Noob Beer Smith Equipment Question

[jsvinth34]

I've screwed up my first couple batches of all grain so far while using beer Smith. I was hoping I could get up with a couple questions setting up my equipment profile in beersmith. I have a 10 gallon mash tun and an 8 gallon brew kettle that I am working with. I have been working with a 12 pound grain recipe but I am not sure of how to determine a few things in the equipment setup:

How do I figure out the brew house efficiency?
How do I calculate boil off percentage/amount when trying to get a 5.5 gallon batch into the fermenter
Tun dead space?
Tun specific heat?
Trub loss? How do I calculate that exactly?

Sorry for all the probably ridiculous (and easy) questions, any help is greatly appreciated! (also screen shots of equipment profiles are very helpful too)

 

[Mexibilly]

Awaiting a reply, as I've done one all grain my buddy gave me numbers for from ibrew and I own beersmith2 but haven't used it yet...

 

[ZebulonBrewer]

They aren't ridiculous questions, so don't worry. Your brewhouse efficiency is going to be the combination of your mash efficiency and your ability to not 'leave things behind' between your mash tun and your fermenter. There's a front page article on this topic from a day or two ago. I'd check it out.

Boil off percentage varies from person to person, but IN GENERAL people who use an outdoor burner on a smaller kettler (smaller than 15 gallons) get about 1 gallon per hour. When I used my gas range inside I had around 1/2 gallon per hour, and there are people who get 2 gallons per hour. Assume 1 until your measurements show otherwise.

I'd use the defaults for the tun dead space or you can calculate it with 1/4*pi*D^2*H where pi=3.14, D=diameter of your mash tun, and H is the height between where your mash typical sits and the bottom of the lid (when attached).

As for specific heat, you're going to need to go off of the defaults in beersmith or google what people use with a similar setup.

Trub loss is typically about 1/2 gallon in the fermenter following fermentation (unless it's an IPA and you pour the whole damn thing in after boiling/chilling). People can also have trub loss in the boil kettle, which will vary from 0 - 1/2 gallon typically.

I hope this helps

 

[jsvinth34]

Awesome, this helps a lot! Thank you very much!