Beersmith And Effeciency Calcs

[Screwtop]

Ross, it is not a software glitch both Prmash and beersmith are designed that way, to quote myself from the batch size thread to save my fingers, sorry if you have read this already.
cheers
Andrew

Andrew,

I lose 3L to kettle trub etc. By filling in these figures in the Beersmith setup (as it asks you to) it drops the actual IBU's by quite a bit against setting at 0L & upping the batch size. Maybe not a software glitch as such, but poor progamming IMO from both camps - They could at least advise you on this during the setup, unless i missed it??
One plus - my efficiency has rocketed

cheers Ross

Not only Beersmith Ross. Using Promash I have to use 50% of the mash tun thermal mass entered into Beersmith (0.150) to arrive at the same strike water temp as calculated using Beersmith. Beersmith always resulted in the correct mash target temp for my system, using Promash I found it was always high.

 

[AndrewQLD]

I lose 3L to kettle trub etc. By filling in these figures in the Beersmith setup (as it asks you to) it drops the actual IBU's by quite a bit against setting at 0L & upping the batch size. Maybe not a software glitch as such, but poor progamming IMO from both camps - They could at least advise you on this during the setup, unless i missed it??
One plus - my efficiency has rocketed

cheers Ross

I can see your point Ross, possibly they thought it was obvious that increasing your liquor amounts to adjust for trub losses would mean you are boiling with more water/gram ratio of hops hence lower hop utilization.
Upping the batch size actually increases all of your ingredients including your liquor, hops and grain keeping your recipe to spec.
Definately something that should be explained a little better in the manual.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Ross]

I can see your point Ross, possibly they thought it was obvious that increasing your liquor amounts to adjust for trub losses would mean you are boiling with more water/gram ratio of hops hence lower hop utilization.

Cheers
Andrew

I agree Andrew, that is fairly obvious (to most), but when you set up your details in the equipment section & there's a section for your trub losses etc, my belief & I'm sure nearly everyone elses, would be that the software was doing the necessary clalculations from your entries.
Since reading this thread & playing with the losses etc, I can see the results quite clearly; but someone setting this up has no reason to start playing with the loss figures (I certainly never have), other than recording their actual figurers & therefore would not have a clue that this entry is throwing everything out.

I reckon a sticky explaining the finer points of the Beersmith & Promash setup would be invaluable to newbies & experienced brewers alike.

Cheers Ross

 

[Borret]

I noticed and changed my settings on this a while ago too.
The thing that gave me a heads up on it was when I was toying with a high gravity all extract recipe. There was no brewhouse efficiency settings because it is extract but when I increased my trub settings, to account for a whack of hops, the gravity for the same sized batch (to fermentor) didn't change. It increased the preboil volume, but no drop in gravity for the same amount of fermentables.
It also gave me a heads up to why my AG efficiency estimations were a bit inconsistant. Now it makes sense with trub set at zero and batch size increased to sompensate.

Brent

 

[browndog]

If you ask me, it's bloody rediculous. There should be a disclaimer there to say To achieve these figures you must drain your entire wort from the kettle to the fermenter

Makes my eyes spin like Mr Potato Head's up there !


cheers

Browndog

 

[Screwtop]

If you ask me, it's bloody rediculous. There should be a disclaimer there to say To achieve these figures you must drain your entire wort from the kettle to the fermenter

Makes my eyes spin like Mr Potato Head's up there !


cheers

Browndog

I'd like to see that BD

Come to think of it, think I did, after you drank beer from Jye's Randall at the swap.

 

[Jye]

Come to think of it, think I did, after you drank beer from Jye's Randall at the swap.

HAHAHAHAHA :blink:

 

[browndog]

My eyes DO spin like that after a couple of glasses of the 9.1%Ruination I made recently! First time I tried it I woke up on the couch at 3am LOL...

cheers

Browndog

 

[therook]

G'day brewers,

Just revisiting this thread.....i have just downloaded the free trial and am wondering if you still need to set lose to trub and chiller to zero, or has this been fixed.??????

Rook

 

[lonte]

"anomoly" is still there in my version ... 1.3

 

[KoNG]

hmmm,
i did not know of this.
looks like i wont be kegging/bottling tonight. I've got some homework to do.

 

[kook]

I just discovered something too that others may (or may not) know.

If you modify the specifications for your default equipment, using the details in the equipment sidebar, future recipes will not use these new settings.

You need to go back into options and select that equipment again. Damn annoying, as this is used to calculate your mash water temp.


edit : Just been playing around now with the trub/chiller loss setting.

If I set it to zero as advised, and increase my efficiency from 75% to 82%, all the numbers start to fall in place correctly on my past two brews.

I'll try this setup with my next brew in a fortnight and see how it works.

 

[KoNG]

Kook,
would it work if you duplicate a recipe that you have used the new settings with.?? I do this often when i'm doing a similar style, then i just alter the grist as needed etc.

 

[kook]

If you dupe an existing recipe that is using the new equipment, that dupe recipe will have the new equipment too.

If you click "new recipe" though, it'll keep using the old equipment until you go into options and select it.

 

[KoNG]

i played around with my settings last night and a few things that have troubled me have now been answered. The main one being that i was always a bit put off by my refrac readings, so much so that it was left in its case on most brewdays..! i was blaming my refrac that it gave preboil gravities which read a little higher in effeciency, but wouldnt line up with my OG reading at the fermenter. Anyways the crux of it is, after playing with the trub/chiller setting as discussed and altering the batch size.... (and consequently my effeciency)
This has upped my preboil gravities a notch or 3 in line with what i was getting all along.! joy