Just need a quick hand with BeerSmith settings for the mash

[DonGavlar]

Hi all,

Did my first ever all gain batch the other day, turned out well apart from I just missed the water volumes a tad (and my krausen has dropped and airlock activity stopped completely after not even 48 hours, but that's a different story that I'll try ignore ).

So, I'm just tweaking a few settings to make sure my next batch goes a bit smoother and I hit my correct water volumes.

First of all I'm using a batch sparge method. BeerSmith is telling me to add 3.66 gals of water at 162.8F to mash. Then, underneath its says batch sparge with two steps (Drain mash tun, 4.28 gal) of 168F water. Now does this mean I do two sparges with half of 4.28 which would be two sparges of 2.14gals of water? or do I just do the one sparge of 4.28 gals?

Second what is the 'mash tun addition'? What I'm reading, it just sounds like the same thing as tun dead space?

And in the mash profile settings, do I want all 3 boxes checked under batch sparge options checked?

Just to add.. I'm currently using a 1.5 water/grain ratio, does that seem ok? I've read a lot of different opinions about whether it should be 1.25 or 1.5 but I went with 1.5 for my first.

thanks guys

 

[Oginme]

(1) The instructions to 'drain mash tun, 4.28 gal' means that you want to drain the initial wort from the mash tun and then add the 4.28 gal of sparge water. If you did not drain the mash tun first, it would state to add 'x' amount of water then drain the mash tun, where teh 'x' would be the amount of water that would top off to the full volume of your mash tun.

(2) Mash tun addition is the volume under a false bottom which will be drained out and be recovered. This is different from mash tun loss which is non-recoverable wort. It helps those people with large volumes under their false bottoms keep a consistent water to grain ratio above the false bottom where it is constant contact with the grains.

(3) The batch sparge options are up to you. Draining the mash tun before sparging is usually the best choice. After that, if your mash tun has enough volume, then I would not worry about the 'equal size batches' option. Generally, I have the option to fill 100% of my mash tun for the sparge so that it doesn't split the sparge step up when I have head space that would fit the remainder of the sparge water.

(4) There is no right or wrong with the initial infusion volume. Generally, if you go under 1.25 qt/lb you do not get good solubility of the starch and therefore poor conversion. When I batch sparge, I try to get approximately equal runnings from both the initial infusion and the sparge steps. It is pretty easy to calculate, take the total pre-boil volume needed, divide by two, add the grain absorption and mash tun dead space and that value becomes your initial infusion volume. The sparge step should be half of your pre-boil volume.

 

[user 125772]

First of all I'm using a batch sparge method. BeerSmith is telling me to add 3.66 gals of water at 162.8F to mash. Then, underneath its says batch sparge with two steps (Drain mash tun, 4.28 gal) of 168F water. Now does this mean I do two sparges with half of 4.28 which would be two sparges of 2.14gals of water? or do I just do the one sparge of 4.28 gals?
thanks guys

the 3.66 gallons is your strike water.
the 4.28 gallons is for sparging, you can split that in half and do it in two steps if you want to try and gain another point of two of mash efficiency (you have to drain after every step), at the expense of more time.

 

[cactusgarrett]

you can split that in half and do it in two steps if you want to try and gain another point of two of mash efficiency

To expand on this (in case you are unfamiliar), evidence shows that when batch sparging, breaking your total intended sparge water into multiple repetitions of a batch sparge increases your efficiency in recovering the sugars. Of course there's a limit, so it's up to you to determine your acceptable amount of diminished returns.