I have interest in a couple of recipes that ask for 1:15 or :90 Boil Time. My Friend, Father, and The Smith “Boil Time” entries will result in NO changes in OG. Anybody have a notion as to WHY this might be so? I have to “fake” the OG to jibe with the Software? It would appear that the “Boil Time” entry is just a Friendly Reminder of how long you are going to be boiling and not a functional “window” into the actual effect of a change in Boil Times.
ALL of these applications completely fade on this, and maybe I’m the only one on the planet who has cause to be aggravated?
Just sayin.
Thanks everyone,
Todd
While Hop Utilization only changes by +9% (my equip) from 60-120, SG definitely changes in BOTH this tool and Boil Off tool, but NO CHANGES are made if you “plug in” differing times in the recipe creation process. Odd omission, but just me??
Brewing software generally compensates for longer boiling times by having the brewer add more water at the start (either during mash, during sparge or preboil). Because of that the OG won’t be affected.
If you don’t add more water for a longer boil, the OG will increase because more water will evaporate the longer you boil while the sugars stay in the wort (the sugars don’t boil off).
I appreciate your response, but the horse is walking backwards. When a fellow creates a recipe and wants to know the result of a longer OR shorter boil, the ONLY way to accomplish this in BF BF or BS is to FAKE Efficiencies, FAKE water amounts, which, IM not so HO is nonsensical.
MY POINT:
IF someone is smart enough to create an app as sophisitcated as any of the above mentioned, they SHOULD be schmartz enough to take The “Gravity Tool” and incorporate it in the Recipe Creation. It’s kinda easy to do. I have people for that…
You can use Add Fermentables, Add Hops, Water… etc., but WHY wouldn’t you want to know RIGHT away and UP FRONT how boiling times will affect Post Boil G. With guys today doing 30-60-70-90 minute boils as part of their recipe, why would you NOT want to make this a function?
Thanks again, but I’m not asking “Why isn’t this a function of the App?” I AM asking “Why WOULDN’T you want this to be a function of the App?”
The app assumes you know your target OG and is trying to help you it by calculating the water volumes to get you to that gravity.
Personally, I start with a mental picture of what I want to put in the fermenter: volume, strength (OG), bitterness (IBUs).
I don’t start with a fixed quantity of water and iterate boiling times to see what gravities they’ll give me.
So if I change to longer boil time (for instance, to extract more hop bitterness), it doesn’t help me hit those other two numbers if the software tells me that I now have to manually adjust my pre-boil volume to maintain the same post-boil gravity.
The easiest way to do what I think you’re try to do in Brewfather would be to change the boil time and then manually adjust your batch size until you get back to same pre-boil volume.
But these apps are under fairly active development: message to dev teams and request your desired behavior. If enough people ask for it, they’ll add it.
I’ve been using Brewfather the last few years and prior to that used BS for many years. Both will do what you are attempting but the overriding boil time is in your equipment profile. You need to go there change the boil time and reload it, then your OG will change or you’ll be asked if you want to scale your recipe to compensate for the changed time. An easier method is to create several equipment profiles with the various boil times and swap between them to see the results.
However I think Drew stated the best way to create a recipe which is knowing the parameters you want in the finished beer and the process you’d like to use to get there, then proceed with creating a great brew.
It comes down to the efficiency value. BeerSmith (and almost all brewing software) does not predict your efficiency. It only uses the efficiency value that you enter to calculate your OG. One way to increase efficiency is to use more mash water (to help extract more of the sugars from the grain) and then use a longer boil time to remove the excess water. But you need to know (or guess at) what the efficiency boost will be (say 65% to 70%) and then change your efficiency to match.
I am a BeerSmith user. This could be different with other software. In BeerSmith, you enter your overall efficiency (which includes mash efficiency and any losses further in the process). I believe some software is based around an entered mash efficiency. In that case, I might expect changing the boil time to impact the OG.
