No. 2 done

[dreadskin69]

second batch done. managed to knock 5 hours of the first attempt, and managed to brew twice as much beer. only thing is the og has come alot higher than expected. we were plannin on hitting 1054, but cam in at 1080 using (beersmith2)... however i have no idea how to work out efficency and as were were hybrid batch sparging i just stuck it in at 65%.
we used columbus for bittering and galaxy for aroma. we used a fair wack too. smelt good but we are still hitting design issues. more trips to stainless steel welder is required... onward!

[orlando]

Congratulations on your No. 2.

BeerSmith takes a little getting used to. one of the things you have to set up correctly is your equipment profile. There are a number of default set ups but they are US biased so if you haven't tailored it to your own kit then this is your first step to getting it close to accurately predicting your recipe outcomes. Can I suggest you set your "brewhouse efficiency" to 75% as a starting point. Once you have a few brews under your belt you will have a better idea of how you need to refine this.

Any other questions about BeerSmith then ask away.

[Matt12398]

When you open up a recipe, low down on the right hand side you will see some boxes for calculating you efficiency. You put in your original gravity reading and your end of boil volume and it will tell you what your efficiency was based on the ingredients in your recipe and the quantities used. You can then use this figure to get closer for your next brew.

[dreadskin69]

cheers guys. ive just changed the column on the right hand side as mat said. it has calculated efficiency as 93%?!?!?!?! surely that cant be right!?!?!

now orlando, the batch size tab. is that for how much is left or how much goes in before boil? the other thing is, even tho we did boil it for an hour, we really didnt loose too much...

[seymour]

cheers guys. ive just changed the column on the right hand side as mat said. it has calculated efficiency as 93%?!?!?!?! surely that cant be right!?!?!...

It's possible, especially considering you're using fresh malt, freshly cracked, and presumably lengthy, relatively low-temperature or multi-step mashes. In any case, nice work!

[dreadskin69]

well we mashed at 64c, for an hour and a half (cus it took ages to get the sparge water up to temp), depending on what you mean by fresh it was milled on the thursday and brewed on the saturday. as for multi step... well... we didnt loose as much temp as we would have thought pumping the hot water in. so it might have been a reverse mutli step. ie it took a fair bit of cold water gettin it down to 64. tho there could have been a fair few hot spots in the mash tun. all fun and games!

[Matt12398]

The batch size should be the volume you end up with in your fermenter at the end. 93% does sound very high but who knows. 1080 is a lot higher than 1054 so you were obviously much higher than 65%.

[Dave S]

The batch size should be the volume you end up with in your fermenter at the end. 93% does sound very high but who knows. 1080 is a lot higher than 1054 so you were obviously much higher than 65%.

26 points is so far out as to suggest a huge miscalculation on the grain bill.

[orlando]

cheers guys. ive just changed the column on the right hand side as mat said. it has calculated efficiency as 93%?!?!?!?! surely that cant be right!?!?!

now orlando, the batch size tab. is that for how much is left or how much goes in before boil? the other thing is, even tho we did boil it for an hour, we really didnt loose too much...

Batch size is how much you want to finally end up with.

[dreadskin69]

aye thats what i was thinking dave, but... thats what beersmith 'told' me to do... i mean i have added the correct batch size (for what i thought would be in the fermenter), and i presumed i would have a low efficency due to batch sparging. hell i thought i may not have hit 1056 due to using bairds malt which many on here say doesnt give a high an og as say warminster.

im just wondering what else is off the charts... i mean have i also added way to much hops? is it going to be mentally bitter and have to be stored for months to mellow out? (should be 58IBUs, but is that more like 78? who knows?)

[orlando]

im just wondering what else is off the charts... i mean have i also added way to much hops? is it going to be mentally bitter and have to be stored for months to mellow out? (should be 58IBUs, but is that more like 78? who knows?)

I don't understand why there are these wide discrepancies. Have you changed the AA% of your actual hops in BS? If you have then when you come to add the hops in the recipe you can monitor the predicted IBU's by seeing how much the predicted IBU is as you adjust up or down. You say it should be 58 IBU's, leaving aside the issue of individual perception of bitterness if that is what BS says it should be why are you speculating it may be more like 78? Have I missed something? The way to check the relative bitterness to alcohol is by looking at the SG:IBU ratio. If anything as the alcohol rises the IBU perception falls so the bitterness perception should go the other way. With your OG designed to be 1.054 then 58 IBU's would be bitter but with the OG rising to 1.080 that falls below 1:1. But bitterness does mellow over time so that should also help to balance out the beer.

Hope that helps.

[dreadskin69]

yes i did change the aa% to meet what the pack said. its not that it is more bitter, im just panicking incase it might be more bitter, given the fact i missed the OG by such a wide mark. However the fermentation chamber smells fantastic. if it wasnt for the chance of dying because of the very high CO2 levels caused by a very vigorous fermentation, id be tempted to climb in!

[orlando]

its not that it is more bitter, im just panicking incase it might be more bitter, given the fact i missed the OG by such a wide mark.

In that case what I wrote above applies it will actually appear to be less bitter.