Robobrew / Beersmith- Brewhouse efficiency?

[fury_tea]

I keep overshooting my OG by quite a lot. I use Beersmith (Robobrew equipment profile) and I usually keep the BH efficiency at the standard 72%, it used to get me close enough so never bothered changing it but recently I am a fair few points over.
For example, my last 2 brews were OG estimated 1.057 and I hit 1.070 and todays was estimated 1.047 but I hit 1.060 (volumes were spot on).

I've made some changes to my brewing recently, I pay closer attention to PH and treat my water, I wet condition and crush my own grain.

Is it possible I am hitting 85% BH efficiency now? That seems high but it pretty much corrects my OG figure if I change it to that.

 

[Rodcx500z]

That's a pretty wide margin 13 points on both brews, i would start by checking the hydrometer

 

[fury_tea]

That's a pretty wide margin 13 points on both brews, i would start by checking the hydrometer

In water it's 1.000

 

[Rodcx500z]

I wish i could help more but all this bhe stuff is way over my head, if i tried i would be talking a load of old cobblers hope you sort it

 

[RichardM]

I keep overshooting my OG by quite a lot. I use Beersmith (Robobrew equipment profile) and I usually keep the BH efficiency at the standard 72%, it used to get me close enough so never bothered changing it but recently I am a fair few points over.
For example, my last 2 brews were OG estimated 1.057 and I hit 1.070 and todays was estimated 1.047 but I hit 1.060 (volumes were spot on).

I've made some changes to my brewing recently, I pay closer attention to PH and treat my water, I wet condition and crush my own grain.

Is it possible I am hitting 85% BH efficiency now? That seems high but it pretty much corrects my OG figure if I change it to that.

You could change the efficiency in Beersmith and brew according to what that gives you and see how it comes out.
I went through a similar process. My OG wasn't over shooting as much as yours but it was consistently higher than predicted,. Over a few brews I tweaked the efficiency in Beersmith and now it comes out very close to the predicted OG

 

[Horners]

I keep overshooting my OG by quite a lot. I use Beersmith (Robobrew equipment profile) and I usually keep the BH efficiency at the standard 72%, it used to get me close enough so never bothered changing it but recently I am a fair few points over.
For example, my last 2 brews were OG estimated 1.057 and I hit 1.070 and todays was estimated 1.047 but I hit 1.060 (volumes were spot on).

I've made some changes to my brewing recently, I pay closer attention to PH and treat my water, I wet condition and crush my own grain.

Is it possible I am hitting 85% BH efficiency now? That seems high but it pretty much corrects my OG figure if I change it to that.

One thing I have noticed recently which had a significant impact on efficiency when I started experimenting with full volume mash was switching to a finer crush.

 

[fury_tea]

One thing I have noticed recently which had a significant impact on efficiency when I started experimenting with full volume mash was switching to a finer crush.

My last crush was anything but fine, I was actually worried that it was going to negatively affect my brew because I still had full husks in there, but I rubbed together them in my hand they would fall apart.

I'll try a higher BH efficiency setting, test my equipment and check the equipment settings in Beersmith and see if any of that helps.

Cheers

 

[foxy]

My last crush was anything but fine, I was actually worried that it was going to negatively affect my brew because I still had full husks in there, but I rubbed together them in my hand they would fall apart.

I'll try a higher BH efficiency setting, test my equipment and check the equipment settings in Beersmith and see if any of that helps.

Cheers

Your crush sounds as it should be. When do you take your gravity reading and where from?

 

[fury_tea]

Your crush sounds as it should be. When do you take your gravity reading and where from?

I use Robobrew and I no chill, so prior to transferring to the jerry can I run the tap a few times into a jug and empty it back in the top, then collect a couple of hundred ml, transfer that to a graduated cylinder to cool to 20c at which point I take my reading.

 

[foxy]

I use Robobrew and I no chill, so prior to transferring to the jerry can I run the tap a few times into a jug and empty it back in the top, then collect a couple of hundred ml, transfer that to a graduated cylinder to cool to 20c at which point I take my reading.

You should always take your reading from the fermenter.

 

[fury_tea]

You should always take your reading from the fermenter.

It's just before I transfer to the jerry can, which is transferred to the fermentation vessel once cool. Are you saying there will be a change in gravity between those 2 points (apart from the cooling effect)?

 

[foxy]

The sugared wort is at the lower level of the kettle that is where it is most dense. Take a reading from the fermenter and then the remaining wort at the bottom of a kettle, the kettle wort will be far higher.

 

[fury_tea]

The sugared wort is at the lower level of the kettle that is where it is most dense. Take a reading from the fermenter and then the remaining wort at the bottom of a kettle, the kettle wort will be far higher.

Ok, I will try that next time.
Although in my case I whirlpool, so the pump has been mixing the wort (taking wort from the bottom and transferring it back to the top) for 20-30 minutes previously so I'm unsure if the sugar can sink that quickly?

 

[foxy]

Ok, I will try that next time.
Although in my case I whirlpool, so the pump has been mixing the wort (taking wort from the bottom and transferring it back to the top) for 20-30 minutes previously so I'm unsure if the sugar can sink that quickly?

If you are getting a lot of debris in the hydrometer culinder then that will also throw out your gravity reading. Same as if you are taking a reading for the FG yeast in the cylinder will give you a false reading.

 

[fury_tea]

If you are getting a lot of debris in the hydrometer culinder then that will also throw out your gravity reading. Same as if you are taking a reading for the FG yeast in the cylinder will give you a false reading.

No debris really, this isn't a highly hopped beer so very little hop debris, there was some floating cold break protein material but that had dropped out by the time I took my sample. I can't see that it would be responsible for that much of a difference.

I am open to it being a measurement error though.
I think this is going to be the catalyst for me getting a refractometer. Funny that it popped up only recently as I haven't changed anything about my measurement technique in ages. It's too late to do anything about it on this brew but next time I will be sure to take multiple readings and compare any differences.

Thanks for the help