I got a recipe from a friend for Christmas. It is something someone suggested to her. I mentioned a little about it a couple weeks ago because BeerSmith showed me that it wasn't quite right. So, I added 4lb more grain. Below is the recipe I am brewing right now. 8.75lb Pilsner 1.5lb Munich 12oz Carapils 6oz Biscuit 6oz Melanoidin (All this was already crushed together) I added about 4lb Vienna 12oz Cane Sugar 1.5oz Styrian Golding @60 .75oz Czech @30 WLP530 Belgian Abbey Yeast I'm already brewing so it is what it is. I'm not asking for advice necessarily (maybe for hops and cane sugar as grains are still mashing) but I am wondering your predictions. The fun part of this is experimenting. Heck! Even my Belgian Dubbel I brewed and screwed up by having too much in the boil came out great.
Is this for 5 gallons? Unless your mash efficiency is really low, this is going to be well into Tripel/Golden Strong territory gravity-wise. Had you not added the 4 lbs of Vienna, gravity would have been right in there. I'm curious as to what Beersmith was showing you.
Without the Vienna, BS was telling me an OG of 1.054. With the Vienna it showed 1.069. It says for a Belgian Blonde the avg OG should be 1.062-1.075. I don't mind it being stronger. Then I wonder if I should bump the hops slightly?
How many gallons? And with what assumed mash efficiency? Are you by any chance looking at the Pre-Boil OG rather than the Post Boil?
5 gal batch. I go by post boil OG. Efficiency is dialed in at 76%. I am still adjusting it so I am trying to keep really accurate numbers. Mash is almost done. As for hops. I may make the initial addition of 1.5oz Styrian the whole 2oz that I have. Or add the .5 oz 15 minutes into the boil. There are so many possibilities.
Something is not right if BS gave you 1.069 post boil OG with those ingredients into 5 gallons at 76% efficiency. Maybe increase your hop additions proportionately to the extra gravity.
I know that the recipe is already crushed, but what is the purpose of using the Carapils and then adding cane sugar? It just seems contradictory using both ingredients to me. Should be a fun recipe either way.
OK. Total I have 2oz each of Czech Saaz and Styrian Golding. I may go with the 2oz Styrian (rather than 1.5oz) at 60 then 1oz Saaz at 30 (rather than just .75oz)
Couldn't tell you. Seems like one person at this shop constantly wants to add carapils. Either way it'll be an interesting recipe for sure. I'm probably gonna cool a small amount preboil and check the gravity. I haven't done that yet.
I got 6.25-6.5 gal. I generally lose about 3/4gal during boil and about 1/2g left at the bottom of the pot. I normally have 5-5.5gal fermenting.
Into 6.5 gallons, with that grist but without the sugar, 1.049 SG translates to about 56% Mash Efficiency, which is nowhere near the 76% you have dialed in. (If it were 6.25 gallons, the efficiency would be even lower.) Something is definitely off here. I would really recommend figuring this out before your next batch.
Sounds like it. I haven't got the slightest idea now how to fix this. I have a few books that may help troubleshoot. I'm wondering now what my gravity will be before fermenting. Maybe I took the reading wrong or something.
Well, I ended up with a whopping 4.5g in the fermenter. It appears as though I lost close to 1.5g in my 60 minute boil. I posted a question concerning this as well. OG is right at 1.071. That is what the recipe suggests and BS2 shows I should have had 1.069.
I am glad you hit your efficiency, and I bet your beer tastes great. My reco would have been that you can achieve a wonderful Belgian Blonde without the complexity of malts you've included - you probably could have got the same using just pilsner, munich, a bit of biscuit and a bit of sugar. Keeping the grain bill a bit simpler will allow esters and phenols from the yeast to shine through a bit more and may make the beer a bit more drinkable. Let us know how it turns out!
If you plug in his numbers, he somehow hit what the OG that Beersmith is apparently telling him, but nowhere near the efficiency OP says is dialed in (and entered in Beersmith). All's well that ends well, but something isn't adding up.
Yeah, he should have had 1.069 WITHOUT the vienna. OP, are you entering your pre-boil size in the "batch size" box? that should be the final batch size ie 5 gals. Maybe you can screen shot that sucker and post, we can help figure it out.
