beersmith pros, i gotta question

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

lpdb185

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
426
Reaction score
0
Location
Jackson
i've entered my dunkelweizen recipe into beersmith to the best of my ability. with my keggle and 48qt mash tun, the software has my boil volume estimated at 6.63gal. for the mash, however, it is telling me this:

Mash Ingredients
Step: Add 12.66 qt of water at 167.8 F
60 min - Hold mash at 152.0 F for 60 min
-- Drain Mash Tun
-- Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge with 4.88 gal of 168.0 F water.
-- Add water to achieve boil volume of 6.63 gal
-- Estimated Pre-boil Gravity is: 1.054 SG with all grains/extracts added


with a grain absorption rate of .125gal/lb, a MLT deadspace of 1qt, and a 4.88gal sparge, this would put me at 7.4gal pre-boil volume instead of 6.63, right?

is there something i'm not accounting for, or something i'm doing wrong?
i am assuming that there is no grain absorption or dead space loss with the sparge. should i just ignore beersmith and figure it manually by adding 1.25qt/lb for mash in and then just add the difference for the sparge?
 
That looks about right to me. Assuming you've got around 10 or 11 pounds of grain in the recipe, you will have over a gallon of absorbtion, and your total liquid additions is only about 8 gallons.
 
sorry, wasn't sure if this was more of a mash question or a software question.

the recipe has 10.13lbs of grain. i was accounting for 12.5% grain absorpstion, but still coming up nearly a gallon over the projected pre-boil volume. would it help if i posted the entire beersmith brewsheet?
 
once again, i prove myself ignorant in the science of mathematics. well, it was all in vein anyway. just got through brewing and it was an absolute disaster! my grain absorption was 15%, boiloff rate was 20% (???), and my mash temps were as crazy as a crackhead after winning the lottery.

thanks anyway.
 
once again, i prove myself ignorant in the science of mathematics. well, it was all in vein anyway. just got through brewing and it was an absolute disaster! my grain absorption was 15%, boiloff rate was 20% (???), and my mash temps were as crazy as a crackhead after winning the lottery.

thanks anyway.

Don't sweat it brother. Truth is, I know this **** in my sleep.

But I still tend to oversparge with an extra gallon of water 50% of the time.
 
I really love the beersmith software, but I have never went by there water volumes for batch sparging. I always just heat up extra water in my HLT, then measure my first runnings. Since I know what I want my pre-boil volume to be, I just subtract my first runnings. Then I split the difference between my 2 batch sparges and always hit my pre-boil volume. I prob should have more faith in the software. But it is so simple to measure my runnings since I pour it into a ale pale to transfer to my kettle anyways.
 
My troubles are that I use neither infusion or set mash water volumes so, after I strike I have to deduct that amount from my total pre-boil to determine sparge volume to target pre-boil.

Apparently I can;t subtract for crap because I am always off.
 
Back
Top