Today I brewed an IPA I plugged into beer smith and the efficiency calculations confused me.
When I took a gravity reading pre-boil I was at the volume & gravity I wanted to be for the 70% efficiency I was targeting. Post-boil the volume was spot on at 3gallons yet my gravity was through the roof and I ended up measuring 85% efficiency… Am I correct in assuming this makes no sense? I did cool the wort down to 60f before taking the readings.
Could be that you are confusing mash and brew house efficiency. Personally, I only care about mash efficiency.
Edit - are you entering your pre-boil and post boil in the correct spot?
That’s the brewhouse numbers - I got the figure first when I entered the ‘into the boiler’ gravity & volume at 4.53g/1.042 which was on track for 70%. Afterwards, measured batch size & OG were 3 gallons at 1.066. If I set the efficiency to 85% the estimated OG/batch size line up but I’d be 9 points under the expected into the boiler gravity. Seems odd… with the gravity not being stronger due to a lower volume I’m trying to figure it out. Maybe it’s from the minor drippings (I brew BIAB) that drained from the bag that I added to the kettle after taking the volume/gravity?
Are your volume measurements accurate?
From the figures you supplied, the basic math says you should have had a final volume of 2.89 gallons which assume the gravity and preboil volume measurements were accurate. I am a bit confused but it seems like there could be an error in one of the inputs on the software.
Volume should be good, was from a measured bucket, I hit maybe a hair over 3gallons final. Odd indeed.