely matches it in Beersmith is BIAB. The challenge however is that the "mash tun volume" as a setting in the BS profile is a combination of the volumes of both BE vessels. For example, the 5 gallon system uses 7.5 and 10 gallon Boilermakers. The total mash volume is about 12 gallons if my estimates are correct.

So, set your mash profile to BIAB and use all the water it asks for. Uncheck "adjust temp for equipment" and just recirculate while you heat until it reaches the target infusion temp.

PS: for the life of me I can't figure out how the Brew Easy is supposed to be better than a single vessel brew in a bag. The 5 gallon system can easily be replaced by just the 10 gallon pot and a bag.

 

[brewfun]

Reached out to the Beersmith forum, as well...not to helpful yet.

Sorry to hear that.

With BeerSmith, you set two parameters that everything else adjusts to create.

1) Your batch size. This is the amount you want in the fermenter.
2) Brewhouse Efficiency. This is the total percentage of all available sugars you want in the fermenter.

If you say you want 5.5 gallons, then all water amounts will adjust to yield that. If you know your kettle will only hold 7.5 gallons, and you want to boil longer, then the batch size must be reduced so that it doesn't overflow. If you notice in the Equipment profile, it doesn't even ask your kettle size, so in essence, it's telling you how big of a pot you need.

Brewhouse Efficiency is what gets everybody. BeerSmith calculates gravity based on this number.

If you input 75% BHE, then your saying that no matter what, you can get 75% of the available sugars into the fermenter. With Loss to Trub set to zero, it is the same as Mash efficiency. As soon as you add trub loss, you need additional sugar to cover the additional volume. Without increasing ingredients, the ONLY place this sugar can come from is higher mash efficiency, which is exactly what BeerSmith does.

The thing to do is to just subtract your trub percentage by the percentage of wort volume in the fermenter to get into the ballpark. Once you've brewed and measured gravity & volume along the way, you'll find the Measured Efficiency field in the Fermentation tab. Use this in your equipment profile as BHE.

Putting this together:
You have a recipe for 5.5 gallons. You know you get 70% mash efficiency and you have 0.5 gallons of trub left in the kettle.

Wort yield to the Fermenter = 91.6%
Mash Eff * Wort Yield = 0.7 * 0.916 = 64.12% BHE

 

[MobileBeerLab]

Shameless self plug: Check out my brewing app for iPhone: Mobile Beer Lab.

The reason I built it is because I found BeerSmith hard to use. I frankly think the whole equipment profile thing is nonsense. Most people don't have multiple brewing setups. They have one. Having an option to select from multiple brewing setups is overkill IMO.

What the equipment profile settings are trying to do is make it so you don't have to enter in the batch size and boil volume for each recipe. In the Mobile Beer Lab app you explicitly set the boil volume and the post boil volume and then you're done. The app automatically makes those the default values from then on. If you create a new recipe, that's what gets used.

Give it a shot. I'd love to hear your feedback. Of course the point is moot if you don't have an iPhone. Sorry if that's the case; I'm not an Android user.

 

[Gustatorian]

So I've dialed in my equipment into Beersmith based on yesterday's brew, but I'm still having trouble with the pre-boil gravity not changing.

It looks like my total eff is 60% and my mash eff changes with that to 62.5 %. When I change my total eff, I see that my pre-boil gravity changes as well as my est OG. My question is this: How do you change the est final gravity without changing the pre-boil gravity? I assumed it would be boil-off rate, but that seems to make no change on the est final gravity.

 

[olotti]

So I've dialed in my equipment into Beersmith based on yesterday's brew, but I'm still having trouble with the pre-boil gravity not changing.

It looks like my total eff is 60% and my mash eff changes with that to 62.5 %. When I change my total eff, I see that my pre-boil gravity changes as well as my est OG. My question is this: How do you change the est final gravity without changing the pre-boil gravity? I assumed it would be boil-off rate, but that seems to make no change on the est final gravity.

You can change your estimated fg by changing your mash temp, lower mash temp equals lower fg, I've also noticed that the yeast type also has a preconceived attenuation which can effect fg also. I say that as I've noticed that most of the time I get better attenuation than what the range is pre set at.

 

[Gustatorian]

Additionally, if I change my efficiency so that est OG is correct based on what I brewed yesterday and change my boil off rate to get the correct est pre-boil gravity, it changes my total volume needed...wtf?

 

[Gustatorian]

You can change your estimated fg by changing your mash temp, lower mash temp equals lower fg, I've also noticed that the yeast type also has a preconceived attenuation which can effect fg also. I say that as I've noticed that most of the time I get better attenuation than what the range is pre set at.

I'm not talking about FG, talking about OG

 

[Oginme]

So I've dialed in my equipment into Beersmith based on yesterday's brew, but I'm still having trouble with the pre-boil gravity not changing.

It looks like my total eff is 60% and my mash eff changes with that to 62.5 %. When I change my total eff, I see that my pre-boil gravity changes as well as my est OG. My question is this: How do you change the est final gravity without changing the pre-boil gravity? I assumed it would be boil-off rate, but that seems to make no change on the est final gravity.

You seem to be fighting this quite a bit. Please post your equipment profile and recipe along with the measured readings you have used and we will see where we can help you out.

I know that if I change the boil off rate within the recipe, the pre-boil gravity changes. If you are changing it in your equipment profile OUTSIDE the recipe, it will not affect anything WITHIN the recipe until you change the equipment profile in the recipe to your new one.

 

[Gustatorian]

You seem to be fighting this quite a bit. Please post your equipment profile and recipe along with the measured readings you have used and we will see where we can help you out.

I know that if I change the boil off rate within the recipe, the pre-boil gravity changes. If you are changing it in your equipment profile OUTSIDE the recipe, it will not affect anything WITHIN the recipe until you change the equipment profile in the recipe to your new one.

Attached. Just some specs on yesterday's brew day: Total start volume was 12.8 gallons (I initially added 12.3 G with a 2 gph boil off rate, initial boil time set for 90 minutes, but then added another 0.5 gallons to keep boilcoil covered and subsequently increased boil time to 105 minutes so I would hit my speculative target OG. At that time, the est pre-boil OG was 1.073. I hit 1.076. So, from that, I've been adjusting my numbers to reflect that measured OG. FWIW, measured pre-boil volume was 10.45 G measured in BK and I had 5.95 Gallons go into my fermentor (target was 6 gallons)

 

[Oginme]

OK, good start. For the following calculations, I am assuming that the measurements were taken at temperature. That is the volume measurements were recorded at near boil or sparge temperatures.

You added 12.8 gallons of water (assumed cold) and collected 10.45 gallons pre-boil (at sparge temperature). Your grain charge was 22.25 lbs, so your water absorbed by the grain was:

(12.8 [cold] - 10.45/1.04 [thermal expansion for sparge temp] -0.12 (dead space @ cold? temp) = 12.8 - 10.05 - 0.12 = 2.63 gallons in the grain

(2.63 gallons * 128 oz/gal) / (22.23 lb * 16 oz/lb) = 0.9465 oz/oz is your grain absorption rate. You can change this in your BeerSmith settings under 'options' >> 'advanced' > 'grain absorption'

Your pre-boil volume of 10.45 gal (hot) ended up as 5.95 gal (cold) in the fermentor and 0.25 gal (hot) of loss to trub and chilling. So your boil off is:

10.45 gal/1.04 - (5.95 gal + 0.25 gal/1.04) = 3.86 gallons.

and your boil off rate is: 3.86 gallons / 90 min * 60 min/hr = 2.57 gal/hr

Now, to check your measurements for accuracy, you can use gravity points on the cold volumes and it should be roughly equal between pre-boil and post-boil numbers. Gravity points are: [specific gravity - 1] * 1000, or the last three digits of your gravity reading.

Pre-boil, your gravity points would be [10.45 gal (hot) / 1.04 * (1.052[?] - 1)*1000] = 10.05 * 52 = 522.6

Post boil, your gravity points were [5.95 gal + 0.25 gal (hot) / 1.04] * (1.076 - 1)*1000] = 6.19 * 76 = 470.4

Relative error in measurements: (522.6 - 470.4) / 522.6 = 10% error

This difference suggests that one or some of your measurements are off. I typically get an error between the two numbers of less than 0.2%

I would use the numbers here to start and keep using the figures from your next few brews to tune the system in using the formulas outlined above. Measurement accuracy will determine how fast you will reach a place where the numbers will be consistent. The use of the gravity point balance is important to verify your volume measurements and ensure that you don't use inaccurate numbers to tune your system.

Make sure you have good solid numbers for your trub loss and dead space figures, as those will continue to be a source of error if not carefully measured.

Remember that BeerSmith uses all of it's calculations off of the Brewhouse efficiency. You can deceive yourself by coming in high in volume and just a little low in gravity while still calculating out to the same mash and brewhouse efficiency. Work on balancing your water volumes first and then the program will calculate out your mash and brewhouse efficiencies for you.

 

[CA_Mouse]

OK, good start. For the following calculations, I am assuming that the measurements were taken at temperature. That is the volume measurements were recorded at near boil or sparge temperatures.

This has to be the best statistical breakdown I have seen yet on how to calculate this! I salute you! :rockin:

 

[Gustatorian]

OK, good start. For the following calculations, I am assuming that the measurements were taken at temperature. That is the volume measurements were recorded at near boil or sparge temperatures.

You added 12.8 gallons of water (assumed cold) and collected 10.45 gallons pre-boil (at sparge temperature). Your grain charge was 22.25 lbs, so your water absorbed by the grain was:

(12.8 [cold] - 10.45/1.04 [thermal expansion for sparge temp] -0.12 (dead space @ cold? temp) = 12.8 - 10.05 - 0.12 = 2.63 gallons in the grain

(2.63 gallons * 128 oz/gal) / (22.23 lb * 16 oz/lb) = 0.9465 oz/oz is your grain absorption rate. You can change this in your BeerSmith settings under 'options' >> 'advanced' > 'grain absorption'

Your pre-boil volume of 10.45 gal (hot) ended up as 5.95 gal (cold) in the fermentor and 0.25 gal (hot) of loss to trub and chilling. So your boil off is:

10.45 gal/1.04 - (5.95 gal + 0.25 gal/1.04) = 3.86 gallons.

and your boil off rate is: 3.86 gallons / 90 min * 60 min/hr = 2.57 gal/hr

Now, to check your measurements for accuracy, you can use gravity points on the cold volumes and it should be roughly equal between pre-boil and post-boil numbers. Gravity points are: [specific gravity - 1] * 1000, or the last three digits of your gravity reading.

Pre-boil, your gravity points would be [10.45 gal (hot) / 1.04 * (1.052[?] - 1)*1000] = 10.05 * 52 = 522.6

Post boil, your gravity points were [5.95 gal + 0.25 gal (hot) / 1.04] * (1.076 - 1)*1000] = 6.19 * 76 = 470.4

Relative error in measurements: (522.6 - 470.4) / 522.6 = 10% error

This difference suggests that one or some of your measurements are off. I typically get an error between the two numbers of less than 0.2%

I would use the numbers here to start and keep using the figures from your next few brews to tune the system in using the formulas outlined above. Measurement accuracy will determine how fast you will reach a place where the numbers will be consistent. The use of the gravity point balance is important to verify your volume measurements and ensure that you don't use inaccurate numbers to tune your system.

Make sure you have good solid numbers for your trub loss and dead space figures, as those will continue to be a source of error if not carefully measured.

Remember that BeerSmith uses all of it's calculations off of the Brewhouse efficiency. You can deceive yourself by coming in high in volume and just a little low in gravity while still calculating out to the same mash and brewhouse efficiency. Work on balancing your water volumes first and then the program will calculate out your mash and brewhouse efficiencies for you.

Solid stuff. Huge thanks for this. A couple questions though.

First, some obvious stuff that I want to make sure are just typos. When you wrong "22.23" instead of 22.25 while check the grain absorption rate, that was just a typo, right? Also, I got the total boil rate at 2.21 and total boil off of 3.86 because I boiled for 105 minutes, wasn't sure where you got the 90 minutes for that calculation. Finally, when I plug these numbers in, it states that I need 11.87 gallons of water, which is almost a full gallon less than what I additionally added. From this, I should assume that I lost a full gallon within the system (tubes, dead space, trub) and it's not accounted for? Also, won't "Loss to Trub" change with each recipe depending on how much you hop with and how you hop?

 

[gspot]

Thanks for this! This is a great tutorial even for someone who has been using BS for a few months but has just tolerated the variations, inexactitudes, and inconsistencies as being "close enough." It kind of motivates me to try and fine tune it so I can rely on the numbers more. You have to admit though--this is pretty daunting for someone who might just be picking up Beersmith. It really is a program for someone who already has adequate skills with brewing math. And what I mean by that is it's not a very user-friendly program.

 

[Oginme]

Solid stuff. Huge thanks for this. A couple questions though.

First, some obvious stuff that I want to make sure are just typos. When you wrong "22.23" instead of 22.25 while check the grain absorption rate, that was just a typo, right? Also, I got the total boil rate at 2.21 and total boil off of 3.86 because I boiled for 105 minutes, wasn't sure where you got the 90 minutes for that calculation. Finally, when I plug these numbers in, it states that I need 11.87 gallons of water, which is almost a full gallon less than what I additionally added. From this, I should assume that I lost a full gallon within the system (tubes, dead space, trub) and it's not accounted for? Also, won't "Loss to Trub" change with each recipe depending on how much you hop with and how you hop?

Yeah, it was getting long and flashing back and forth I may have gotten some of the numbers wrong. Mostly, I was just trying to set up the equations so that you can plug in the numbers for this and future brews. What most people miss in trying to balance out the water in their system is the thermal expansion of water and performing the calculations at a reference temperature. Since, at least for me and my process, the beginning and ending measurements of water and wort are done at room temperature and they are the most accurate numbers for volume that becomes my baseline temperature. All volumes get corrected to that state.

 

[Oginme]

Thanks for this! This is a great tutorial even for someone who has been using BS for a few months but has just tolerated the variations, inexactitudes, and inconsistencies as being "close enough." It kind of motivates me to try and fine tune it so I can rely on the numbers more. You have to admit though--this is pretty daunting for someone who might just be picking up Beersmith. It really is a program for someone who already has adequate skills with brewing math. And what I mean by that is it's not a very user-friendly program.

Most often when helping people with refining their equipment profiles, I find that the biggest issues have been the accurate measurement of volumes, especially on hot wort; failure to correct for thermal expansion; and inaccurate gravity readings due to trying to measure SG on hot wort. The last is like trying to judge your speed while sliding on ice. The wort is cooling down as you are trying to get a reading, and then the temperature conversion to the calibration temperature of your hydrometer becomes even more questionable.

In short, the more accurate your measurements -- the easier and faster it becomes to dial your process in with the software.

 

[GrogNerd]

not sure if you're clicking on the "edit equipment settings FOR THIS RECIPE" or "save this equipment profile to PROFILE -> EQUIPMENT"

the latter will save the settings for your next batch

 

[Gustatorian]

Most often when helping people with refining their equipment profiles, I find that the biggest issues have been the accurate measurement of volumes, especially on hot wort; failure to correct for thermal expansion; and inaccurate gravity readings due to trying to measure SG on hot wort. The last is like trying to judge your speed while sliding on ice. The wort is cooling down as you are trying to get a reading, and then the temperature conversion to the calibration temperature of your hydrometer becomes even more questionable.

In short, the more accurate your measurements -- the easier and faster it becomes to dial your process in with the software.

I assume that thermal expansion for sparge temps is different for near boiling temps or is the difference negligible?

 

[brewfun]

I assume that thermal expansion for sparge temps is different for near boiling temps or is the difference negligible?

The difference between sparge and boil is about 1 to 1.25% of the total volume. That's 6 to 8 ounces for 5 gallons.

 

[Oginme]

I assume that thermal expansion for sparge temps is different for near boiling temps or is the difference negligible?

It does vary as demonstrated in Brewfun's chart. However, the effect between normal mash out temperatures and boiling is relatively minor. For my altitude, boiling is around 211F, thermal expansion is slightly less than 4%. At 165F it is 2.7%. Once you get the main balance of water correct, you can further refine to include expansion for temperature at each reading individually. The amount of precision you want to include is up to you, but in reality, it is only as accurate as the accuracy of your closest reading.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

At mash temp my thermal expansion coefficient is around 1.8-2.1% (from memory) and at boil it's 4.4%.

I'm also not a fan of the whole concept of equipment profiles and mash profiles. Just let me set the damn variables please.

 

[Gustatorian]

It does vary as demonstrated in Brewfun's chart. However, the effect between normal mash out temperatures and boiling is relatively minor. For my altitude, boiling is around 211F, thermal expansion is slightly less than 4%. At 165F it is 2.7%. Once you get the main balance of water correct, you can further refine to include expansion for temperature at each reading individually. The amount of precision you want to include is up to you, but in reality, it is only as accurate as the accuracy of your closest reading.

Here's a dilemma. So I massively missed by OG brewing yesterday due to the Beersmith calculations. This was after using the same exact calculations and hitting my numbers exactly. I'll attach photos and try to explain the issue.

2 Weeks ago: From your equation, I found that my boil off hourly rate is 2.43 gallons and entered it into my Equipment profile(see photo below). I then brewed the following day. I hit my numbers exactly! This was all based on a hourly boil of rate of 2.43 gallons and a boil time of 105 minutes. Pre-boil gravity and OG were perfect.

Fast forward to yesterday: I created a new profile with the same specifications except I used a 90 minute boil (see other photo below). Pre-boil gravity was spot on, but my OG was at 1.058??? Per beersmith, it should be at 1.074??? Obviously this was on the brewhouse efficiency side because the my pre-boil gravity was perfect. I'm guessing if I had boiled it for 105 minutes instead I probably would have hit my target OG, but not totally sure. Am I overlooking something here?

Let me know if I can send you any more info. This software is so counterintuitive it's insane.

 

[GrogNerd]

2.43 gallons per hour boil off seems crazy high to me. Mine is .5 gallons

those volumes work? you had 10.14 going into the boil and 6.5 after?

 

[Gustatorian]

2.43 gallons per hour boil off seems crazy high to me. Mine is .5 gallons

those volumes work? you had 10.14 going into the boil and 6.5 after?

That's what I'm calculating. Boils are really vigourous on the BrewEasy

 

[CA_Mouse]

2.43 gallons per hour boil off seems crazy high to me. Mine is .5 gallons

those volumes work? you had 10.14 going into the boil and 6.5 after?

That was my first thought as well. I thought I had a high boil off at 1.25 GPH. If that is indeed the actual boil off, I would look at adjusting the heat to lower the vigor of the boil. I've found that boiling hard doesn't really do much except waste a lot of extra propane in my case.

 

[Oginme]

The difference between 105 minutes and 90 minutes would not have made up the 1.058 to 1.074 gap. I suspect that your boil off rate was much lower. What was your post boil volume?

As an aside, I would check to see if you could lower the boil off rate a bit. There must be some kind of controls there. For most brews, it will likely not make a difference, but if you are trying to do some lightly colored pilsners, the additional melanoidin development from such a vigorous boil will certainly be apparent.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Yeah that boil off rate is insanely high.

Does it look like it's more intense than the 5th gif? http://obsessedbrewing.com/levels-of-boiling-wort-a-visual-reference-for-homebrewers/

 

[brewfun]

Here's a dilemma. So I massively missed by OG brewing yesterday due to the Beersmith calculations. This was after using the same exact calculations and hitting my numbers exactly.

In one scenario, the math worked, in the second it didn't. The math didn't change, so something else must've.

I'm joining the chorus that says your boiloff rate is excessive. I'm very curious about your brewhouse efficiency, since it seems staggeringly low.

You see, one of the usual benefits of a very high boiloff rate is a corresponding increase in mash efficiency. With more water for sparging, you should rinse more sugar. I would expect your mash efficiency in the low 90% range, but it seems to be around 60% from your profile.

Although there isn't enough information in your post to know for sure, the gravities you cited are off by 22%. Assuming that the gravity and the batch volume are indeed what you accomplished, this puts your mash efficiency around 45%. Less than half the sugar available was extracted with twice the water needed.

That's not just a processes problem, that's a crisis. Your batches are more than 2x as expensive as they should be in grain and gas. Half the beer at twice the price is called "Retail."

 

[Gustatorian]

I brewed a SMaSH yesterday in an attempt to calculate the specifics of my system– hit my numbers dead-on using an equipment profile already in BeerSmith. The Blichmann Breweasy 10 gallon Equipment Profile worked perfectly as far as volume specifics. However, I did have to change the brewhouse efficiency to what I normally calculate with batches using the BrewEasy (57%) and this calculated the mash efficiency for me (59%, which pre-boil gravity was hit perfectly), Additionally, I had to create a boil time of 90 minutes in order to initially have enough volume to keep the Electric Boil Coil submerged (flaw in the equipment) and still hit my OG.

 

[CA_Mouse]

I brewed a SMaSH yesterday in an attempt to calculate the specifics of my system– hit my numbers dead-on using an equipment profile already in BeerSmith. The Blichmann Breweasy 10 gallon Equipment Profile worked perfectly as far as volume specifics. However, I did have to change the brewhouse efficiency to what I normally calculate with batches using the BrewEasy (57%) and this calculated the mash efficiency for me (59%, which pre-boil gravity was hit perfectly), Additionally, I had to create a boil time of 90 minutes in order to initially have enough volume to keep the Electric Boil Coil submerged (flaw in the equipment) and still hit my OG.

Is that the actual efficiency or just numbers setup to compensate for the equipment? If my equipment had that low of an efficiency, I'd stop brewing or build a better system!

 

[Gustatorian]

Is that the actual efficiency or just numbers setup to compensate for the equipment? If my equipment had that low of an efficiency, I'd stop brewing or build a better system!

It really is that bad, and I've taken every tip that I've received to improve the efficiency. I'm currently blueprinting a third vessel so I can sparge. Sick of using 21 pounds of grain for a 7% beer...

 

[CA_Mouse]

It really is that bad, and I've taken every tip that I've received to improve the efficiency. I'm currently blueprinting a third vessel so I can sparge. Sick of using 21 pounds of grain for a 7% beer...

Wow! Have you reached out to Blichmann? I'm sure they would want to know about this!

Are you grinding your own grain or having it done by your LHBS? Poor crush can also give a very low efficiency.

 

[BrunDog]

Quick glance, the "Calc boil volume automatically" should be checked.