First all grain, help with beersmith and volumes

Hello,

After brewing a few extract beers, my wife and I have decided to move to all grain. We have a 15 gallon Keggle as our BP and a 10gal cooler MT. Will be in a 6.5gal glass carboy for primary with blow off. A couple of weeks ago, we ran a gas line to the garage and converted our setup to natural gas, and purchased a heavy duty stand, burner and the keggle, so looking forward to brew day this weekend!

We are going to be doing an IPA. Here is the recipe and the ingredients we have purchased. (The hop alphas are a little off what the original recipe called for)

13 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row)
12.0 oz Munich Malt
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L

1.00 oz Horizon [11.20 %] orig recipe called for 13% - Boil 60.0 min
1.00 oz Centennial [12.50 %] original recipe called for 9% - Boil 10.0
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %]original recipe called for 12% - Boil 5.0 min
1.00 oz Amarillo Gold [10.90 %] original recipe called for 9% - Boil 0.0
2.5 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)
1.00 oz Cascade [8.00 %] - Dry Hop

First question, should I change/add some hops at any point since our alpa's are off?

Also, this is our first time using beersmith, which is slightly confusing us. Trying to figure out what we are entering right/wrong.

After entering the recipe in as above, with stainless 15gal kegs as equip, 6.0 gal batch size, 70% eff, and 60min boil, I am getting: est OG of 1.063, est FG or 1.013, IBU's 50.6, Color 6.3, and ABV 6.6%

The water volumes is the confusing part. Recipe says it makes 6 gallons fermenting. If I enter in a 6gal batch size, it says I need a pre-boil volume of 9.28gal, and will end up with 7.28gal post boil. I just need to know what the correct mash and sparge volumes would be...

Also, is there a way to alter the mash temps? I put in 62 degrees for our grain and MT temp. Recipe calls for up to 90min at 149. So where would I enter that, so I can get the right strike temp and whatnot?

And what method should I be choosing when I choose the mash, as there are so many to choose from? We will be fly sparging.

Ok... I think that's it for now...

Thanks for any input!!!

There are alot of questions in there.

You can make changes to the IBU of the beer by either adding to the 60 minute addition, don't worry about the late hop additions. Run it through beersmith and see what it has to say for you.

As to water volume, beersmith calculates water additions by accounting for loss in the system. In the equipment profile for the 15gal keg is will add volume to account for the volume that is left behind in the deadspace of the mash tun and the boiling kettle. These can be refined based upon your actual equipment. As 7.28 post boil, means that it expects you to boil off 2 gallons and lose 1.28 gallons after the boil. I can't remember off hand if Beersmith accounts for "trub" loss in the ferementor too.

Volumes and mash temps can be calculated by choosing the Mash Profile from within the recipe view. There it will tell you what the strike temp, the rest temp and the sparge temp should be. It will also show your volumes, and all of these can be adjusted there. If your going to adjust them, it is best to have selected a mash profile first and then make changes if you want.

You mash method will depend on what your ultimate goal is, i.e how much body you want.. Your probably looking for a single infusion, fly sparge, with either a medium or light body.

Assuming that you are using the newest version of Beersmith, you can make changes to your mash profile from within the recipe view by slecting one of the taps at the top of the recipe (not the top of the program).

Hope that helps, beersmith can be confusing when your first getting the hang of it, if only because it is very customizable.

Matt

I have found that using more than 1 lbs of caramel/crystal malt in a 5 gal batch really leaves the beer on the sweet side. I'm currently drinking an APA I made using 1.5 lbs of Caramel and it's too sweet IMHO. For an IPA I think true to style would be on the drier side, I would use no more than 1 lbs of Caramel/crystal malt.

Here's a quick and dirty; Water for mash 1.1-1.2 qts per lb, Sparge water = batch size.

15Lbs grain = 4.5 gallons, Sparge = 6 gallons
Grains will absorb about 1.8 gallons

So about 8.7 gallons pre-boil. BeerSmith was within 1/2 gallon of that so that might be in trub lose or some other figure in your equipment profile.

BeerSmith does do trub losses, but in my experience (all BIAB) it underestimates the amount total water needed.

FWIW I usually end up adding 1/2 gallon to total for a 6 gallon brew.

I have a similar setup to you, and had issues with how much water to use.
you can change the amount of water, by adjusting your boiloff. I think that it was originally set to 9%, and i was ending up with less Wort than i should have, so i increased it to 13% and i'm getting a little more than i need, but not all that much, and my OG have been very close.
Boiloff is something you will need to dial in. Just another piece of advice, dont adjust your boil, adjust your boiloff percentage. When i was ending up with too little wort i started making my boils not as rolling as they should be, ended up with DMS.
Hope all goes well, have fun!