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Equal runnings for batch spargers

majkeli

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If you read any of the more popular beer forums you'll see this is the most common request about Beersmith.  "How do I get it to give me equal runnings?"

The only way to do it now is to fiddle with your water/grist ratio, or to do a mashout step that adds the extra water.  It would be nice to have a equal runnings checkbox in the Batch Sparge Options section of the Mash Profile form that would do these calculations for you.  It would need to give you the option about how to arrive at the equal runnings, by adjusting the ratio, or adding a mashout step.  A parameter that would allow you to define the maximum water/grist ratio you'll allow before you get a "Mash is too thin" warning would also be nice.


The second most common question is about boil off and batch size.  Maybe an emphasis on separate equipment profiles for each different batch size in the documentation would save a lot of people some confusion.  I've answered this question quite a few times.
 
Hi,
  Thanks for the suggestion - I guess I will follow up with a quick question - what do you mean by equal runnings?  For example if you take the current version it allows batches of equal size (via that checkbox).  Similarly if you uncheck that option, and uncheck the "Drain the mash..." button, it will generate equal batch size runnings up to the size of the mash tun (or percent specified).  These are effectively equal running batches.

  One issue is that "batch sparging" actually means a lot of different things to different people, so one challenge has been figuring out what all of the variations are.

  In any case, I am certainly open to adding other options or reworking the interface to make it easier to understand.  In general these options are not all that hard to add.

Thanks,
Brad
 
I'm going by the Denny Conn definition from http://hbd.org/cascade/dennybrew/.  I always thought this was the generally accepted definition, but I guess that's not always a reasonable assumption:
After conversion, the sweet wort is recirculated as normal and the mashtun is completely drained as quickly as possible, and an addition of sparge water is added.  This is stirred into the mash, allowed to rest for a few minutes, thoroughly stirred again, and after recircul;ation is once more drained as quickly as the system will allow
So: a mash, drain the tun, and then a batch sparge, drain the tun, done.  The goal is to get both of those drainings to be equal as it's been claimed to produce a greater efficiency by brew scientists.

I just played with the check boxes that you mentioned and they don't quite seem to do what I described unless I'm using them incorrectly.  I'm a developer myself and I like to think I know my way around interfaces, but it's early  ;)

Quite a few Beersmith users have turned to using a second piece of software, Mashwater, in concert with Beersmith to calculate their mashes.  Here's a link to it:  http://www.beerbelliesbrew.com/JTPrograms/MashWater33.exe  I would think you wouldn't want to have your users needing to do that since the rest of the app is so useful.

Thanks very much for reading my suggestions!
 
Hi,
  Thanks - that does help clarify!  Obviously equal runnings in this case would require one to match the mash water (minus grain absorbtion) with the sparge water amounts which would mean modifying the water to grain ratio for each batch.  This is not horribly difficult to do, so I will certainly look at adding it in the next version.  Also I will take a look at the utility you mentioned.

Thanks again!
Brad
 
BeerSmith said:
Obviously equal runnings in this case would require one to match the mash water (minus grain absorbtion) with the sparge water amounts which would mean modifying the water to grain ratio for each batch.
Right, or, as some people do, keeping the ratio constant and adding the extra water at mashout.  I've heard of both methods being used.
 
OK folks,
  The new equal runnings updates are in BeerSmith v 1.4 build 036- and they are now set to be the default for the main batch sparge mash profiles:

  http://beersmith.com/download.htm

Cheers!     
Brad
 
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