beersmith equipment profiles, I can't just say what my pots are?

[moinkyschmoink]

So I went ahead and bought beersmith 2 thinking it would be a great help with evaporation loss and absorption since I missed my last 10 gallon batch by 2 1/2 gallons. I am really struggling with trying to tell it what my equipment is so it can do some math for me.
I currently have a 20 gallon aluminum pot with false bottom I mash in that is direct fired with a kab6 burner. Usually I will raise the water temp to 125°F for a protein rest and the step mash (two sacc temps on my ipa, 1 for everything else) through sacc rest and 170° mash out. I have a 5 gallon pot that I can heat water in to sparge with. Sort of a hybrid biab/full mash. From there I go to a 15 gallon stainless pot to boil with another kab6.
What I am struggling with is there is no where (that I can find) to input measurements of my pots and the material they are made from. Instead it is asking me mash tun volume and weight? Do they mean grain weight or actual weight of the pot? And the boiler I can get to even let me put 15 gallons. Am I missing something here? I really hope so. Thought this was supposed to just ask what pots I have and overlay a recipe into what I have with whatever method.
Anybody using beer smith 2 that can help, you rock. Beersmith's help button, like most help buttons, makes me want to kill kittens. Just says "put what this value is here",WHAT! lol goddammit!!!

 

[ArcaneXor]

Yes, enter the volume, weight of the tun w/ false bottom (no grains), and the specific heat matching the mash tun material (0.215 for Aluminum). Then do a few batches and mess with those numbers until the software predictions match your observations. Happiness will ensue.

 

[RandomBeerGuy]

Yes your right, its asking for the wieght of the equipment, It calculates your grain weight when you build the recipe. Not sure about why you can't type in 15 gallons for your kettle. It takes some time to dial in your equipment in BS.

 

[moinkyschmoink]

Thanks guys. I guess I was hoping for it to ask pot dimensions and what the materials are (stainless, aluminum, cooler, whatever...), but from what you are saying is kind of guess/measure everything till beersmith lines up with what I'm using? So really it's not any help with boil off and hop absorption and I still need to guess that? Let the good times roll!

 

[Gameface]

Thanks guys. I guess I was hoping for it to ask pot dimensions and what the materials are (stainless, aluminum, cooler, whatever...), but from what you are saying is kind of guess/measure everything till beersmith lines up with what I'm using? So really it's not any help with boil off and hop absorption and I still need to guess that? Let the good times roll!

Well, after a few brews it's not a guess anymore. You say you were 2.5 gallons short so you know you had 2.5 gallons more evaporation (or loss to equipment) than you were expecting so factor that in and you should be pretty darn close.