Configuring Beersmith for my Equipment

Good Morning!

I'm planning a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale Clone (All Grain) for this weekend in Beersmith, and I realize ... I have no idea how closely BeerSmith is configured for my equipment. The software is extremely capable of telling me all sorts of fine details about my brews, but I have no idea if any of those numbers will be accurate to my equipment.

I have a 3 vessel system, a 10 gallon boil pot and two 5 gallon coolers. My mash tun has the braided SS strainer (so I've stated 0.25 of dead space). I want to collect 5.5 gallons of wort in my primary fermenter. I do a fly sparge.

What do you think is important to configure in Beersmith and what isn't?

I've had to tweak my boil rate and racking loss volumes to end up with the right batch volume. That's just something you'll have to brew a few batches to dial in. Fly sparging should be easier to dial in. I batch sparge. Just keep track of your runnings volumes and gravities, and post-boil volumes and gravities, and that should be all you need.

The first time I used BS I just used the defaults for one of the preloaded set ups, each batch I made I took good notes and measurements of volumes and losses and then re-configured for my system set up.

You really have to brew a few batches to get the software dialed in just like learning how your system works to dial it in. Once you get that the software does a great job!

Good luck. I'm still not sure I got mine set right! But you will have to set up a few things that you know, and brew a few batches, keeping close notes on everything, so you can tweak it in. Some of it you just can't tell until you brew on it a few times.

There are a few threads on the BS website forums that can also help you dig into the settings.