BeerBorg

Well, I have been investigating BS2, and with some great posts here (thanks Brewbirds and BB2), and watching an equipment profile set up video at BeerSmith, I think I have a good profile for the MB LBK and doing simple DME hop boils, and then diluting the result with water to fill the LBK (think 1.5 gallon boils with enough dme to hit the 1.044-ish for a hop boil and then adding the rest of the DME at flame out, then pouring this on a gallon of refrigerated water and topping off, if needed,to 2.5g)

So I present for your kind and thoughtful critique, the screen shot of my MB equipment profile. I think it is good, but others may have better ideas.

Monty

Looks OK to me, but I have a few questions:

1) You mention a 1.5-gallon boil and a 1-gallon top-up, but your profile calculation shows a boil of only 1.11 gal, which boils down to .78 gal. That requires 1.75 gal of top-up to reach your volume into the fermenter (2.5 gal). So, it looks like your description and your profile don't agree -- is that intentional?

2) Have you measured your boil-off rate? Just curious. If not, I'd highly recommend it. Yours seems okay...maybe a little high (mine is more like 31% per hour), but boiling a known amount of water for a known amount of time and measuring what's left will give you a accurate number to base all the rest of your volumes upon.

3) 2.5 gallons into the fermenter seems 'aggressive', like you'd be asking for overflows on most batches. 2.4 or 2.25 is generally about as far as most people push the LBK. Not saying you can't do 2.5; just saying it's a lot of wort and not much head space.

Crazy Climber wrote: 3) 2.5 gallons into the fermenter seems 'aggressive', like you'd be asking for overflows on most batches. 2.4 or 2.25 is generally about as far as most people push the LBK. Not saying you can't do 2.5; just saying it's a lot of wort and not much head space.

he makes a good point. every 2.5 gal i've made overflowes

I also say make sure you know your boil off rate.
Also, your volumes look low to me.
It looks as if you should have at least 2.25-2.75 gallons pre boil to get 1.5 or 1.25 post boil.
I ran into the same thing yesterday trying to figure a DME recipe with top off water!
I ended up going into the volumes tab on my recipe setup, and setting my values there, which BS
then transferred to the equipment setup for my chosen kettle for that recipe.

As far as what it's showing for a boil off rate, of course 1.11 gallons will boil off faster than say 5 gallons.
My boil off for a full 6.5-7 gal boil in my 7.5 gal aluminum kettle is 24.2%.
For a 3.5 gal boil, its almost 45%.

Good luck!

Crazy Climber wrote:Looks OK to me, but I have a few questions:

1) You mention a 1.5-gallon boil and a 1-gallon top-up, but your profile calculation shows a boil of only 1.11 gal, which boils down to .78 gal. That requires 1.75 gal of top-up to reach your volume into the fermenter (2.5 gal). So, it looks like your description and your profile don't agree -- is that intentional?

2) Have you measured your boil-off rate? Just curious. If not, I'd highly recommend it. Yours seems okay...maybe a little high (mine is more like 31% per hour), but boiling a known amount of water for a known amount of time and measuring what's left will give you a accurate number to base all the rest of your volumes upon.

3) 2.5 gallons into the fermenter seems 'aggressive', like you'd be asking for overflows on most batches. 2.4 or 2.25 is generally about as far as most people push the LBK. Not saying you can't do 2.5; just saying it's a lot of wort and not much head space.

1) Yikes! good catch. The beersmith profile is correct. My explanation was off.

2) No I have not measured the boil off yet, but I intend to.

3) Also a good point, I will go with 2.25 as the fermenter volume.

Thanks guys for the comments, just the advice I was looking for.

Monty

I do 2.5 gallon batches in the LBK regularly. Only a couple of times has the krausen reached to the level of the lid, but never flowed out. I recommend verifying the 2.5 gallon level in the LBK by filling with water using an accurate measuring cup. The graduations on the side of the LBK aren't accurate.

My graduations were pretty accurate, 8.5 quarts was right below the 8.5 qt line

You got lucky! 8.5 qts for me was well below the 8.5 qt line for one of mine. 2.5 gallons ended up being below the "Q" in Quart, instead of above it. I have 2 other LBKs that are empty right now and I haven't checked them yet.

Also another good point. I need to calibrate the measuring marks on the LBKs.

Monty