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robange

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Here is my equipment:
7 gallon glass carboys (they may actually be 6.5)
50 liter SS Heineken keg for boiler (roughly 13.5 gallons)
5 gallon rubbermaid Mash Tun

My goal is to make 6.5 gallon batches. I am having trouble setting this up in BeerSmith 2. If I set the equipment profile to 6.5 gallons in the fermenter batch volume, it changes the boil volume to 5.83. Anyone have this same equipment or know enough to help. Thnx
 
Something isn't set right. I would just start with the stock profile for a 12.5 gallon kettle and 10 gallon mash tun. Then update the capacities to match your gear and save as a different profile.
 
Equipment Profile: Rob 15 Gal SS Keg / 5 Gal MT
Batch Size: 6.50 gal

i did what you said, does this look right?


Mash Tun Volume: 5.00 gal
Mash Tun Weight: 5 lbs
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.30
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.80 gal

Boil Size: 8.93 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Evaporation Rate: 12.7 %
Calculate Boil Size: TRUE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 gal
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 1.00 gal
Cooling Loss: 4.00
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 gal
 
Equipment Profile: Rob 15 Gal SS Keg / 5 Gal MT
Batch Size: 6.50 gal

i did what you said, does this look right?


Mash Tun Volume: 5.00 gal
Mash Tun Weight: 5 lbs
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.30
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.80 gal

Boil Size: 8.93 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Evaporation Rate: 12.7 %
Calculate Boil Size: TRUE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 gal
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 1.00 gal
Cooling Loss: 4.00
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 gal

I think 1 gal to trub/chiller loss is a lot and then its adding another 2/5th of a gallon for cooling loss. I think you might want to play around with those numbers. also boil off rate, have you done a 1 hour boil off with water to see what your rate it?

fill with 5 gallons, or 3 which ever you want, boil at the same amount you would when brewing and then measure after cooled how much you have boiled off. then input that number into BS. I dont' like using a % because well 12% of 20 gallons is not the same as 12% of 10 gallons so that seems kind of flawed to my mind.

-=Jason=-

EDIT: I just checked and it has me at 1 gallon loss to trub/chiller as well and my fermentor loss is .45 gallons hrm.....

i'd like to see what others have in those two spots. I don't think I leave a gallon behind, but I might will whats left in my tubing and in the botton of the keggle....it still seems high though.
 
I have not done that yet. I will head out to the garage today and do that. I've only done 4 batches so far but Im trying to fine tune so I can be consistent. thnx
 
also I dont see a way to take off the % and change it to a value instead. any ideas?
 
here is what I did and my results:

Measured out 5 gallons of water and boiled for 60 minutes.

Before cooling I measured 1.1 gallons lost

Cooled to 80 deg with wort chiller and recorded an additional loss of .29 gallons

Total loss = 1.39 gallons

The only thing left out of this process is the .17 gallons (22oz) lost in the Mash Tun to deadspace.

Beersmith still has the field for cooling loss greyed out and only updates if you adjust % which I set to 4.10% to achieve .29 gall Cooling loss.

Am I looking any better:


Equipment Profile: Rob 15 Gal SS Keg / 5 Gal MT
Batch Size: 6.50 gal

Mash Tun Volume: 5.00 gal
Mash Tun Weight: 5 lbs
Mash Tun Specific Heat: 0.30
Lauter Tun Deadspace: 0.80 gal

Boil Size: 8.15 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Evaporation Rate: 13.5 %
Calculate Boil Size: FALSE
Kettle Top Up Water: 0.00 gal
Hop Utilization Adjustment: 100.00 %

Trub/Chiller Loss: 0.25 gal
Cooling Loss: 4.10
Top Up Water into Fermenter: 0.00 gal

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
 
You want to take your measurements while the water is cool. Water expands when heated up and contracts when you cool it (unless you freeze it and then it expands again). That's why you loss rate was more after cooling. Anyway, I always take my measurements at pitching temp. This way you end up with your taget volume at your target temperature. As for adjusting the numbers in beersmith. If you are goind to brew the same batch size every time and boil about the same vigor everytime then calculate your loss as a percentage and plug it into beersmith. If you end up wanting to brew a different batch size, then do another boil off test and adjust the percentage in beersmith accordingly.
 
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