Beersmith Question

[theganda]

Just downloaded beersmith and put in a couple recipes. Does the "Batch Size" indicator on the recipe report showing the desired, post boil volume or the pre-boil volume?

 

[weirdboy]

Post-boil. There is another box right next to it that shows the (pre) boil volume.

 

[Budzu]

yep post-boil, also you should note that it is the volume that you end up with into the fermenter after racking from the kettle. You gotta specify (in your equipment specifics) how much you leave behind in the mash-tun, and also losses to trub in the kettle.
It does NOT take into account losses racking from fermenter to keg or bottling bucket, so for a 5 gallon batch make your batch size a bit bigger.

Cheers!

 

[weirdboy]

One more caveat is that BeerSmith, like most other brewing software out there, uses a % of volume to calculate the amount that boils off which is incorrect IMO. It should use a constant rate based upon the surface area and boil time instead. So if your batch size varies (say, you do a 2 or 3 gallon batch vs. a 5 or 10 gallon batch in the same pot) you will end up with wrong volumes.

 

[Budzu]

One more caveat is that BeerSmith, like most other brewing software out there, uses a % of volume to calculate the amount that boils off which is incorrect IMO. It should use a constant rate based upon the surface area and boil time instead. So if your batch size varies (say, you do a 2 or 3 gallon batch vs. a 5 or 10 gallon batch in the same pot) you will end up with wrong volumes.

This concerns me.. I have just acquired a keggle and can move up to a 10 gallon batch. I use beersmith, and yeah I noticed that with the same (15%) boil-off rate, its telling me I'll lose twice as much volume as I would with a 5 gallon batch. The surface area of the wort in the keggle will be smaller than the surface area of wort in my previous (10 gallon) kettle.

Should I just use my old numbers for my first run with this keggle? I.E. with the same level of boil as before am I going to lose about 1.1 gallon from a 12 gallon boil? Or somewhere closer to 2.2 as beersmith is saying.

Anyone else experienced this? thanks

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

No. You should fill the keggle with water and boil it for an hour. Preferably at separate desired volumes but, you can also cheat with the boil off calculator to get close.

 

[Surly]

No. You should fill the keggle with water and boil it for an hour. Preferably at separate desired volumes but, you can also cheat with the boil off calculator to get close.

I assume, when testing the boil off that I can add 5 gallons of water to the kettle, boil it for an hour, then measure and figure out my loss. I should then be good to go for any other combination/volume.