I have a Spike 15 gallon Solo. I use the standard equipment profile provided for this system. The profile is only modified for a 5.5 gallon batch size and Trub Loss to account for additional chiller and plumbing losses. The profile has Mash and Lautering Adjustments as follows:
Most importantly, it appears the recoverable dead space is not subtracted for the water to grist calculation! The first mash step shows a Water/Grain Ratio based on the total water needed. This clearly is incorrect. The Adj mash for deadspace setting does nothing to correct this of course. In my recipe example with 13.75 pounds of grain and a BeerSmith calculated total water needed of 8.63 gallons of water the BeerSmith calculated Water/Grain Ratio is 2.511 qt/lb. The correct Water/Grain Ratio should be 1.36 qt/lb. Even more significant is that a 15 gallon Solo system with this recipe has only 16.11 quarts available for grist contact giving a Water/Grain Ratio of 1.17 qt/lb. While this ratio is marginally adequate for this recipe a slightly larger grain bill would yield an inadequate Water/Grain Ratio.
This issue affects any BIAB system with significant recoverable dead space under the bag/basket. It is particularly amplified in larger Solo systems. Can this be corrected in the calculations please?
- Recoverable Deadspace: 4.00 gal
- Mash Losses: 0.00 gal
- Adj mash for deadspace NOT CHECKED
Most importantly, it appears the recoverable dead space is not subtracted for the water to grist calculation! The first mash step shows a Water/Grain Ratio based on the total water needed. This clearly is incorrect. The Adj mash for deadspace setting does nothing to correct this of course. In my recipe example with 13.75 pounds of grain and a BeerSmith calculated total water needed of 8.63 gallons of water the BeerSmith calculated Water/Grain Ratio is 2.511 qt/lb. The correct Water/Grain Ratio should be 1.36 qt/lb. Even more significant is that a 15 gallon Solo system with this recipe has only 16.11 quarts available for grist contact giving a Water/Grain Ratio of 1.17 qt/lb. While this ratio is marginally adequate for this recipe a slightly larger grain bill would yield an inadequate Water/Grain Ratio.
This issue affects any BIAB system with significant recoverable dead space under the bag/basket. It is particularly amplified in larger Solo systems. Can this be corrected in the calculations please?