I am done with my mash, and my pre boil gravity is about 1.052, according to BF is should be 1.040. I am also about a half gallon short on my pre boil volume. Would it be wise to add a half gallon now before I start my boil? Help me. LOL
Yes. You can add water Preboil or post boil to get you volume where it should be and dilute the gravity.
Short on volume and high on gravity go together. To be safe, you might want to calculate the amount of water needed to reach the desired gravity but adding water to bring the volume to your goal should bring the gravity down to where it belongs if your mash efficiency was as planned.
Thanks to all who replied. As a side note to all this, I have no idea what happened. I followed BF recommended water amounts but ended up short preboil. My standard had been about 5 gallons into the mash, 3 as sparge and that gets me to a final amount of 5.5 or so into the fermenter. I think I shorted myself on the mash water. BF said to use about 4.5 gallons and I always use 5. Oh well, live and learn. The OG was at about 1.052 to 1.054. Should have been at 1.050 so I am good with that. Pitched my dry WLP001 last night about 5 or so. It is in my ferm fridge at 67 degrees and holding. I am not going to even look at it, except for a quick peek to see what kind of activity I am getting until at least Tuesday. Dry hops are at the ready and I figure those will go in next week. A 4 to 5 day dry hop and I will bottle and see what I end up with. Oh, it is supposed to be an APA, but the bitterness is a bit high at 59. I wanted to go with the recipe this time and see what I have.
Anyway, sorry to ramble, and thank you all for the help. Hopefully this will spur on a discussion about top off and when to do it.
I think we’ve all been there. The brewing programs save a lot of time but they have to be dialed in for your system.
If I target around 60 IBU per Beersmith (and maybe BF is different), I end up with a beer that is similar in bitterness to SNPA (which according to the brewery is 38 IBU). So you may be right on.
There is no reason to necessarily assume an IBU prediction is accurate
Denny absolutely correct
There are quite a few factors. In Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniel’s compares several formulas for bitterness and comes up with one himself for estimating bitterness in homebrew beers made at that time. I never had my beers tested so I don’t know how accurate my estimates are. I simply use the estimates as a relative scale. I know how I perceive the bitterness in my “40 IBU” beer and I scale from there.
Edited for clarity (i.e I did not proof it prior to posting)
If you haven’t already done so, get yerself a copy of How to Brew and take a look at the All-grain brewing chapters. I think it’s not a bad thing to be able to do the math to see what happens to OG as you change volume.
I agree but you have to start somewhere. What matters most is that you stay consistent and have whatever tool in your toolbox calculate an IBU that you can compare to what you perceive in the beer when you drink it. It really doesn’t matter if the tool is telling you exactly what your beer has if you were to analyze it chemically. What matters is correlating what the tool says it is and your perception. Pick a tool (spreadsheet, software, on-line calculator) and use it for all your brews. Take notes. Adjust appropriately.