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Mash tun volume

Jsteines

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I'm looking for a little advice with my equipment profile. I have a 5 gallon cooler for a mash tun, I boil in a turkey fryer (about 7 gal), ferment in 6 gallon primary and 6 gallon glass secondary, and keg in 5 gallon korny's...

Basically I'd like to make the biggest batches my equipment can handle. Ideally 5 gallons of finished product. However, I find myself having to make new equipment profiles often to get the mash tun volume at or below 5 gallons. The scale function seems to overlook the mash tun volume. Do others have this issue?

Also, I am very excited to start using the mobile version, as 95% of my home computing is on an iPad. However, I cannot find the "mash tun volume needed" info in the app. Is this just a limitation of the software? It gives you the water volume easy enough, and the grain bill in lbs, but not the total volume in simple terms. As my mash tun seems to be my limiting factor this info would be useful.

I'd love to hear the thoughts of more experienced users on this matter. Thanks, and other than these issues ( which may just be my lack of knowledge ) great software!

Joe
 
I guess I'm a little confused on why you are having to make new equipment profiles that often.  If you use the side navigation and go into profiles and then equipment, you should see all the stock profiles and everything that you have made.  If none of yours are in there then they were not saved and you only modified the equipment profile for that recipe.  My best suggestion would be to take one of the stock profiles that is close to your setup and modify it to match your exact equipment.  Then you can set it as your default and you shouldn't have to mess with it.

As for the iPad app, I'd love to help but I don't use Apple products :)

Cheers!
 
+1 on first creating a custom Equipment Profile that matches your set-up.  But reaching a finished 5 gallons is more restricted by your current equipment than by BS2. 

A 5-gallon MLT is a little self-limiting, but at lower water:grist ratios such as 1.1 quarts per pound, you should be able to make worts up to 1.065 to 1.070, based on squeezing ~14 or 15 pounds in the MLT, and probably batch sparging to save the room needed for a fly sparge arm.  (Once you dial in what amount of grain is physically possible, however, you will hit a wall on reaching higher OGs on grain alone.) 

But a 7-gallon boil pot is tight, probably allowing only a six-gallon boil that must be watched like a hawk.  Boil a gallon off, and you're at 5 gallons before any system losses along the way to packaging.   

For those considering AG or new equipment, a good minimum boil capacity (i.e., not pot capacity) is probably 7 gallons.  Boil one off, and have six finished gallons to move along to a finished 5 gallons in the keg.  Anything bigger is welcome, so boilovers are less likely, or you could start bigger and boil down a Wee Heavy or Dopplebock.    Or split a finished 8 gallons and do batch variations on identical worts, such as different dry hopping or different yeasts. 
 
Thanks for the replies.
To answer your question glienhard, I have to make different equipment profiles with different batch volumes. This is because when I take a recipe from the web site and scale it down to my equipment profile for instance, a 5 gallon batch; BS2 scales everything down... But then if you look at the mash directions, it says "mash tun volume needed" = 6.2 gallons.

So understanding that my MLT is limiting my batch size. (And understanding that I need to go shopping for a bigger MLT) is there a way to get BS2 to scale a recipe with my 5 gallon MLT in mind. In lieu of the trial and error of starting with a 5 gallon batch size profile... Then seeing the mash is over 5 gallons and re-scaling to a 4 gallon batch profile.

Don't get me wrong... The software is great. I guess I'm just wishing it would take the limits of my MLT into account when I scale a recipe. Am I doing something wrong?
 
A simple fix to this problem would be to change the grist to water ratio to where it would fit your mash tun.  And in Beersmith's defense,the total mash volume will have a red dot next to it, indicating that it will not fit into your mash tun.  I know this, because I am looking at a Parti Gyle for my next brew.  English Barleywine, then some paleish ale for the second runnings.  My mash in volume was too loose and exceeded the volume of my tun until I adjusted the water/grist ratio.
 
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