Strike water at 161.4F...That doesn't make sense. But for some reason Beersmith keeps on giving me that temp.
I think Beersmith could be improved in many different ways.
Beersmith just needs to be fine tuned and tweaked to match your system and processes.
The strike temp of 161.4 can perhaps be caused by 2 or 3 things that I can think of at the moment.
Look under the mash tab within your recipe. (Image #1 and Image #2)
Not having the little tab ADJUST FOR EQUIPMENT checked will make it default to 161.4 degrees for a strike temperature.
Check the mash profile that you are using to make sure that the desired mash temp is accurate. (Image #3)
The other place(s) to look are on the mash page and see what the "grain temperature" is set to. (Image #2)
Also, look in your equipment profile and make sure that it matches your equipment.
In summary, beersmith either thinks your grain temperature is higher than it really is OR
beersmith thinks that your equipment and grain is absorbing less heat from the mash water than it really is.
Simple solution is mentioned already.
Add water to cooler at around 175 to 180 and then stir until it gets down to strike temps, usually around 165 and then add grain and stir to get to mash temps.
Easy peesy.
As far as BeerSmith being perfect, it simply IS NOT right out of the gate. It takes several (MANY) brew day to fine tune and personalize it to your equipment profile. You have to teach the program how your brewday flows and give it the information it needs to guide you in your journey. It needs to know information about your cooler and the absorption of the cooler when you dump hot water in.
It needs to know what temperature your grains are at BEFORE you add hot water.
( without this information, BS has no way of accurately spitting out truly valuable information to help you.)
EDIT**- I went into Beersmith to check and verify what I had told you. Updated my post to reflect this.