sparge water show minus
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From the description, this sounds like it's a BeerSmith question?
A negative number means that you've asked BeerSmith to equalize some part of the sparge, elsewhere in the mash. Somehow, from water additions or splitting sparge into equal batches, you're using more water than you need for the pre-boil volume you've specified.
Some possible solutions:
1) make sure the equipment profile is set to "calculate boil volume"
2) If batch sparging, unclick the "use equal batch size" box.
3) check to make sure that all water additions don't equal more than your pre-boil volume in the Vols tab. You may have to tighten up liquor to grist ratios, or make temperature steps closer together.
This is a different question and should have its own thread.
Each measures sugar extraction, but at different points.
Mash Efficiency is the percentage of total possible sugar that you get into the kettle.
Brewhouse Efficiency (BHE) is the percentage of total possible sugar that you get into the fermenter.
The losses to trub, chiller and perhaps kettle dead space, all represent sugar that never gets to the fermenter. Losses like trub may change from recipe to recipe. Perhaps some more wort is lost to whirlpool hops. So, in order to always get the same volume, BHE takes those losses into account so you can adjust the recipe, if needed.
As you increase the loss to trub, the Mash Efficiency will rise as well. This is because if you tell BeerSmith that 75% of the total available sugar will be getting to your fermenter, the ONLY place that sugar can come from is by getting more from the grain in order to cover the increased volume.
Your question implies that you expect 75% mash efficiency. If you're making the batch volume and gravity measurement in the kettle, then set the loss to trub to zero.
If I have more strike and sparge water than previous recipe, can that lower my Mash Eff.?
Not in most cases.
Mash efficiency is the sum of two processes. The first is conversion efficiency, where you are successful in getting starches converted into sugar. The second is sparge efficiency, where you get the sugars successfully rinsed from the grain into the kettle.
Typically, your grain crush and mash temperature are going to play a more important role in conversion, than just water volume. A mash can be pretty diluted and still convert, just fine. What may suffer is sparge efficiency because the sugar doesn't rinse as readily in the remaining volume.
The main thing in BeerSmith is to record your "Actual" results in the proper fields. BeerSmith will then calculate efficiency for you, as found on the Fermentation page; "Measured Efficiency."
If you've made a beer before and know the pre-fermentation volume and gravity, put that recipe into BeerSmith along with your measured results. That will be your actual BHE to use in your equipment profile.
Mash efficiency is the sum of two processes. The first is conversion efficiency, where you are successful in getting starches converted into sugar. The second is sparge efficiency, where you get the sugars successfully rinsed from the grain into the kettle.
Typically, your grain crush and mash temperature are going to play a more important role in conversion, than just water volume. A mash can be pretty diluted and still convert, just fine. What may suffer is sparge efficiency because the sugar doesn't rinse as readily in the remaining volume.
The main thing in BeerSmith is to record your "Actual" results in the proper fields. BeerSmith will then calculate efficiency for you, as found on the Fermentation page; "Measured Efficiency."
If you've made a beer before and know the pre-fermentation volume and gravity, put that recipe into BeerSmith along with your measured results. That will be your actual BHE to use in your equipment profile.
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