beersmith mash vs sparge volumes

[aussie brewer]

Hi, im in the process of putting in the numbers for yoopers oatmeal stout and noticed the mash volume is way higher than the sparge volume? with all my lighter beers its always the other way around. For a 24L batch of stout im getting 24.3L mash water and 15.8L sparge water. Does this look ok? cheers brewers!

 

[day_trippr]

It isn't necessary to follow strike and sparge volume guidance. Use whatever suits your equipment...

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

I don't know the recipe, but mash and sparge water volumes are regular variables, depending on one's brewing system and preferences.
When using a water to grain ratio of around 1.5 quarts per pound of grist, I typically use about half the total water needed for the mash. The remainder, close to the other half of the volume is used for sparging. After lautering I batch sparge 2x using roughly equal volumes. It's not critical.

BIAB brewers, on the other hand, typically don't sparge at all or not very much. So they use pretty much all the water in the mash, a (near) full volume mash.

 

[aussie brewer]

It isn't necessary to follow strike and sparge volume guidance. Use whatever suits your equipment...

Cheers!

would that throw out the mash temp estimate?

 

[Oginme]

You can adjust the mash profile to accommodate your process and how you want to operate it by altering the initial infusion volume or water to grain ratio (which will do the same thing). You should not constrain yourself based upon the stock profiles but adjust them to suit your brewing style and equipment. When you do this, the program will calculate the strike temperatures based upon what you have entered.

 

[IslandLizard]

would that throw out the mash temp estimate?

The recipe's mash temp itself is important, as it determines the various sugar and dextrin ratios in your resulting wort composition. That in turn influences wort fermentability, resulting sweetness, body, etc. The mash water volume (water to grain ratio) can also affect the wort composition.
The temp of your strike water should be calculated to arrive at the right mash temp after stirring the mash before you put the lid on.

Strike water temp in a recipe is rather useless information, as it varies due to the mash tun's heat absorption, heat loss, and a slew of other factors.

 

[kh54s10]

The recipe's mash temp itself is important, as it determines the various sugar and dextrin ratios in your resulting wort composition. That in turn influences wort fermentability, resulting sweetness, body, etc. The mash water volume (water to grain ratio) can also affect the wort composition.
The temp of your strike water should be calculated to arrive at the right mash temp after stirring the mash before you put the lid on.

Strike water temp in a recipe is rather useless information, as it varies due to the mash tun's heat absorption, heat loss, and a slew of other factors.

I always run a recipe thought Beersmith. Most recipe builders would work. It takes the input and gives a target strike water temperature.

If you are using the same mash tun every time, You set those parameters in Beersmith. The the Strike water temperature calculation it quite accurate. It will vary a little with ambient temperature, grain temperature, and pre-heating or not pre-heating your mash tun.

My mash temperature is almost always within a couple of degrees of Beersmith's calculation.

 

[aussie brewer]

I always run a recipe thought Beersmith. Most recipe builders would work. It takes the input and gives a target strike water temperature.

If you are using the same mash tun every time, You set those parameters in Beersmith. The the Strike water temperature calculation it quite accurate. It will vary a little with ambient temperature, grain temperature, and pre-heating or not pre-heating your mash tun.

My mash temperature is almost always within a couple of degrees of Beersmith's calculation.

the last 10 batches have been within 2C and often dead on. Im happy with beersmiths strike water temp

 

[IslandLizard]

the last 10 batches have been within 2C and often dead on. Im happy with beersmiths strike water temp

That's right, but it's only good for your setup/system! No-one else's.

If you were to provide the strike temp with your recipe when you post or share with another brewer, it's totally meaningless. Or worse, if they don't know enough about mashing (and how it affects other brewing) processes, it's even deceptive.

I think we all understand that, at least intuitively. That's why we provide mash temps. And there's enough variation with that among brewers and systems already, making it very difficult to replicate or adapt a recipe universally, especially on homebrew scale.

 

[kh54s10]

That's right, but it's only good for your setup/system! No-one else's.

If you were to provide the strike temp with your recipe when you post or share with another brewer, it's totally meaningless. Or worse, if they don't know enough about mashing (and how it affects other brewing) processes, it's even deceptive.

I think we all understand that, at least intuitively. That's why we provide mash temps. And there's enough variation with that among brewers and systems already, making it very difficult to replicate or adapt a recipe universally, especially on homebrew scale.

I should have made myself more clear. I take every recipe and run it through Beersmith to make the necessary adjustments for my system. That includes temperatures and ingredient changes to keep within parameters. For instance a lot of recipes assume a 75% efficiency. My 3 vessel rig averages 70% so I need to increase my malt amounts if I want to maintain the same OG.

I doubt there is any recipe that I would not have to do some adjusting if I want the same results. Probably that applies to everyone.

 

[aussie brewer]

That's right, but it's only good for your setup/system! No-one else's.

If you were to provide the strike temp with your recipe when you post or share with another brewer, it's totally meaningless. Or worse, if they don't know enough about mashing (and how it affects other brewing) processes, it's even deceptive.

I think we all understand that, at least intuitively. That's why we provide mash temps. And there's enough variation with that among brewers and systems already, making it very difficult to replicate or adapt a recipe universally, especially on homebrew scale.

Thanks Island Lizard, i understand the strike temp which beersmith calculates based on my mashtun volume,weight,material and batch size. I didnt think you could change the mash water volume without changing it in beersmith and expect the strike temp to be accurate.

 

[aussie brewer]

I was wondering why beersmith would increase the mash water volume so much for a stout when i used the same equipment profile and volumes as usual? Is beersmith doing this because it is common to have a much thinner mash with a really dark beer? Every pale ale ive plugged into beersmith automatically sets a thicker mash

 

[Oginme]

I was wondering why beersmith would increase the mash water volume so much for a stout when i used the same equipment profile and volumes as usual? Is beersmith doing this because it is common to have a much thinner mash with a really dark beer? Every pale ale ive plugged into beersmith automatically sets a thicker mash

Are you using the same mash profile? This is where the strike vs sparge volumes are calculated.

And then there may be a difference in grain bill. How much total grain do you have for your stout vs your pale ales?

The variables of how much infusion water vs sparge water are totally under your control. Remember the program is just a set of equations and does not really know anything, let alone what makes good beer. It just responds to the inputs from the grain bill, equipment profile and mash profile. Each of these is totally under your control.

 

[aussie brewer]

I just typed the stout recipe in like i do for all my other beers,not changing my equipment profile. The grain bills are almost the same, i just worked out how to manually set the mash and sparge volumes. Cheers