I say this every time I read a thread about Beer Smith profiles...be careful about the volumes Beer Smith gives you. Those volumes are based on one temperature. Meaning, the strike volume, pre-boil volume, post boil volume and ending volume are all given at the same temp and haven't been adjusted for expansion or cooling. Cooling shrinkage figure is what it is based from. If you have 4% (which is default), all you volume figures will be given around boiling temp. If you put 0%, all your figures will be given at room temp. Why this is important is because most people measure their strike volume at room temp, pre-boil volume at mash temp and post-boil volume at boiling temp. If you have 4% in for cooling shrinkage, your strike volume will be given for boiling temp. If you measure out that exact amount at room temp, you will be putting in more water than you should be. A lot of people aren't as OCD about volumes and measurements as I am so it may not matter but it does affect the beer. For my system, if I measure out my strike water at room temp but Beer Smith gives it to me at boiling temp, I will be adding over 1/3 gallon more than I should. The way I fixed this is made three equipment profiles. One using 0% for room temp strike volume, another at 2% for mash temp for pre-boil volume and the last at 4% for boiling temp for post-boil volume. Now I know exactly what the volume should be at any given temp without having to guess the expansion amount.
My suggestion to Brad was to have Beer Smith ask the brewer to do a water test. Beer Smith tells the user to measure out 5 gallons of water at room temp (strike volume). Beer Smith has the user heat the water to mash temp and enter the new volume. This will give Beer Smith the expansion rate from room temp to mash temp. Beer Smith has the user bring the water to a boil and record the volume. Now Beer Smith has the mash to boil expansion rate. Finally Beer Smith has the user boil for an hour and record the final volume. That is the boil off rate. Now every volume figure will be given at the right temp. He obviously haven't done that so my suggestion wasn't taken lol oh well.
I know you didn't ask about that but I like to mention it so people are aware. It does bring me to my point about boil off. If you measured the water at room temp, boiled for an hour and then measured your final volume right after boil, your boil off figure will be slightly low. You would need to let that water cool to get the final volume (or take the pre boil figure right when the boil start and post-boil figure right as it ends). Basically you want to take both pre and post boil figures at the same temp.
