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"Mash tun volume needed is larger than the size of your mash tun."

brightmonkey

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Jul 2, 2013
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Location
Austin, Texas
Hello, I'm new to Brewsmith and I'm in the process of setting up my equipment and mash profiles. I use a 2 gallon cooler to do my mashing for partial extract and small full grain batches, and I can mash up to 4lbs of grain in the cooler.

I put together a 2.5 gallon recipe that uses exactly 4lbs of grain, but I'm getting the "Mash tun volume needed is larger than the size of your mash tun" warning in my recipe.

Am I overlooking a setting somewhere that will help the tool understand that I will not exceed my mash volume?
 
Here's the recipe in case these details are helpful. The boil size and post boil volume look about right, but there doesn't seem to be a way to tell BeerSmith that I will be topping up my pre-boil volume to make sure I have 3.2 gallons after the mash. I also don't understand what the tool is telling me to do with .68 gallons of water in the sparge instructions, since my mash steps explicitly call out the amount of water I'll be using.

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 3.20 gal
Post Boil Volume: 2.70 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 2.50 gal 
Bottling Volume: 2.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.042 SG
Estimated Color: 3.7 SRM
Estimated IBU: 19.0 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 74.9 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
50.00 oz              Pale 2-Row (1.8 SRM)                    Grain        1        78.1 %       
6.00 oz              Carapils (Dextrine Malt) (1.8 SRM)      Grain        2        9.4 %       
4.00 oz              Caramel / Crystal 10L (10.0 SRM)        Grain        3        6.2 %       
4.00 oz              Vienna (4.0 SRM)                        Grain        4        6.2 %       
0.10 oz              Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 55.0 min    Hop          5        7.9 IBUs     
0.10 oz              Centennial [10.00 %] - Boil 35.0 min    Hop          6        6.7 IBUs     
0.10 oz              Cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min        Hop          7        3.4 IBUs     
0.10 oz              Cascade [7.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop          8        1.1 IBUs     
1.0 pkg              Nottingham Ale Yeast (Danstar #)        Yeast        9        -           


Mash Schedule: Mario's mash using cooler
Total Grain Weight: 64.00 oz
----------------------------
Name              Description                            Step Temperat Step Time   
Mash In        Add 5.50 qt of water at 163.5 F        150.0 F      60 min       
Mash Out      Add 4.50 qt of water at 199.0 F        170.0 F      10 min       

Sparge: Batch sparge with 2 steps (Drain mash tun, , 0.68gal) of 170.0 F water
 
The math indicates that BS2 thinks you will add 1.375 quarts water per pound of grain (the 5.50 quarts).  You'd have to reduce that water ratio until BS2 was happy. 

I'm also not sure which mash type (batch or fly) makes the most sense for a partial mash with only four pounds grain.  But yours seems to be set on batch right now. 

Most of your questions relate to the Equipment Profile, which you could export as .bsm and attach so people could see the actual settings. 

Attached is mine as an example. 

Code:
Profiles \ Equipment \ highlight it \ right click \ export selected
 

Attachments

  • mine.bsmx
    1.3 KB · Views: 291
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I'm using 1.375 qts of water per lb of grain in my initial mash, which all fits comfortably in the cooler.

What I'm essentially doing is taking the partial mash methodology described in this article:http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/507-countertop-partial-mashing and applying it to an all-grain half batch using 4 lbs of grain. 

My equipment profile is attached for the half batch, please let me know if anything looks out of whack.
 

Attachments

  • mine.bsmx
    1.2 KB · Views: 292
Here's the info from the equipment profile file, which will save you a download step.


<Selections><_MOD_>1969-12-31</_MOD_>
<Name>Selections</Name>
<Type>7430</Type>
<Owndata>0</Owndata>
<TID>1</TID>
<Size>1</Size>
<_XName>Selections</_XName>
<Allocinc>16</Allocinc>
<Data><Equipment><_MOD_>2013-07-01</_MOD_>
<F_E_NAME>Mario&#39;s equipment - half batch</F_E_NAME>
<F_E_MASH_VOL>256.0000000</F_E_MASH_VOL>
<F_E_TUN_MASS>32.0000000</F_E_TUN_MASS>
<F_E_BOIL_RATE_FLAG>1</F_E_BOIL_RATE_FLAG>
<F_E_TUN_SPECIFIC_HEAT>0.3000000</F_E_TUN_SPECIFIC_HEAT>
<F_E_TUN_DEADSPACE>0.0000000</F_E_TUN_DEADSPACE>
<F_E_TUN_ADJ_DEADSPACE>0</F_E_TUN_ADJ_DEADSPACE>
<F_E_CALC_BOIL>1</F_E_CALC_BOIL>
<F_E_BOIL_VOL>423.4240000</F_E_BOIL_VOL>
<F_E_BOIL_TIME>60.0000000</F_E_BOIL_TIME>
<F_E_OLD_EVAP_RATE>9.0000000</F_E_OLD_EVAP_RATE>
<F_EQUIP_39>1</F_EQUIP_39>
<F_E_BOIL_OFF>64.0000000</F_E_BOIL_OFF>
<F_E_TRUB_LOSS>25.6000000</F_E_TRUB_LOSS>
<F_E_COOL_PCT>4.0000000</F_E_COOL_PCT>
<F_E_TOP_UP_KETTLE>0.0000000</F_E_TOP_UP_KETTLE>
<F_E_BATCH_VOL>320.0000000</F_E_BATCH_VOL>
<F_E_FERMENTER_LOSS>32.0000000</F_E_FERMENTER_LOSS>
<F_E_TOP_UP>0.0000000</F_E_TOP_UP>
<F_E_EFFICIENCY>72.0000000</F_E_EFFICIENCY>
<F_E_HOP_UTIL>100.0000000</F_E_HOP_UTIL>
<F_E_NOTES></F_E_NOTES>
</Equipment>
</Data>
<_TExpanded>1</_TExpanded>
</Selections>
 
Given your process, I would un-check the "Calculate boil vol automatically" box.    By so doing, you turn off BS2's attempt to do the behind-the-scenes water math. 

Unchecked, you can enter the exact boil volume and top-off until you're happy.  If I use your numbers, I get a post-boil of 2.7 gals, so you may need to adjust the evap rate or something. 

If you still get that error, ignore it until you have mash juice on the floor, and then adjust some more.  :D  Far more important to get the OG and IBUs correct and to be repeatable.    I did the exact same process for over a year before moving to the garage.  It's great for small batches and brewing frequently for comps.


 
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