tri_clamp_ninja
Well-Known Member
I want to start this off by saying that I feel really stupid for having to post this. I have been a professional brewer for 6 years and jumped straight into all grain professional brewing before I ever homebrewed one time. I have no problem producing awesome all grain beers, nailing my numbers, and consistently replicating recipes on a commercial scale.
Now, for fun I recently started playing with extract beers on a small scale 5 gal homebrew style set up (extract only and extract + steeping grains) because after doing a 12+ hour double brew shift at work the last thing I want to do is spend 4-6 hours doing all grain beer at home on my days off. Here is where my problem comes in, I keep missing my OG with these extract beers and it's becoming really frustrating. I'll give recipe examples below but i'm using beersmith, the equipment and ingredient profiles have all been modified to match as close to exact specs as I can get, and I'm using a propane burner which I feel may have something to do with it however (as you'll see below) some of these recipes have all the DME added at flame out so it shouldn't be an issue of poor boil not condensing sugars.
One thing I'm unsure of (and it's such an amateur question!) is should my DME weight be based off of preboil or post boil volume? Meaning: say I'm shooting for 1.040 OG, should I base my calculation off of the 5 gal batch size into FV or base it off of a 7+ gal preboil volume? If it helps, i'm doing most if not all of my DME as a flame out addition, I do full boils with no top up water, I am using a very expensive lab/commercial grade Hydrometer and verified the temperature of the gravity sample with a lab/commercial grade thermometer both to have the most accurate reading.
Here are some recipe examples from my beersmith entries:
All Extract Blonde Ale
5 gal batch volume, 7.21 gal pre boil volume, 60 min boil
10 gal stainless kettle, propane burner
-1lb Briess Golden Light DME @ ramp up
-Hop additions @ 60mins + Flame Out
-Nutrient + Whirlfloc addition @ 10 mins
-4lb Briess Golden Light DME @ Flame out
Est OG: 1.044 (per beersmith)
Act OG: 1.037
Here's another example, this time using steeping grains:
Extract + Steeping grain IPA
5 gal batch volume, 7.21 gal pre boil volume, 60 min boil
10 gal stainless kettle, propane burner
-1/2lb Honey Malt
-1/4lb C60
-1/4lb C90
-1/8lb Black Malt
Steeped in 1 gal @ 158f for 20 mins.
After steep, removed grain bag and let drain into kettle before adding water to reach full 7.21 gal pre boil volume.
-Hop additions @ 60, 45, 30, 15, and flame out
-Nutrient + Whirlfloc addition @ 10 mins
-4lb Briess Golden Light DME @ Flame Out
-1.88lb Briess Pilsen Light DME @ Flame Out
Est OG: 1.053 (per Beersmith)
Act OG: 1.047
sooo.....what is happening here?
Now, for fun I recently started playing with extract beers on a small scale 5 gal homebrew style set up (extract only and extract + steeping grains) because after doing a 12+ hour double brew shift at work the last thing I want to do is spend 4-6 hours doing all grain beer at home on my days off. Here is where my problem comes in, I keep missing my OG with these extract beers and it's becoming really frustrating. I'll give recipe examples below but i'm using beersmith, the equipment and ingredient profiles have all been modified to match as close to exact specs as I can get, and I'm using a propane burner which I feel may have something to do with it however (as you'll see below) some of these recipes have all the DME added at flame out so it shouldn't be an issue of poor boil not condensing sugars.
One thing I'm unsure of (and it's such an amateur question!) is should my DME weight be based off of preboil or post boil volume? Meaning: say I'm shooting for 1.040 OG, should I base my calculation off of the 5 gal batch size into FV or base it off of a 7+ gal preboil volume? If it helps, i'm doing most if not all of my DME as a flame out addition, I do full boils with no top up water, I am using a very expensive lab/commercial grade Hydrometer and verified the temperature of the gravity sample with a lab/commercial grade thermometer both to have the most accurate reading.
Here are some recipe examples from my beersmith entries:
All Extract Blonde Ale
5 gal batch volume, 7.21 gal pre boil volume, 60 min boil
10 gal stainless kettle, propane burner
-1lb Briess Golden Light DME @ ramp up
-Hop additions @ 60mins + Flame Out
-Nutrient + Whirlfloc addition @ 10 mins
-4lb Briess Golden Light DME @ Flame out
Est OG: 1.044 (per beersmith)
Act OG: 1.037
Here's another example, this time using steeping grains:
Extract + Steeping grain IPA
5 gal batch volume, 7.21 gal pre boil volume, 60 min boil
10 gal stainless kettle, propane burner
-1/2lb Honey Malt
-1/4lb C60
-1/4lb C90
-1/8lb Black Malt
Steeped in 1 gal @ 158f for 20 mins.
After steep, removed grain bag and let drain into kettle before adding water to reach full 7.21 gal pre boil volume.
-Hop additions @ 60, 45, 30, 15, and flame out
-Nutrient + Whirlfloc addition @ 10 mins
-4lb Briess Golden Light DME @ Flame Out
-1.88lb Briess Pilsen Light DME @ Flame Out
Est OG: 1.053 (per Beersmith)
Act OG: 1.047
sooo.....what is happening here?