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ggltd
After listening to the last pod casts from “Can You Brew It?” a concept began to grow in my mind from what Jamil said. Just like the big breweries, mash and sparge water should be fixed for every brew day based on the size of your pots, not on ingredients. Think about this. When Stone brews a 4% ale they use the amount of water that fills the mash tun, and transfers into the fermenter. Now tomorrow they brew Double Bastard with ABV about 10%. Obviously they add a bunch more grain. The vessels didn’t change; they use the same amount of water because of the fixed size of their equipment. So the first mash was a little thinner, the second a little thicker. At the end of the day both beers are great. I post this here because since using BeerSmith for a long time I have been complicating my brew day. I have fretted over the numbers for mash; sparge and final boil volume, because the software never gives the same results, nor is it written to. My grain bill may change, but my ½ keg vessels do not. At the end of the day based on 1.33 gal /hour evap rate/ 60 min boil time I am looking at a target final boil volume of 10 gal. This is constant- it will not change. So to get to 13-13.5 gal pre boil volume I only need to do the following: 1] always use 6.75 gal to mash in.]2. Sparge should always be around 9.5 gal. This maxes out my equipment and gives me consistent wort. Since I am brewing on a Brutus with constant recirculation, a thicker mash at times has not been a problem. Am I totally crazy, or can brew day be easier? And if this is a good idea, can there be a tab in BeerSmith to set these 2 numbers and leave it?