Double Mash in BeerSmith3

[SBob]

Hi,

I am looking to brew a clone of Three Floyds Brewing Co.'s Dark Lord Imperial Stout. https://byo.com/article/quest-for-a-dark-lord-layout/ (requires subscription).

The recipe calls for a double mash - a first mash with Pale Ale Malt and then a second Mash with the dark malts.  The first mash is boiled for 4 hours before mixing it with the first runnings of the second Mash to create the wort for the main boil. The recipe continues as normal from there.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to enter this as a recipe into BeerSmith3? I first thought of putting it in as two separate recipes, but then I cant find a way of adding the wort from the first Mash to the 2nd recipe - I thought of simulating the first mash wort being added to the 2nd recipe by adding an equivalent a Malt Extract addition (this would give me strength and color estimates) but BS LME ingredients wont let me go over 1.045 SG. The SG of the wort from the first mash will be around 1.140.  I then thought about adding the first mash wort into the 2nd recipe as a mix of Dried Malt Extract and water to equate to 1.140 but I couldnt see a way of specifying the water addition to be at the correct time and be distinct to the main water addition of the 2nd recipe.

Any suggestions would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance!

Don.

[bobo1898]

The first mash is boiled for 4 hours before mixing it with the first runnings of the second Mash to create the wort for the main boil.

Mash is BOILED?! I clicked on your link but it wouldn't let me view the recipe. Are you sure it said boiled? That doesn't sound like a mash to me. Decoction would have some boiling to it, but it sounds like you described boiling the whole mash.

Regardless, I have done a double mash, or reiterated mash, before. My mash tun isn't large enough for a big beer. As far as I recall, Beersmith didn't have a profile for it so I had to Macgyver it. My design tab had my total grain bill (which was split evenly between mashes). I entered my mash time as the total time between the two mashes. So Mash 1 was 60 minutes and the Mash 2 was 90 minutes. So my profile said mash time @ 150 minutes. When I swapped out the grain in the mash, I paused the timer. I always use the notes tab as a log for every time I brew a recipe and I try to keep detailed notes. So this is where I kept things in order.

My system is pretty consistent so I wasn't super concerned with numbers, even though this method wasn't going to be true to my normal process. Ultimately I missed my target OG by 5 points. I brewed an Imperial Stout but didn't separate my pale and dark malts---I'd be curious how effective this would be. This was my process:

Mash 1 @ x temp for 60 minutes, with a lower than usual water ratio. After 60 minutes, drain the mash (I batch sparge) into the boil kettle and set aside. Sparge Mash 1 and drain into another kettle. Use Mash 1's sparge runnings as the strike water for Mash 2.

Mash 2 @ y (or x) temp for 90 minutes. Drain Mash 2 into boil kettle with first runnings of Mash 1. Sparge Mash 2 and drain into boil kettle. Go.

Keep in mind, I took gravity readings for each running so I had an idea of where my OG would be in case I wanted to add sugar during the boil. I didn't have to in my case. But I did end up with more boil volume than I would have liked. I just made note of it so next time I can adjust the volume of water I'm using.

So ultimately, BS3 didn't have an option for this. So I had to manage it myself.

[MattMan]

Here's a link to a recipe. I tried to figure out when BYO published it, so I could look in my stash of back issues, but no luck.
https://www.captainbrew.com/view-recipe/110/Three-floyds-dark-lord-clone