Question about Beersmith

Heres my recipe from the beersmith program. When I batch sparge before I got the program I used the 1.25 quarts per pound of grain for both the mash and the sparge. Is beersmith telling me I need 11.56 quarts of water for the mash and 5.54 gallons for sparging? Its double what I would use but I think it adds up for the small grain bill. I never had a grain bill for 5 gal under 12.5 lbs



Blonde Ale


Type: All Grain
Date: 5/30/2008
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.82 gal
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Nicks set up
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 86.49 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
8.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 5.41 %
4.0 oz Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.70 %
0.50 oz Pearle [8.00 %] (60 min) Hops 14.5 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (10 min) Hops 3.9 IBU
0.50 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
1 Pkgs American Ale (Wyeast Labs #1056) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.010 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.005 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.96 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 0.65 %
Bitterness: 18.5 IBU Calories: 43 cal/pint
Est Color: 5.6 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Total Grain Weight: 9.25 lb
Sparge Water: 5.54 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 168.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH

Single Infusion, Full Body, Batch Sparge Step Time Name Description Step Temp
45 min Mash In Add 11.56 qt of water at 174.6 F 158.0 F



Mash Notes: Simple single infusion mash for use with most modern well modified grains (about 95% of the time).
Carbonation and Storage

Carbonation Type: Corn Sugar Volumes of CO2: 2.4
Pressure/Weight: 3.8 oz Carbonation Used: -
Keg/Bottling Temperature: 60.0 F Age for: 28.0 days
Storage Temperature: 52.0 F

So, you are saying that prior to using beersmith, you would have only used +/- 3 gallons to mash in and 3 gallons to sparge with? How do you achieve your desired boil volume of 6.8 gallons with only 6 gallons of water? What about grain absorbtion and boil-off? 9 lbs of grain will absorb +/- 2 gallons of water and boil off will be somewhere around 1 gallon. So to end up with 5 gallons of finished beer, you need +/- 8 gallons of water total (mash+sparge).

ScoutMan said:

So, you are saying that prior to using beersmith, you would have only used +/- 3 gallons to mash in and 3 gallons to sparge with? How do you achieve your desired boil volume of 6.8 gallons with only 6 gallons of water? What about grain absorbtion and boil-off? 9 lbs of grain will absorb +/- 2 gallons of water and boil off will be somewhere around 1 gallon. So to end up with 5 gallons of finished beer, you need +/- 8 gallons of water total (mash+sparge).

Click to expand...

My 1.25 qt per pound does not work for this small of a grain bill. Like I said I never brewed a batch of beer 5 gal that didn't have less than 12.5 pounds. I guess what I'm trying to say is I thought that the mash volume and the sparge volume were always the same. So if I need a boil volume of 6.82 gal I would use 3.41 gal for mash and 3.41 for sparge. This must not be true. Is it best to use a great volume to sparge?

You can certainly do it equally, it just changes the thickness of the mash, which has some impact on fermentability. In your equation 3.41 Mash+3.41 Sparge = 6.82 boil, you haven't accounted for grain absorbtion.
Lets say that your making a bigger 5 gal batch, like 15lb grain bill. Your normal method would be to mash in with 4.7 gallon and sparge with 4.7 gallons. You get a total of 9.4 gallons, less +/- 2.4 gallons for grain absorbtion = 7 gallons boil volume.
You can still use your method with smaller grain bills, just adjust for absorbtion and increased fermentability (Due to a thinner mash).
What type of efficiency are you getting with this method? (seems like you would be under sparging on big grain bills and leaving lots of sugars behind)

Link to another mash/sparge calculator http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php