Can not Change Mash Water Volume inside Recipe

Hello,

I am a BIAC brewer and find I mainly only need to use one starting volume of water for my mashes.  I have custom mash profiles setup for different beer styles all with this same volume of water.

When I am in a recipe and select one of these mash profiles, the volume is coming up as less than what is stated in the custom mash profile.  I have the BIAB box checked.

When I try to change the volume inside the recipe it will not change.  Is there something I am missing?  I am guessing that this is based upon grain ratios and gravity, but I would rather keep my water volume constant.  Is there a way to do this?

Thanks.

If you are set up with a BIAB mash profile, then the only thing the water volume will be changing for is the amount of grains being used and the length of your boil.  If your boil length changes then it accounts for a greater volume of boil off.  If the amount of grain in your mash increases, the program will adjust for the additional grain absorption.  This is what the program is designed to do to maintain your ending volume into the fermentor.

Thanks for your reply.  So if my recipe is set how can I increase the amount of mash water I start with?  My mash profile says 10.5 gallons but inside a recipe it says 10.2.  It seems locked in the recipe screen as it does not change when I type in 10.5 for my first mash step.

Your mash profile is just a template for each recipe.  BeerSmith changes the amount of water based upon the actual amount of grains used.  If you need to change the amount of water to accommodate your actual trub loss, boil off, or grain absorption, you will need to measure these and make adjustments to your profile to reflect your actual values. 

As a temporary change, you can alter the amount of trub left over (on the 'vols' screen >> 'trub loss' value under boil and fermentation).  If you want to have consistent results, measure your actual grain absorption, boil evaporation rate, trub loss and amount in fermentor.  You can use these values in your equipment profile to improve the reliability of BeerSmith's predictions to your achieved values.

Thanks for your help!  I changed the boil-off rate and gave the mash water volume a little boost.