Beersmith: Choosing my Mash

[PaulTheGhost]

When you choose your mash profile, it gives you three options for a single infusion, light body:

single infusion, light body
single infusion, light body, batch sparge
single infusion, light body, no mash out

Which option should I choose if I am batch sparging AND not mashing out? (mashing in a cooler).

Brewing a SMaSH pale ale with 11 pounds of vienna and 3 oz. of Nelson Sauvin.

 

[Pappers_]

The middle one - "single infusion, light body, batch sparge"

 

[INWarner413]

How do you know how much water to batch sparge with? BeerSmith only gives you the amount to mash in.

 

[Begin2Brew]

How do you know how much water to batch sparge with? BeerSmith only gives you the amount to mash in.

Collect your first runnings and subtract that from your pre-boil volume. Whatever you need in volume is what you need to sparge with.

Let's say you boil off 1 gallon an hour, and you want 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. You would need 6.5 gallons pre-boil. So if you get 4 gallons on your first runnings then you need to sparge with 2.5 gallons. 4+2.5=6.5

 

[stevo155]

How do you know how much water to batch sparge with? BeerSmith only gives you the amount to mash in.

Print the Brewsheet...it will tell you the sparge water amount.

 

[FDillon00]

How do you know how much water to batch sparge with? BeerSmith only gives you the amount to mash in.

Beer Smith does tell you how much to sparge with, provided you have set up your equipment profile correctly and you look at the "brew sheet" not the "recipe"

 

[INWarner413]

Ahh - thanks for the replies. I've never actually looked at the brew sheet. That helps a freaking ton!

 

[PaulTheGhost]

Thanks for the input, guys.

 

[Docjowles]

I have a related question so I figured I'd bump this. On my last brew I decided to play around with a thinner mash (saison, wanted it to finish dry as can be). I set BeerSmith to 1.5 quarts/lb and after mashing in, my temp was WAY high, like 8 degrees off. Has anyone else experienced BeerSmith being wrong when working with a pretty thin mash? It has been 100% correct on my past brews which were more like 1.25 or 1.3 qt/lb.

Edit: It was also a smallish grain bill, I want to say 11lbs for a 5 gallon batch. So maybe that compounded the problem.

 

[Yooper]

I have a related question so I figured I'd bump this. On my last brew I decided to play around with a thinner mash (saison, wanted it to finish dry as can be). I set BeerSmith to 1.5 quarts/lb and after mashing in, my temp was WAY high, like 8 degrees off. Has anyone else experienced BeerSmith being wrong when working with a pretty thin mash? It has been 100% correct on my past brews which were more like 1.25 or 1.3 qt/lb.

Edit: It was also a smallish grain bill, I want to say 11lbs for a 5 gallon batch. So maybe that compounded the problem.

No, I have gone from 1 quart/pound to 2 quarts/pound and Beersmith is always correct. Did you click the "adjust temps for equipment" box?

 

[Docjowles]

At work now so I can't confirm. But I always go with whichever setting skips the pre-heat step and just uses hotter strike water. Could always just be user error, of course

 

[Golddiggie]

No, I have gone from 1 quart/pound to 2 quarts/pound and Beersmith is always correct. Did you click the "adjust temps for equipment" box?

+5 on that... You can also set the temp of the grain and mash tun within the parameters... If you do that, BeerSmith will adjust the temps so that you hit your target (or get damned close to it)...

BTW, I've been using the "single infusion, XXX body, no mash out" profiles so far with really good results... It's not for everything, just about 95% of the time.