Need help setting up a mash profile in beersmith

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emccarthy25

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I'm trying to set up a mash profile in beersmith2 and really have no idea what I'm doing :drunk:

Can anyone help me with this?

I plan on doing partial volume BIAB brews. I have a 20qt pot, so figure I can't really boil more than 3.5 gallons at a time.
My thoughts are to mash with 1 quart per lb. of grain, and sparge with 1.25 quarts per lb. I'm not sure if this is reasonable thinking, or if I am limiting myself somehow by looking at it this way, but besides the large boil pot I have two other pots available that each hold a maximum of about 6 quarts(just about to the brim).

I was considering using one of the smaller pots to mash in and the other to heat sparge water.

Not sure what other information might be needed to help with setting this up.

Thanks:mug:
 
Since no one else has responded, I will try and help. One of the problems is that I am not really sure what it is your trying to do. BIAB is usually a no sparge method. There are a lot of people that will incorporate a psudo sparge into the method by dunking their grain in pre-heated water, or by pouring the water over the grain after it has been pulled from the kettle. It seems to me that what your are describing is closer to batch sparge, and that may help you get it figured out in beersmith.

I am not sure how you will be able to mash in a 6 quart pot. That is a gallon and a half of water without any grain in it. If I was you, I would be performing a partial mash in the 20gt pot, followed by a partial boil supplemented with DME near the end of the boil. Then topping that off to bring it to five gallons in the fermentor. (Actually if I was you I would be getting a bigger pot, but I appreciate that is not what you asked about)
 
I agree with meschaefer. I started out with a setup like this. I had a 2.25 gal pot and a 1 gal pot. I used the 2.25 for the starch conversion and did a mash out tea bag in the 1 gal pot. Then I added the two worts toghether. Since I was not working with a system beersmith was set up to handle I took a OG reading and then added DME to bring the OG up to what I wanted.

Measure and tinker and you should be ok.

Also, there is a setting in the equipment or the recipe where you add how much top off water you need to add the the primary. Adding that info should help you estimate your final product.
 
Thanks for the replies, guys, I appreciate it. My plan is to do incorperate malt extract in my batches since I can't do full volume boils. Basically, my goal with beersmith is to have some way to be consistent with my brewing. I've done 4 beers all with the mr beer fermenter(3 using mr beer kits) and I'm graduating to 5 gallon batches.

I guess I don't really appreciate the volume needed to mash, and was thinking the smaller pots would be ok for 4 pounds of grain or so, but that would only really work for a session beer I suppose(it would be accompanied by 3 lbs or so of dme)

With this type of brewing, should I worry at all about pre boil gravity?

Oh, and I will definitly check out that link. Thanks again :)
 
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