Using BeerSmith to formulate a no-boil Berliner weiss

Beersmith doesn't calculate a preboil target?

I just punched in some gravity numbers in Promash and got this. I would only pay attention to the preboil numbers and target the recipe for that. I have to assume BS has this capability.

Fake Berliner

A ProMash Recipe Report

BJCP Style and Style Guidelines
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17-A Sour Ale, Berliner Weisse

Min OG: 1.028 Max OG: 1.032
Min IBU: 3 Max IBU: 8
Min Clr: 2 Max Clr: 3 Color in SRM, Lovibond

Recipe Specifics
----------------

Batch Size (Gal): 5.00 Wort Size (Gal): 5.00
Total Grain (Lbs): 9.63
Anticipated OG: 1.050 Plato: 12.35
Anticipated SRM: 3.5
Anticipated IBU: 0.0
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70 %
Wort Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Pre-Boil Amounts
----------------

Evaporation Rate: 15.00 Percent Per Hour
Pre-Boil Wort Size: 5.88 Gal
Pre-Boil Gravity: 1.042 SG 10.56 Plato

 

I think what you are saying is that if you use less total water, you will get lower mash efficiency. That's true. But you probably need to tell BeerSmith what efficiency to expect. (I'm guessing a little, because I don't use BeerSmith.)

 

Change your equipment profile for a no boil. To do this, click on equipment copy your existing pot/profile and rename it no boil. Load no boil on recipe page under equipment then click on the little button next to equipment with a page and a red check on it and adjust boil parameters to 0 minute boil, 0 boil off and then adjust to your expected mash efficiency (60%, etc.). I just did all of this and my pre boil is whatever I want it to be based on the amount of grain I add and my efficiency.

 

You're making sense, but I don't think BeerSmith changes mash efficiency estimates for you. It would take a lot of data about your process, which BeerSmith probably does not have.

 

Thinking about it, and looking around in beer smith, Beersmith will not adjust to what you should expect.

BUT....

if you've done a good job of tracking your pre boil volumes and gravities immediately following sparging, but prior to boiling, you can have a pretty good idea of what your mash efficiency is. If you then tweak your equipment profile while looking at the mash tab to put in numbers to match your mash efficiency and adjust there. Pain in the ass, but when I've done this for no boil or very short boil times I've been pretty spot on.

For the next version of Brew Cipher can we expect a neural network analysis of all brewing process sheets to create a predictive algorithm for efficiency changes based on mash time/temp, diastatic power and boil length ?

 

Hmmm. Would you settle for automatic hop bill scaling, and combination grain bill/hop bill scaling? (Because that's what's coming in the next one.)