For those that use a ten gallon pot: what is your typical preboil volume?

[urg8rb8]

Do you usually put 9 or so gallons of wort in the pot? Just seems like a lot to boil down to 5 or so gallons.

 

[jwalkermed]

preboil 7 gallons, 6.5 gal into the fermenter

 

[urg8rb8]

My issue is that beersmith seems to always calculate a preboil volume of close to 9 gallons. How do I change this?

 

[jwalkermed]

maybe your boil time? i dunno. You for sure don't need 9 gallons preboil if you are doing a 60 min boil.

 

[kh54s10]

I need about 7.3 gallons to end up with a little over 5 gallons into the fermenter and 5 gallons bottled or kegged.

It really depends on the temperature, your heat source (how vigorous a boil) and pot geometry. I had my boil off rate somewhat figured while doing extracts and partial boils before trying all grain. It takes a few brews with differing temperatures for you to get an average. Then you can adjust a little for temperature.

I don't find it changes dramatically with temperature so my adjustments in summer are not much more than mid winter (RI). I collect only a little more in the summer - less than 1/2 gallon.

9 is not likely unless you do a very vigorous boil in a wide shallow pot.

 

[kh54s10]

Very slow on the typing. Check all your inputs in your Beersmith profiles, especially your equipment profile. There I think you can edit your evaporation rate.

 

[urg8rb8]

So you have it configured so that boiling the preboil wort for an hour takes​ you to your batch size?

 

[Jwin]

No
There is a boil off rate field, I think under your equipment profile. It will determine starting volume based of your evaporation, boil length and target ending volume. There's also fields for deadspace in your tun, and trub loss. All these things need to be semi accurate for proper calculations.
You can measure deadspace by tossing a gallon of tap water in your tun, draining, then measuring the remaining liquid. This is pretty accurate if your are using a false bottom. If your using another method (bazooka screen, miab), it may provide you with a number too high as the grain will offset some of the wort lost.
Until you get it nailed down, target an extra half gallon. Into the fermentor.

 

[urg8rb8]

I don't have a false bottom in my mash tun because I use a grain bag as my filter... Basically, I mash in a bag. But I remember seeing a field where I say to ignore deadspace.

 

[paulshe]

Pre boil is around 7 gallons but you will use about 9 gallons total water. I suspect you're 9 gallons is total water needed. Somewhere like 2 gallons are absorbed in the grain.

 

[Jwin]

I don't have a false bottom in my mash tun because I use a grain bag as my filter... Basically, I mash in a bag. But I remember seeing a field where I say to ignore deadspace.

I'm willing to bet you still have some deadspace.
But, I would ignore it u til you get the other figures worked out.
If you post screenshots of your equipment profile tabs, that would probably help.

 

[urg8rb8]

I'm willing to bet you still have some deadspace.
But, I would ignore it u til you get the other figures worked out.
If you post screenshots of your equipment profile tabs, that would probably help.

Thanks for your help! I'll study the settings in BeerSmith over the next day or two and post what I found.

 

[PADave]

Pre boil is around 7 gallons but you will use about 9 gallons total water. I suspect you're 9 gallons is total water needed. Somewhere like 2 gallons are absorbed in the grain.

I always start with around 7.5 gallon, depending on the grain bill, loose about .5 gallon to absorption, so about 7 gallon pre boil. Then boil off a gallon. This is doing full volume BIAB.