new to all grain beer smith question

[grumpyn55]

I am new to all grain brewing and Beersmith
i have a question on their Single Infsion Batch Sparge it is telling me to mash in with 13.75 gal. of water for 1 hr. i get this but then it says that I need to batch sparge in 3 steps first with 0.20 gal. then 2.32 gal. and finally with 2.32 gal.so my question is do I add 0.20gal. water then drain then add 2.32 gal water then drain then add the last 2.32 gal and drain or just add 4.84 gal. Thanks in advance

 

[brewkinger]

No need to make it that complicated early on.
In your example just stick to sparging with the 4.84 gallons that BeerSmith says to use.
You can change the settings and characteristics in BeerSmith to match your equipment setup and sparge setup.

I forget how it's done at the moment, but I will check it out and post again.
Hopefully someone else can chime in with more specifics.




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[Setesh]

There should be a little tick next to the mash step right under the ingredients section. Click that and in the sparge section un tick the box for "use equal batches" or something like that. Also tick the option for "drain first" so that it knows you will have the space to add the sparge water. Sorry about the wording but I'm on the iPad right now and can't remember exactly how they show up.

 

[Cajun_McChicken]

I found that I got really nice mash efficiency when following beer smith's batch sparge guidelines (sometimes in mid to high 80% range) so you might be sacrificing some mash efficiency for practicality when combining the sparges (but I also don't see much of a point in spraging with 0.2 gal either).

As an aside: are you sure beer smith is telling you to dough in with 13 gallons not 13 quarts?

 

[brewkinger]

As an aside: are you sure beer smith is telling you to dough in with 13 gallons not 13 quarts?

Yeah, noticed that too. You're gonna want to use 13.75 QUARTS (3.43 gallons) unless you have one hell of a mash tun.

 

[grumpyn55]

Sorry that should have been Qt.


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[grumpyn55]

So I can eather go with one large add. then drain or go with the three smaller add. Draining before the next


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[Setesh]

So I can eather go with one large add. then drain or go with the three smaller add. Draining before the next


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I would be surprised if it still has you do 3 batches after you tick the box for "Drain mash tun before sparging". It is most likely that Beersmith knows you don't have enough room in your mash tun to add the entire sparge volume with the strike volume still in there. The way I have mine set up is a tick in the box for "Batch Sparge using batches that fill 100%, no tick in the Use equal batch sizes box, and a tick in the Drain mash tun before sparging box. This gives me the following for sparging instructions for a 5 gallon batch:

◯ Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun , 4.23gal) of 168.0 F water

 

[Yooper]

So I can eather go with one large add. then drain or go with the three smaller add. Draining before the next


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You don't want to do the three smaller additions- you won't even be able to stir it with a very small addition.

Look at your Beersmith settings, and fix it to do one or two additions. One is fine, as long as it all fits in your MLT.