BeerSmith 2 Sparge Question

[RichBrewer]

Is there a way to specify gallons per pound for sparge water in BeerSmith? I've used Promash for years but the computer it was installed on died a few years ago. I recently downloaded BeerSmith 2. It looks like a great program but I am having one issue with it. I'm doing a partial mash of 5 1/8 pounds of grain. I've always figured 1/2 gallon per pound of grain for the sparge water volume which equates to about 2 1/2 gallons. BeerSmith is showing 2 gallons which is approximately .4 gallons per pound.

I haven't brewed in about five years so maybe things have changed. Or, maybe I have forgotten everything I ever learned about homebrewing...

 

[jflongo]

Click on the Mash Button.

Then double click on your Mash In line, that will pop up a Mash Step window, and there you can see the Water/Grain Ratio. Hope that helps.

 

[RichBrewer]

Click on the Mash Button.

Then double click on your Mash In line, that will pop up a Mash Step window, and there you can see the Water/Grain Ratio. Hope that helps.

I see that but isn't that the water/grain ratio for the mash-in?

 

[jflongo]

I see that but isn't that the water/grain ratio for the mash-in?

As you change your ratio for mashin, you will see the sparge amount will adjust as well. Not sure if that is what you need.

 

[LovesIPA]

I've never seen sparge water expressed in gallons per pound of grain. Usually you sparge until you collect your target boil volume.

 

[RichBrewer]

I've never seen sparge water expressed in gallons per pound of grain. Usually you sparge until you collect your target boil volume.

Interesting. I think I have been out of the hobby for too long! I learned the old school way from Charlie Papazian's book- 1 1/2 quart per pound for the mash and 1/2 gallon per pound for the sparge. I'll have to play with it more when I get time. (It being Brewsmith...)

 

[jflongo]

Beersmith uses quarts per pound. If you go to Tools->Options click on Units. There is a place for Mash Vol Units, where you can change that.

 

[Oginme]

BeerSmith calculates the amount of water you need pre-boil based upon your equipment profile and inputs. It then uses the mash volume minus the water absorption of the grain and calculates the sparge as the difference in volume needed to achieve the pre-boil volume.

As LovesIPA mentioned above, if you are fly sparging you just continue until you meet your desired pre-boil volume. It really only comes to play if you are doing a batch sparge.

 

[LovesIPA]

Interesting. I think I have been out of the hobby for too long! I learned the old school way from Charlie Papazian's book- 1 1/2 quart per pound for the mash and 1/2 gallon per pound for the sparge. I'll have to play with it more when I get time. (It being Brewsmith...)

What you'll need to do first is set up your equipment profile. Set your dead space losses and boil off volume. BeerSmith wants to express that as a %, which doesn't make sense, so I always set mine as a set volume. There is a good video on the BeerSmith site that walks you through how to do all this.