Question on Beersmith Calculations

[thedevanzoshift]

Hey all,

I just did my first grain batch using Beersmith, everything turned out pretty good just got a couple questions I couldn't find the answer to by using the search function.

Now, I don't have the recipe right now, it is on my other comp, but basically I used all the default settings, I have a 10g converted rubbermaid cooler MLT and a 9 g brewpot so I set the settings to the equipment setting Cooler and MLT (10g).

I had 12.75 lbs grain bill, selected 1.5q/lb. However, it said to add 22 and some odd quarts of strike water and sparge with 5 g. Total of 10g of water for a 5.5 gallon batch w/ 60 min boil. BS estimated 7.68 g pre boil volume.

I did it according to BS and just used all the sparge water as it said, stopped collecting once i reached the estimated pre boil volume. I hit all my gravities so it all went well, however i kept collecting the runnings and got an extra 1.25 gallons.

Questions:
What i was wondering was I set the water/grain ratio to be 1.5 qt/lb, why did it give me the 22 q strike water?

I know I hit my SG, but could i do anything with the surplus wort? i was leaving it to cool but my brew partner poured it down the drain when i wasnt paying attention.

Thanks!

 

[android]

i'm not sure why it said that, but what you ought to do is select a volume of water that is easy for you to measure (like 20 qt) and just let BS calculate what the qt/lb ratio is. it doesn't really matter that much if it's 1.5 or 1.45 (or whatever it would be).

also, with the preboil volume, i would recommend that you start off at 7.5 gallons and see where that gets you (i used that from the get-go and have never varied it since). i normally get almost exactly 6 gallons in the kettle after a 60 min boil at that preboil volume.

as for strike water, i always just measure out the 1st runnings from the mash tun into a graduated bucket and then calculate how much i'll need to get me to the preboil volume. so, if i end up with 2.5 gallons of runnings, i know I need 5 gallons of sparge water and I split that into 2 batch sparges and always end up with my 7.5 gallons preboil that way.

it may have been calculating what you would lose in grain absorption with the 22 gallons total... not really sure why it was so high. should have been like 19.some I think.

 

[forstmeister]

It could have been due to dead space in the mash tun. Beersmith tries to compensate for that so that you don't have a half full tun. There is a setting for it somewhere.

 

[thedevanzoshift]

Yeah thats what I was figuring, it was some setting i had set it was overcompensating for. I guess I cant complain though since my target sg was hit, but it was just puzzling the **** out of me, especially when i was about to do my first AG.

 

[FATC1TY]

It could have been due to dead space in the mash tun. Beersmith tries to compensate for that so that you don't have a half full tun. There is a setting for it somewhere.

This is it.

BS will compensate for the dead space in your tun, grain absorption, and kettle loss, as well as cooling loss too.

This is all added pre boil calculating it all out for you. You used some generic settings, and it didn't add up right.

 

[FuzzeWuzze]

Turn off the dead space or set it to 0.

Other than that i just set my batches to be 5.5 gallons and i always end up with between 5 and 5.5 gallons going into the fermenter.

As a reference, a beer that has ~13# of grain i need about 8.5 gallons of water total to get 5 gallons into the bucket. I start with around 6.75 and usually boil a minimum of a gallon off, usually 1.25-1.5. I dont mind being slightly over as i can always boil a bit longer if my OG is low, but it rarely is.

 

[thedevanzoshift]

Thanks for the advice guys, just set the dead space to 0 and it works out perfectly.

Brew on!!