BeerSmith2 'Equipment Profile' set-up for new all-grainers.

[OldBrewer]

It's a shame BS don't point you to this post in there equipment wizard when you first open BS for the first time. It would help new comers understand what they should be entering, answering there questions. I've been on BS for two weeks before I found this post. Nice work you guys.

[grathan]

+1 I was a mess after watching only the videos.

[RobbieH]

Nice work.  Will dedicate the focus this deserves later when not at work :-)
Started using BeerSmith a couple of months ago for BIAB and just completed first 20l Braumeister brew on weekend so loving this sort of thing!  Thanks again.

[ScottVoak]

Great post, but confused about one aspect:

In the post you defined mash efficiency as  'efficiency into boiler' and total efficiency as 'efficiency into fermenter.'  Then you gave the following equation:

BeerSmith2 'Brewhouse Efficiency' = 'Mash Efficiency'-('Loss to Trub and Chiller'/('Loss to Trub and Chiller'+'Batch Volume')*'Mash Efficiency')

My question is where does boil off and cooling shrinkage come in?  It does not appear to be accounted for.

I am looking into this because my total efficiency is close to right, but by mash efficiency seems to be a bit low every time.

Thanks,
Scott

[grathan]

The brewhouse efficiency looks like it is tied to the mash number you enter. On the other hand if you entered brewhouse efficiency to figure out mash efficiency, then perhaps it could be off. It looks like it uses %4 loss for boil-off which may or may not match your system.

[ScottVoak]

Ok, here is a weird one.  I have a recipe that came out where the Measured Mash Efficiency is 85.4% (from the Mash tab) and the Measured Efficiency (from the Design tab) is 94.7%,  How does that happen?

[brewfun]

My question is where does boil off and cooling shrinkage come in?  It does not appear to be accounted for.

Efficiency is about sugar content, not water. As boil off occurs, there is a corresponding rise in gravity because sugar isn't lost. Shrinkage isn't concentrating sugars, evaporation is.

Your Brewhouse (total) efficiency is the percentage of total available sugar (locked in the grain) that makes it to the fermenter. If you put your brewhouse efficiency at 90%, you're saying that with mash efficiency and all accumulated losses, 90% of the total available sugar gets into the fermenter.

As you increase your loss to trub in the equipment profile, you'll see a corresponding rise or fall in mash efficiency. The predicted gravity won't change because BeerSmith is using Brewhouse efficiency to predict it. So, with more loss, the total available sugar can only come from an increase in mash efficiency.

[grathan]

Oops, my bad. I thought you were referencing the OP's attached spreadsheet formulas for converting mash eff to Tot Eff. If BrewFun hasn't made things clear, you can export a recipe file and post it here to take a look.

[ScottVoak]

I think I get the idea for the efficiency calculations, but the attached recipe shows a brew house efficiency higher than the mash efficiency. I know I just have something input wrong, but I can't find it.

[grathan]

Your looking at Tot Efficiency %78? That number doesn't ever change unless you change your equipment profile or something. Honestly I have ignored it up until just now. I think it estimates your mash eff or something.

In this particular recipe your mash eff was %87.1 and the Measured Efficiency was %81.3 which seems reasonable no?



In the Selectable Fields on the Design tab, make certain Mash Eff and Measured Efficiency are shown if we are not in agreement.

[brewfun]

the attached recipe shows a brew house efficiency higher than the mash efficiency.

In my download, just the opposite shows. Brewhouse Efficiency is 81% and Mash is 87%

To translate: You got 87% of the grain's sugars into the kettle. After concentrating sugars in the boil, then deducting the 1.25 gallon loss to trub (which is 7% of the remaining kettle volume), the remaining percentage of sugar in the fermenter is 81% of what's possible from the grain.

[ScottVoak]

Thanks guys.  I actually uploaded the report that was correct, not the incorrect one.  I went back and looked at brew day paper notes and we made a data error which messed up our results.  On our next brew day, our hydrometer was broken and I think we must have broken it mid-brew on the one in question and so got some bad numbers that made it look like we had more total sugar into the fermenter than out of the mash. 
Thanks for the excellent explanations and detail.

[Bboykin87]

When setting up a new equipment profile, I have a 10 gallon mash tun  but I usually brew 5 gallon batches.  When I enter my mash tun volume as 10 BS calculates that I want to use all that volume to mash.  Should I be using all 10 gallons to mash in and how will that affect my final product if I'm planning on only making a 5 gallon batch and the recipe I am using is for a 5 gallon batch?

[grathan]

That doesn't sound right.

[brewfun]

When setting up a new equipment profile, I have a 10 gallon mash tun  but I usually brew 5 gallon batches.  When I enter my mash tun volume as 10 BS calculates that I want to use all that volume to mash.  Should I be using all 10 gallons to mash in and how will that affect my final product if I'm planning on only making a 5 gallon batch and the recipe I am using is for a 5 gallon batch?

You can alter the equipment profile OR the mash profile to fit the reduced batch size. Either way, it's easiest to just create a half batch equipment profile so that you can use the scale recipe function.

BeerSmith is calculating based on the options you've chosenin the Mash Profile. What you're describing sounds like a batch sparge with none of the other boxes checked and still at the default 95% fill level.

Set the "Using batches that fill" option to 50%.
Select the "drain mashtun first" option in the mash profile.

If this results in wildly uneven batches, you can smooth that out by checking "Use equal batch sizes."