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Equipment and mash profile

swertz

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So I am going to get two 10 gallon coolers.  One for mashing and the other for hot water tank.  I am also going to get a 15 gallon boil kettle to start doing all grain brewing.  I am a little confused with setting up my equipment and mash profile.  I am assuming with this setup up it is a single infusion setup up for my mash but I am not sure.  So under my equipment profile it says that i will need a total  of 7.23 gallons of water for a 5 gallon batch but under my mash profile it is saying that I need a mash in of 13.75qts. and a mash out of 8.8 quarts which does not equal 7.23 gallons of water needed.  Come someone shed some light on this mash in mash out thing for me because I am obviously missing something.  Thanks in advance.
 
You can use a hot liquor tank, if you want.  I have two 12 gallon coolers, but I use the second cooler only rarely and when I do, it's for 15+ batches or extremely high gravity brews.  I originally set it up to be a hot liquor tank, but found it just as easy to go straight from a boil pot for sparging.

My method of mashing is explained in my blog here.
https://creativebrewing.wordpress.com/brewing-articles/all-grain-my-mashing-process/

I hope this helps you out...
 
Under the volumes tab of your recipe, you should see total mash water regardless of how many infusions you do. You should also see sparge volume. These two added together should equal your total water needed.
You can also check kettle top up, tun deadspace, trub loss and other losses and absorption factors are accurate.
CHEERS
 
twhitaker said:
Under the volumes tab of your recipe, you should see total mash water regardless of how many infusions you do. You should also see sparge volume. These two added together should equal your total water needed.
You can also check kettle top up, tun deadspace, trub loss and other losses and absorption factors are accurate.
CHEERS

Thank you very much, that sheds a lot of light.  I just need to get the equipment, stop doing this BIAB setup because it is boring me and get moving with this.  I am sure that the equipment profile will be tweaked some once I start and see how much loss I am having during boiling....etc.
 
A lot of brewers use a hot liquor tank (HLT) to heat or hold strike water for dough-in and any additional mash steps. I use my HLT to raise my total volume of water to strike temp, and run off the volume I need for dough-in. Then I raise the remaining volume to the strike temp required for any additional steps and run it into my mash tun. Once the mash is complete, I drain the first runnings into an old five-gallon pot and transfer the remaining water from the HLT to the mash tun to batch sparge.

Now that the kettle is empty, I perform a ceremony and re-risten it "brew kettle". I empty the old kettle with the first runnings into the "brew kettle" and drain the sparged wort into it.

In other words, I don't need a dedicated HLT, which saves space and money. You can use the money you would have spent on the second cooler to invest in a high tech transfer system - a "pitcher".
 
I have a different question with respect to equipment profile and recipe calculation. When I set my profile up for my SABCO setup for a 5 gallon batch and cooling equipment (plate), the profile indicates I should have 6.24 gallon post boil volume. When I design my recipes for a 5 gal batch, does the program base calculations on a 5 gallon batch or 6.24?  Thanks - Russ
 
The program calculates the volumes based upon batch size being defined as volume into the fermentor.
 
Thanks .... I appreciate the feedback. Struggling a bit hitting my calculated volumes. Trial and error will continue tomorrow. Again thanks!

Russ
 
You want to measure carefully at each step in the process:  water into mash tun, sparge water used, volume of wort out (pre-boil volume), post boil volume, volume to fermentor, wort left over or losses to trub.  At the same time take the gravity readings pre-boil, post boil and in the fermentor.  You can use the gravity points pre-boil and post-boil to verify the volume readings.

From this information, you can calculate grain absorption and dead space (and if you know your dead space you can back it our to get grain absorption) and boil off rate.  Use these to plug back into BeerSmith and update your equipment profiles.
 
Thanks and I understand all except headspace. I assume that is the volume below the mash screen and "in the system".  Thanks again!
 
deadspace is the volume that you cannot drain from your system.  The space below the drain valve on my mash tun is about 1.5 liters.  I tilt the mash tun as I am draining it, so the actual amount which is left behind is 0.6 liters.  The 0.6 liters is my deadspace.

 
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