Overshot OG considerably...already changed but what to do in future.

[Damn]

Go easy with me as I'm only in my 2nd year apprenticeship with AHB mostly as my master.

I BIAB. I use beersmith as my brewing tool and are making more than my share of errors in my training. But I'm also making a few bloody tasty beers.

A recent plight of mine is my poor efficiency as described in http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/77963-trying-to-improve-my-efficiency/

On my last brew I had a considerable jump in expected OG. I think maybe squeezing the chit out of the BIABag may of been the major contributor.

My expected OG 1.060.......ended up with 22l of 1.067.
I was brewing an English IPA (not sure that helps).

So, in my bull at a gate technique, master out of sight and beersmith in my holster I made the following adjustments.

First, in beersmith, I adjusted the Tot Efficiency until the estimated OG matched mine of 1.067, then I adjusted the Batch size until it hit the expected OG. (2.4l additional required).
So I added 2.4l of preboiled water. I didn't remeasure my OG. But what I noticed is the IBU & EBC changed in beersmith (on reflection I expect it should). On pondering these changes I worried I may of buggered up the balance of the beer?

I will adjust my equipment profile for next brew so I can get more accurate results. But I'm wondering how you guys adjust your brew when you overshoot by so much? Should I of just left it alone?

Thanks for any opinions.

Damian.

 

[mkstalen]

Whenever I've over or under-shot my expected OG, I've just left it alone and so have ended up with a slightly higher or low abv beer.

I've got one sitting in a cube now which I expect is going to be over as I'm sure I lost more to evaporation due to a longer boil, so I might add some boiled-and-chilled water to that to bring it back down. (But I might not, depends on whether I can be bothered on the day...)

 

[Liam_snorkel]

you beer will be fine, extra points, extra tasty.

 

[Bridges]

I've ended up over gravity before and topped up with cooled boiled water into the fermenter, I get a reading with my hydro as normal, then formula is

current gravity/target gravity x current volume

example I have 17 litres of 1.062 reading wort that was meant to be 1.047

(62/47) x 17 = 22.43
So I top up to the 22.4 litre mark (approx) and all is good in the world.

Or just leaving it alone also works!!

 

[MastersBrewery]

From a consistency point of view, if you continue to overshoot on your next 2 or 3 batches, adjust your efficiency in your brewing software. Whilst I agree with above that there is no real harm in over or under shooting OG, consistency in OG will bring consistent results with flavour and hop usage. Most brewers get to a reasonable efficiency and then maintain method to hit those numbers each time. If you continue to have up and down results with the same methods then there's issues.

MB

 

[supertonio]

I'm with everyone else on this one

I never used to adjust on my first few BIABs when I never used to hit my numbers and as I was a new brewer I could never really tell if the beer was unbalance due to hitting a lower OG.

For me the satisfaction has come in my last four brews in hitting my volume and OG numbers after trial and error. If I had been adding water on the other brews and hitting my numbers that way it may have taken some shine off my recent successful brews.

Yet no matter how you do it it's all a steep learning curve about brewing and getting to know your system. It gets easier when you have to worry less about the numbers and how to hit them.

 

[fletcher]

doesn't over or under shooting also affect the relative IBU? so to keep it balanced doesn't this need to also be adjusted? I never have bothered but just for argument's sake