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Negative Sparge Volume

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pcaradonna

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I am formulating a Belgian Pale recipe and when I went to the 'Vols' tab, under 'Mash', the 'Sparge Vol' is -2.04 gallons. The dot next to the number is red because it obviously can't be a negative number. I can't figure out why I am getting this value when I know I need to add sparge water as I am doing a single infusion batch sparge. I have used this method of sparging many times before and have never gotten a negative number. This result is also showing up under the 'Mash' tab as well.
 
Your sparge volume is negative because you have too much water going into the initial infusion.  Look at your mash step and see what your water to grist ratio is.  You can edit this step to lower the water demand to a certain extent.  I would recommend staying above 1.25 qts/lb of grain being mashed. 

If you are already at this (or near) level of water to grain in your mash step, then I would recommend removing some or all of the specialty grains and see where that leaves you with infusion water and sparge volume.  You can then steep the specialty grains in the sparge water first.  Then use that for sparging the mashed grains.

 
I finally got the sparge volume to be positive but my water to grist ratio is .5gal/pound. I know this is not possible to make a good mash and should be up near 15qts/12 pounds of grain which is what I originally had.

After reviewing some old recipes that date back prior to the update, I am getting negative sparge volumes where I never did. In fact, I am looking at the printo out of an IPA I made in late July and all my numbers are positive values for masha nd sparge volumes. I am beginning to think this is the result of the update v2.3.7 and may be a bug in the program. I have other excel based calculators that are telling me what I believe are my correct values.

In the end I am brewing a batch 6.5 gallons and the Design tab is telling me I need 8.4 gallons at preboil; all this is correct. Why beersmith is calculating two different sparge volumes is a mystery. In one place it's telling me the sparge will be 1.16 gallons after draining the mash tun and the other is telling me -1.91 gallons.
 
pcaradonna said:
I finally got the sparge volume to be positive but my water to grist ratio is .5gal/pound. I know this is not possible to make a good mash and should be up near 15qts/12 pounds of grain which is what I originally had.

OK, 0.5 gal/lb of grain is 2 qts/lb.  15 qts for 12 lbs of grain is 1.25 qts/lb.  If you were adding 1.25 qts/lb previously and only now getting a negative sparge volume, then something else in your equipment profile is off.  Also, 2 qts/lb should have made the negative sparge issue worse. 

You should be able to make wort just fine with anything greater than 1.25 qts/lb infusion rate.

After reviewing some old recipes that date back prior to the update, I am getting negative sparge volumes where I never did. In fact, I am looking at the printo out of an IPA I made in late July and all my numbers are positive values for masha nd sparge volumes. I am beginning to think this is the result of the update v2.3.7 and may be a bug in the program. I have other excel based calculators that are telling me what I believe are my correct values.

Again, I would check to see if anything changed in your equipment profile(s).  I made the upgrade seamlessly and the values I've been seeing calculated now match the old calculated values of previously brewed recipes.

In the end I am brewing a batch 6.5 gallons and the Design tab is telling me I need 8.4 gallons at preboil; all this is correct. Why beersmith is calculating two different sparge volumes is a mystery. In one place it's telling me the sparge will be 1.16 gallons after draining the mash tun and the other is telling me -1.91 gallons.
Click to expand...

The only other question is what gravity are you trying to hit?  If this is a particularly high gravity recipe, it may be that you have bumped up against volume/extraction constraints for your process.
 
Thanks for all the help. I reran the equipment wizard for my equipment which hasn't changed but it has ironed out the negative sparge volume calculation. I did have to tweek some of the quantities in the recipe I have been working on. Satisfied with the result, now I can brew the Belgian Golden Ale I have been working on this weekend. Thanks again.
 
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