InVinoVeritas
Apprentice
Here are my questions:
Where is my failure in getting BeerSmith to drive the mashing process?
Why doesn't BeerSmith auto update absorption rates based on grain amounts and hop additions?
Background (sorry, a lot of info):
Ok, I'll lead off saying I'm perhaps trying to learn and consume too much at the same time and I have a lot going on in my head. I'll try and be as clear as possible. My experience thus far has been with extract brewing and one BIAB brew. I plan on making a rectangular mash tun cooler, with a sparge arm and incorporated copper tube manifold. I have read How To Brew nearly front to back and this has been my biggest reference.
With that background, I recently purchased BeerSmith and have as my first fun task started converting my pumpkin ale BIAB recipe, which I liked to a fly sparging recipe. I'm confused with the numbers I'm getting from BeerSmith for the mashing water infusion, getting a total volume of around 9 gallons (seems high), a pre boil of 6.47 gallons (seems high) and a sparge 0.7 gallons (seems low). I'm updated my equipment and recipe with the following numbers (all in gallons):
Grain Absorption: 0.72
Hops Absorption: 0.06
Fermentation Absorption: 0.3
Mash Tun Deadspace: 0.39
Boil Off: 0.54
Batch Size: 5.3
Bottling Size: 5.0
Total water Needed: 7.01
Mash Process:
Protein Rest: 122 F, 10 minutes
Saccharification Rest: 156 F, 90 minutes
Mash Out: 168 F, 10 minutes
Brewer's Friend Infusion Numbers:
Grain weight is 10.87 lbs
1. So assuming 1 qt/lbs, that gives 10.87 quarts (133 F strike) to get grain to 122 F
2. Add 7.9 quarts (@ boiling) to reach 156 F
3. Add 5.7 quarts (@ boiling) to reach 168 F
Total water by this recommendation: 6.12 gallons
If I take my first 7.01 and the 6.12, the difference could be the sparge at 0.89. This still seems to low. Referencing Palmer, he recommends 1 to 2 quarts per grain pound for mashing and that sparging should be about 1.5 times the volume of your mash. Is every one running long boils to boil off the extra fluid.
Where is my failure in getting BeerSmith to drive the mashing process?
Why doesn't BeerSmith auto update absorption rates based on grain amounts and hop additions?
Background (sorry, a lot of info):
Ok, I'll lead off saying I'm perhaps trying to learn and consume too much at the same time and I have a lot going on in my head. I'll try and be as clear as possible. My experience thus far has been with extract brewing and one BIAB brew. I plan on making a rectangular mash tun cooler, with a sparge arm and incorporated copper tube manifold. I have read How To Brew nearly front to back and this has been my biggest reference.
With that background, I recently purchased BeerSmith and have as my first fun task started converting my pumpkin ale BIAB recipe, which I liked to a fly sparging recipe. I'm confused with the numbers I'm getting from BeerSmith for the mashing water infusion, getting a total volume of around 9 gallons (seems high), a pre boil of 6.47 gallons (seems high) and a sparge 0.7 gallons (seems low). I'm updated my equipment and recipe with the following numbers (all in gallons):
Grain Absorption: 0.72
Hops Absorption: 0.06
Fermentation Absorption: 0.3
Mash Tun Deadspace: 0.39
Boil Off: 0.54
Batch Size: 5.3
Bottling Size: 5.0
Total water Needed: 7.01
Mash Process:
Protein Rest: 122 F, 10 minutes
Saccharification Rest: 156 F, 90 minutes
Mash Out: 168 F, 10 minutes
Brewer's Friend Infusion Numbers:
Grain weight is 10.87 lbs
1. So assuming 1 qt/lbs, that gives 10.87 quarts (133 F strike) to get grain to 122 F
2. Add 7.9 quarts (@ boiling) to reach 156 F
3. Add 5.7 quarts (@ boiling) to reach 168 F
Total water by this recommendation: 6.12 gallons
If I take my first 7.01 and the 6.12, the difference could be the sparge at 0.89. This still seems to low. Referencing Palmer, he recommends 1 to 2 quarts per grain pound for mashing and that sparging should be about 1.5 times the volume of your mash. Is every one running long boils to boil off the extra fluid.