Beer Smith Mash Volume Question

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daholl01

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Please forgive me I just purchased Beer Smith yesterday and am still trying to figure it out but I have a brew day tomorrow and need help with getting the mash volumes correct.

My batch size is 5 gallons, and my boil volume is 6.41 gallons (based off of my brewing equipment).

Now I am doing a single infusion mash (batch sparge) and Beer Smith is giving me:

11.93 qts. at 167.0 F for 60 min
6.68 qts. at 202.5 F for 10 min

This gives a total of 18.61 qts / 4 = 4.65 gal. I need 6.41 gal and this does not even account for the grain absorption, how do I do this correctly for my brew day tomorrow?
 
Did you set up the WATER NEEDED page? That should tell you how much sparge water you will need to hit your target preboil volume. It takes into account dead space in your lauter tun, grain absorption etc... It should provide you with all the number. The ONLY thing I dont like about this program is that it doesnt seem to tell you the TOTAL volume of your mash...
 
daholl01 said:
Please forgive me I just purchased Beer Smith yesterday and am still trying to figure it out but I have a brew day tomorrow and need help with getting the mash volumes correct.

My batch size is 5 gallons, and my boil volume is 6.41 gallons (based off of my brewing equipment).

Now I am doing a single infusion mash (batch sparge) and Beer Smith is giving me:

11.93 qts. at 167.0 F for 60 min
6.68 qts. at 202.5 F for 10 min

This gives a total of 18.61 qts / 4 = 4.65 gal. I need 6.41 gal and this does not even account for the grain absorption, how do I do this correctly for my brew day tomorrow?
Click to expand...

It only shows you your sparge water in the brewsheet views only
 
SuperiorBrew said:
It only shows you your sparge water in the brewsheet views only
Click to expand...

Bingo.

Thanks I am still trying to figure out all the things I can do with this program. Any good tutorials out there? Or did you guys just learn from monkeying around with it?
 
I learned mostly from monkeying around with it- but I think there IS a tutorial on their website. There is also a "help" when you open the program, but I didn't find that help particularly useful.
 
My first suggestion would be to click EVERYTHING and get familiar with what is there and get an idea of how to use it. Then virtual brew a few batches to work out the details.

The help file is okay but not very intuitive, IMO.
 
YooperBrew said:
I learned mostly from monkeying around with it- but I think there IS a tutorial on their website. There is also a "help" when you open the program, but I didn't find that help particularly useful.
Click to expand...

Yes, BeerSmith is a great program but I have noticed two things.

1) Much of the help documentation is set up to, "sell" the program.

2) The help documentation is almost designed for people that already know what to do.

It would help if the developers simply talked to and use language and examples for those of us that are new brewers.
 
There is a ton of info including a forum, blog, FAQ's & tutorials on their website and they also are a HBT member if you need to contact them with questions we cant answer for you here.
 
SuperiorBrew said:
There is a ton of info including a forum, blog, FAQ's & tutorials on their website and they also are a HBT member if you need to contact them with questions we cant answer for you here.
Click to expand...

Yes, and the tools you mention are getting better all the time. BeerSmith's developers are updating all the website materials, adding new support options and of course upgrading the software as well.
 
Gammon N Beer said:
Yes, and the tools you mention are getting better all the time. BeerSmith's developers are updating all the website materials, adding new support options and of course upgrading the software as well.
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I'm working on a set of screen-shot video tutorials that will be available on the web site in a few weeks. I think the video will do a better job explaining things than a whole bunch of help pages.

Cheers!
Brad (aka BeerSmith)
 
Looking forward to this video. I too am setting up this software for my first AG batch tomorrow and confused about mash volumes. I guess you just have to do a batch and fumble through to calibrate your system so you have the data to enter into the software. I just took the plunge today and purchased the software.
 

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