Beer Smith sparge details

I'm working on my first AG brew ( Stone Pale Ale clone) and am having a hard time understanding the sparge steps its listing. Under the "Mash Profile" I have selected "Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge".

Mash In- Add 14.45qt water at 171.6F

My steep temp is 156 for 45 min. Its telling me to "Batch sparge with 4 steps (Drain mash tun, 1.60gal, 1.60gal, 1.60gal) of 168".

I've educated myself using this site and Youtube, and have not seen or heard of three separate sparges. If this is correct, would I just sparge, stir, drain with each 1.60gal? Could I do just one sparge at 168 with 4.8 gal or is the software picking up something that I'm not noticing?

I think you can adjust the batch sparge volume percentage from 100% to what ever you want. Look into that. I don't have it in front of me. I'll check when I get home.

mux said:

I think you can adjust the batch sparge volume percentage from 100% to what ever you want. Look into that. I don't have it in front of me. I'll check when I get home.

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I don't have BeerSmith in front of me either, but it sounds like you told it to use even size batch sparges, so it calculated the fewest number you could do given your mash tun size. Try increasing the percentage of the tun that you want to use. Of course, you also want to make sure you have your tun volume set correctly.

Greyhound said:

I don't have BeerSmith in front of me either, but it sounds like you told it to use even size batch sparges, so it calculated the fewest number you could do given your mash tun size. Try increasing the percentage of the tun that you want to use. Of course, you also want to make sure you have your tun volume set correctly.

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Sounds good, I'll diddle with it some more based on this information.

mux said:

I think you can adjust the batch sparge volume percentage from 100% to what ever you want. Look into that. I don't have it in front of me. I'll check when I get home.

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I'll go that route, thank you for giving me something to work with.

Check the option that says "Batch sparge using batches that fill %"

Also, it will serve you greatly to setup your own equipment profile instead of just using the default.

I would also suggest changing it to "medium body" as 156 is probably not something I'd mash most APAs at- more like 152 or 153. You might want some body, but at 156, the beer might feel "thick" and not be a good APA.

maffewl said:

Check the option that says "Batch sparge using batches that fill %"

Also, it will serve you greatly to setup your own equipment profile instead of just using the default.

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That actually helped, I believe I'm getting closer as a result.

Ok, so after setting up equipment profile and changing to medium body I have the following.

Mash In- 14.46 quarts @ 163.7
Batch sparge with 2 steps... (0.75gal, 2.97gal) of 168 degrees.

I'm assuming I could just split this batch with 1.85 gallons in each sparge and get the same effect? Regardless I appreciate all the help and replies.

akajdg said:

I'm assuming I could just split this batch with 1.85 gallons in each sparge and get the same effect? Regardless I appreciate all the help and replies.

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I think there is an option for "sparge with equal sized batches " or something like that to give you even volumes.

You also need to check the setting for "Drain the mash tun before starting to batch sparge"