I just brewed my first batch using Beersmith, with some optimistic results. Based on the advice of many more knowledgeable brewers, I plugged in what I could and let the program do its thing. However, a few things stuck out to me:
- I use two 10-gal gatorade coolers for my mash and lautering tuns. However, there is only one field in the equipment profile to enter tun deadspace. I entered 0.5 gallons, which yielded me an extremely low fly sparge volume of only 3.37 gallons for a mash of 14.67 lb of grain and 4.59 gal of water. I've done some research and it seems that a few people have had this problem, but I didn't encounter a definitive solution. Estimated pre-boil volume was 5.7 gal, but I'd guess it was closer to 5.25 or less.
Would simply doubling the deadspace to 1 gal or more be the right course of action (to account for having two tuns), or is another factor at play that I should address first?
- The primary fermentation stage is only 4 days according to the program. This seems crazy short to me, especially for an estimated abv of 7.4%, but like I said, I sort of wanted to let the program do its thing as much as possible the first time around. Typically, I would keep in the primary for 2 weeks or more before moving to the secondary (I am dry hopping).
Is the duration of these steps calculated in the program based on my specific setup and recipe, or are these default values that I should tinker with? Also, the program suggested that I'd get a 0.010 drop in gravity between the secondary and bottling stages. Since I normally wait much longer to rack to the secondary, I usually don't take a gravity reading between these stages, and I want to make sure that I wouldn't be jumping the gun by racking too early.
Other info: Vol into the fermenter was 4.75 gal vs an estimated 5 gal on beersmith. Post boil gravity was 1.077, estimated final gravity is 1.020.
Sorry for the rambling post, and thank you in advance!
- I use two 10-gal gatorade coolers for my mash and lautering tuns. However, there is only one field in the equipment profile to enter tun deadspace. I entered 0.5 gallons, which yielded me an extremely low fly sparge volume of only 3.37 gallons for a mash of 14.67 lb of grain and 4.59 gal of water. I've done some research and it seems that a few people have had this problem, but I didn't encounter a definitive solution. Estimated pre-boil volume was 5.7 gal, but I'd guess it was closer to 5.25 or less.
Would simply doubling the deadspace to 1 gal or more be the right course of action (to account for having two tuns), or is another factor at play that I should address first?
- The primary fermentation stage is only 4 days according to the program. This seems crazy short to me, especially for an estimated abv of 7.4%, but like I said, I sort of wanted to let the program do its thing as much as possible the first time around. Typically, I would keep in the primary for 2 weeks or more before moving to the secondary (I am dry hopping).
Is the duration of these steps calculated in the program based on my specific setup and recipe, or are these default values that I should tinker with? Also, the program suggested that I'd get a 0.010 drop in gravity between the secondary and bottling stages. Since I normally wait much longer to rack to the secondary, I usually don't take a gravity reading between these stages, and I want to make sure that I wouldn't be jumping the gun by racking too early.
Other info: Vol into the fermenter was 4.75 gal vs an estimated 5 gal on beersmith. Post boil gravity was 1.077, estimated final gravity is 1.020.
Sorry for the rambling post, and thank you in advance!