Beersmith Batch Sparge question

I have come to the conclusion that there is something wrong with me or Beersmith (most likely me). I have Beersmith setup for single batch sparges. I am trying to figure out why the mash volume and batch sparge volume are not the same volumes. I have Batch Sparge using Batches that fill, 100%, Use equal sized batches and Drain mash tun before sparging all checked. I brewed a beer this Saturday which told me to at 11.03 quarts which is 2.75 gallons but the batch sparge volume was 5.53 gallons ? why are these so far off ? Or at least why isnt the mash higher than the sparge to account for grain absorption.

What am I missing ?

Thanks in advance.

It's your water to grain ratio. I think beersmith defaults at 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. You can adjust it if you'd like. So the less grain in your recipe the less mash water is needed. If you did equal parts mash & sparge volumes....your mash would most likely be to thin. I typicall use 1.5qt/lb.

WhiteEagle1 said:

It's your water to grain ratio. I think beersmith defaults at 1.25 quarts per pound of grain. You can adjust it if you'd like. So the less grain in your recipe the less mash water is needed. If you did equal parts mash & sparge volumes....your mash would most likely be to thin. I typicall use 1.5qt/lb.

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Ahh, that makes sense because this was a VERY small grain bill and a 90 minute boil. Thanks. I knew it was just me.

It wasn't totally you, it was at least partly Beersmith for making batch sparging more difficult than it should be. I know how to work it but I still think that if you click the equal size button it should do it for you rather than having to go into the first infusion and manually change the water to grain ratio.

The equal size calculation is only factoring in the sparge part so if you limit it to one sparge, it effectively has nothing to equalize. I could see utility in a checkbox for "force all runoff to be equal volume" where it would modify the mash ratio on the fly. However, I think there is a general reluctance since so many think mash ratio has to be just so.