Batch sparge with equal volumes exceeds "Total Water Volume"

With a thin mash (e.g., 1.750 qt/lb), selecting the"Batch Sparge with Equal Volume" check-box for the mash procedure can result in mash + sparge volumes that exceed the amount listed in the "Total Water Volume" field in the "Vols" tab.  A dialogue box indicating that this will occur (Accept increase in boil volume / Cancel) may be a nice solution.

Cheers.
~Andrew

EDIT: Win 7x64, Beersmith2 v. 2.1.02.

In the equipment profile, is "Calculate Boil Volume Automatically" checked?

In the same section, is "Lauter Tun Deadspace" correct? And is "Adjust Mash Vol for Deadspace" checked? If so, that amount is not going to end up in the kettle, but will be part of the total water.

On the Vols tab, the lauter deadspace is automatically added in, regardless of whether you checked the "Adjust ... Deadspace" button (which IS a bug).

The last thing is if you've changed the grain absorption amount in the Options > Advanced menu to be a lot more than is actually absorbed, that will affect the volumes, too.

brewfun said:

In the equipment profile, is "Calculate Boil Volume Automatically" checked?

In the same section, is "Lauter Tun Deadspace" correct? And is "Adjust Mash Vol for Deadspace" checked? If so, that amount is not going to end up in the kettle, but will be part of the total water.

On the Vols tab, the lauter deadspace is automatically added in, regardless of whether you checked the "Adjust ... Deadspace" button (which IS a bug).

The last thing is if you've changed the grain absorption amount in the Options > Advanced menu to be a lot more than is actually absorbed, that will affect the volumes, too.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I noticed I misspoke in my subject field (but not in my post).  Either way, none of the items you suggest should have any logical influence on the "total water volume" field.  Looking at the water tab, the mash volume matches the volume listed on the mash tab, but the sparge volume is lower on the water tab than on the mash tab (in the "sentence", not the field at the bottom):

Sparge field (at bottom) says: 2.95 gal
Sparge sentence (at top) says: "Batch sparge with two steps (Drain mash tun, , 3.18 gal) of 168.0 F water"

When using my process printout for brew day, it uses the $SPARGE_STEPS parameter, which cites the sparge sentence.

In trying to replicate this error, I kept the mash ratio at 1.75:1 and reasonable mash temps. I couldn't get the two tabs to disagree.

When I created a mash at 1.75:1, settling at 153F; then infused boiling water for mashout, the ratio rose to 2.25:1. This replicated your error. This was due to the first runnings being greater than 50% of the kettle volume.

You asked BS to "batch sparge with equal volumes." In the Vols tab, are the "Water Avail from Mash" and "Sparge Volume" boxes equal?

When I unclicked the equal volumes box, the difference vanished. Is your experience still different?

I'm not sure what you're suggesting; see the attached images; hopefully a better illustration.

I was trying to explain that the error is caused by asking for equal batch volumes.

In the water tab, the fifth field from the top is the yield expected from your mash (3.41 gal). The bottom field is the remaining water needed (2.95 gal) for your preboil volume of 6.36 gallons. 3.41 + 2.95 = 6.36 gallons

As your first post pointed out, you have the Use equal batch sizes box checked. This tells BS to use 50% of your preboil volume as the second batch. 3.18 + 3.18 = 6.36 gallons.

Since your mash ratio starts with a yield greater than 50% of the boil volume, BS is giving you BOTH of the answers you've asked for. In the Water tab, the sparge is the real remainder. In the sparge instructions, it is following what you asked by checking the equal batch volume box. In both cases, the expected preboil volume is equal to what's in your equipment profile.

So, the dialogue box you're requesting shouldn't just note the discrepancy, but also point to the initial runoff being greater than 50% of the preboil volume, thereby making equal batch volumes impossible.

Until that box arrives, just check to see if your initial runoff exceeds 50% of the preboil volume.