Setting up beersmith equipment profile for sparging with BIAB?

[vance]

Is there a guide anywhere on how to do this? I have it set up for a full volume mash currently but I've been trying to work a sparge into my brewing.

 

[Oginme]

If you want to set it up for a sparge, uncheck the BIAB box in your mash profile and set it up as a standard single infusion with batch sparge. As soon as you are not doing a full volume BIAB, your process is really not different from a traditional mash tun set up.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Beersmith doesn't handle BIAB with a sparge well. I've found the best way to deal with it is to add your sparge volume in the Kettle Top Up field on the recipe's Vols page. If you find that you have a consistent sparge volume from brew to brew, this field is also present in the equipment profile, which automatically carries it over to any recipe that uses that profile.

 

[chickypad]

The main issue is the grain absorption factor. If you uncheck BIAB and choose a profile with sparge it uses the regular grain absorption value. If you only do BIAB you can just reset your absorption default, but if you switch back and forth between BIAB and a regular tun it's a pain.

 

[Sadu]

I just use the regular single infusion with batch sparge profile. It's good enough for government work.

 

[TexasWine]

If you uncheck BIAB and choose a profile with sparge it uses the regular grain absorption value.

Wait, are you saying that you can't adjust your grain absorption rate in BeerSmith unless you select BIAB? I'm not a user of the software.

If true, I just learned another reason why I'm glad I went a different direction. Don't get me wrong, lots of folks are happy with it and I'm not disparaging their choice. But I couldn't accept not being able to change the absorption rate.

 

[Oginme]

Wait, are you saying that you can't adjust your grain absorption rate in BeerSmith unless you select BIAB? I'm not a user of the software.

If true, I just learned another reason why I'm glad I went a different direction. Don't get me wrong, lots of folks are happy with it and I'm not disparaging their choice. But I couldn't accept not being able to change the absorption rate.

Yes, you can adjust your grain absorption rate independently for BIAB versus a standard mash tun. If you only do BIAB, then you can adjust the standard grain absorption rate to reflect your values for a BIAB with sparge versus a full volume BIAB.

 

[TexasWine]

Yes, you can adjust your grain absorption rate independently for BIAB versus a standard mash tun. If you only do BIAB, then you can adjust the standard grain absorption rate to reflect your values for a BIAB with sparge versus a full volume BIAB.

But can you adjust the grain absorption rate for a standard mash tun?

 

[LLBeanJ]

But can you adjust the grain absorption rate for a standard mash tun?

Yes, of course you can. BS has options for default grain absorption for both traditional mash tun and BIAB. They are two separate fields and both can be customized to use whatever rates you want. In the Mash Profile section of the recipe, if you check the BIAB mash checkbox, BS will calculate the absorption using the BIAB rate, otherwise it will use the traditional rate.

There's actually very little in BS that can't be customized. Of all the brewing software options, BS is the most customizable and is the reason I use it. It is by far the most versatile and, for that reason, can seem a bit complicated and overwhelming to new users. I find it to be very easy to use, however.

 

[TexasWine]

Yes, of course you can. BS has options for default grain absorption for both traditional mash tun and BIAB. They are two separate fields and both can be customized to use whatever rates you want. In the Mash Profile section of the recipe, if you check the BIAB mash checkbox, BS will calculate the absorption using the BIAB rate, otherwise it will use the traditional rate.

There's actually very little in BS that can't be customized. Of all the brewing software options, BS is the most customizable and is the reason I use it. It is by far the most versatile and, for that reason, can seem a bit complicated and overwhelming to new users. I find it to be very easy to use, however.

Good to know!

 

[chickypad]

Yes, of course you can. BS has options for default grain absorption for both traditional mash tun and BIAB. They are two separate fields and both can be customized to use whatever rates you want. In the Mash Profile section of the recipe, if you check the BIAB mash checkbox, BS will calculate the absorption using the BIAB rate, otherwise it will use the traditional rate.

Yes, but there is no option to sparge with BIAB. So the profile is either full volume mash BIAB with the BIAB absorption rate, or you uncheck BIAB and use a regular sparge profile in which case it defaults back to the regular absoprtion rate. As I said if you only do BIAB you can go in and change your default absoprtion rate to your BIAB number, but it's a pain if you switch back and forth between a regular tun and BIAB.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yes, but there is no option to sparge with BIAB. So the profile is either full volume mash BIAB with the BIAB absorption rate, or you uncheck BIAB and use a regular sparge profile in which case it defaults back to the regular absorption rate. As I said if you only do BIAB you can go in and change your default absorption rate to your BIAB number, but it's a pain if you switch back and forth between a regular tun and BIAB.

True, which is why I stated in my initial reply to this thread that BS doesn't handle BIAB w/ sparge very well, but there is a perfectly good workaround (also mentioned in same post) that will output correct values for total brewing water needed and total mash water needed in the brew steps, allowing you to sparge with remaining water until you reach pre-boil volume. I have two unique values set for my two absorption rates, though I only do BIAB w/ sparge and I never have to change them. If I were to brew a no-sparge BIAB batch, I would zero out the kettle top off field in that particular recipe and my volumes would then be correct. The only downside, if you want to call it one, is that the brew steps tell me to top off the kettle with water to hit my pre-boil volume instead of "sparge to achieve pre-boil volume," but that's okay as I know I have to sparge and don't need the instructions to spell it out. All I need to know is the total water needed and how much of it I'll be mashing with and the software gives me that.

The way to do this is to check the BIAB box in the Mash Profile and control your sparge volume using the Kettle Top Up field on the Vols page in the recipe. A default kettle top up volume can also be set in your Equipment Profile, which will auto-populate the Kettle Top Up field on the Vols page when you bring that equipment profile into your recipe. I typically do a 1.5 gal sparge, so that's what I enter into the Kettle Top Up field. The software then tells me total brewing water needed and mash water needed (I.e., total water - kettle top up water).

 

[chickypad]

The way to do this is to check the BIAB box in the Mash Profile and control your sparge volume using the Kettle Top Up field on the Vols page in the recipe. A default kettle top up volume can also be set in your Equipment Profile, which will auto-populate the Kettle Top Up field on the Vols page when you bring that equipment profile into your recipe. I typically do a 1.5 gal sparge, so that's what I enter into the Kettle Top Up field. The software then tells me total brewing water needed and mash water needed (I.e., total water - kettle top up water).

So are your grainbills always pretty much the same size? Just looking through some recipes I see that I seem to sparge between 4-8 qts depending on batch size and OG of the beer. So using your workaround I guess I would not want to prepopulate my equipment profile , just manually calculate the sparge each time and enter it in kettle top up.

Either way it's not a huge deal, it's not like the sparge calculation is rocket science. Just as you say - it's not set up perfectly to handle a BIAB sparge. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm dissing Beersmith, I am actually a big fan. It would just be nice if this one aspect was added on a future upgrade.

 

[LLBeanJ]

So are your grainbills always pretty much the same size? Just looking through some recipes I see that I seem to sparge between 4-8 qts depending on batch size and OG of the beer. So using your workaround I guess I would not want to prepopulate my equipment profile , just manually calculate the sparge each time and enter it in kettle top up.

Either way it's not a huge deal, it's not like the sparge calculation is rocket science. Just as you say - it's not set up perfectly to handle a BIAB sparge. I hope it doesn't sound like I'm dissing Beersmith, I am actually a big fan. It would just be nice if this one aspect was added on a future upgrade.

No, my grain bills are all over the place. However, the size if my sparge does not change, regardless of the size of the grain bill.

Yes! It would be nice if BS handled it better. I actually suggested it to Brad once after one of his periodical solicitations for feedback from users and his response was to just use the regular mash option, so I don't know if there's much chance of it happening. That was a few years ago. Perhaps if more people raise the question, he'll decide it's worthwhile to pursue it.

 

[Tribe Fan]

I used the single infusion profile, deleted the steps and manually added in my own steps with quantity and temp. It will calculate the strike temps for you on the first one, but the second one you have to calc yourself.

I just made sure i came in under and used heat to make the delta.