I just brewed my first batch using Beersmith and missed my OG, FG and efficiency number. I understand that these go hand-in-hand and snowball from the start. I mill my own grain and use a Monster Mill 3 with .039" gap. The grain crush looks good, but I could tighten it up a bit if needed. My efficiency was at 57.5% for a Imperial Stout if that matters.
When I sparge, I pour in the water, stir well, vorlauf, and drain. I was wondering if I should pour in gently and not stir and then vorlauf and drain? Had a red flag at the end with being approximately half gallon heavy in the fermenter. I know this is huge and could be the problem but wondered on the sparge technique?
Did you tell BS that you had the extra half gallon into the fermenter? That is a lot of water diluting your sugars. It would make efficiency look bad if BS thinks you hit your batch size target.
I was expecting more boil loss but it wasn’t the entire half gallon but more like 1/4 to 3/8 of a gallon. I think I overshot the trub loss by a touch too.
Changing the expected boil loss and expected true loss are corrections for the equipment profile for next time. For this batch, did you enter the “measured boil vol”, “meas pre-boil gravity”, “measured batch size”, and “measured OG”? These values are used to calculate mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency.
In answer to your question. …add the sparge water and stir vigorously to the point of foam. Vorlauf and drain as quickly as you wish. . No need to gently add water. No need to wait to drain or drain slowly.
No, you’re doing it correctly. Probably something off in your Beersmith settings, not to mention the extra 1/2 gal. I recommend this…mash with whatever ratio you like. I’m around 1.65 qt./lb. After you run off your mash measure how much wort you have in your kettle. Subtract that from the amount you want to boil. The answer you get is how much sparge water to use.
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Changing the expected boil loss and expected true loss are corrections for the equipment profile for next time. For this batch, did you enter the “measured boil vol”, “meas pre-boil gravity”, “measured batch size”, and “measured OG”? These values are used to calculate mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency.
I think Beersmith seems to “lock” you in at 1.25 qt./lb. I wish you could enter in your own ratio and then it would calculate. I usually do 1.33 or 1.50 qt/lb.
You can edit and adjust (almost?) Everything in beersmith. Just
have to play around with it. Go under profiles, and you can set it up however you like. I’m not in front of it right now so that’s the best I can tell you, but I assure you you can set it up how you want it
Mash thickness is under the mash step. You can set the default for a particular mash profile, and edit it per recipe. I like my strike water to be to the half gallon, so I tweak up or down to. Makes measuring easy.
“I think Beersmith seems to “lock” you in at 1.25 qt./lb. I wish you could enter in your own ratio and then it would calculate. I usually do 1.33 or 1.50 qt/lb.”
BeerSmith does not ‘lock’ you into anything. You should edit your equipment and mash profiles to reflect your brewing process. Take careful measurements of your volumes and gravity readings through your next brew session and calculate the grain absorption, trub losses, and boil off rate. Use these figures to rework your equipment and mash profile. Repeat until the program can better simulate your actual figures.