Adjusting Automatic Sparge Volume Calculation and Water Salt/pH Calculation Question

[sencindi]

Hi BeerSmithers,
I'm having adjusting the amount of sparge water that BeerSmith calculates for me. When I add water to the recipe and input my Mash Volumes, the software consistently calculates sparge volume based on the recommended total water volumes, rather than the amount of water I input into the system.

For example, I use an Anvil Foundry, and for 16# of grain, it recommends about 7 gallons of water in the mash and 1 gallon to sparge, so I input 8 gallons of total water. However, BeerSmith recommends 9.5 total gallons of water, so when I input 7 gallons in the mash, BeerSmith calculates 2.5 gallons of sparge water. (See below) I would like to alter this calculation.



I bring this up because I've been focusing on water salts and pH, and adding the sparge water as a step in the mash schedule adds the sparge amount to the total mash water volume for the salt/pH calculations (e.g., in the water tab, it would say "Total Mash Water = 8 gallons" if I add the sparge step and volume as an additional step, instead of 7 gallons which is what I actual mash with).

I'm also not certain which volume BeerSmith uses for Salt/pH calculations: is it using the total inputted (e.g., 8 gallons) or the recommended amount (9.5 gallons)?

Thanks BeerSmithers!

 

[BOB357]

BeerSmith calculations rely heavily on user input. You need to use equipment and mash profiles that represent your system and process in order for BeerSmith to generate reasonable estimates for volumes and gravity at various stages of the process. More accurate profiles mean more accurate predictions.
Instructions for setting up profiles, or adjusting existing profiles, can be accessed from this link:

BeerSmith Support, Home Brewing Articles, Discussion Forum, Recipes | BeerSmith™ Home Brewing Software

Support for BeerSmith 3 software and also community links to our recipes, blog, discussion forum, podcast, ingredients, add-ons, extensions and more

beersmith.com

 

[sencindi]

BeerSmith calculations rely heavily on user input. You need to use equipment and mash profiles that represent your system and process in order for BeerSmith to generate reasonable estimates for volumes and gravity at various stages of the process. More accurate profiles mean more accurate predictions.
Instructions for setting up profiles, or adjusting existing profiles, can be accessed from this link:

BeerSmith Support, Home Brewing Articles, Discussion Forum, Recipes | BeerSmith™ Home Brewing Software

Support for BeerSmith 3 software and also community links to our recipes, blog, discussion forum, podcast, ingredients, add-ons, extensions and more

beersmith.com

That make sense. I'm looking at my equipment profile, but it's not clear to me how I'd adjust the expected amount of water to sparge with.

 

[BeerSmith]

The sparge water is calculated as what's needed to meet your preboil volume - specifically:
sparge_vol = boil_vol + grain_absorb - kettle_top_up + mash_tun_deadspace - mash_vol;

where:
boil_vol is the target pre boil volume
grain_absorb is the volume absorbed by the grain during the mash
mash_vol is the total volume of water added during the mash
mash_tun_deadspace is the deadspace values (from the equipment profile)
kettle_top_up is the top up water (from equip profile) added to the kettle pre-boil

If you want to force more water in the mash you can adjust the water/grain ratio for
individual mash steps by going to the mash tab and double clicking on the mash steps.

Brad

 

[Oginme]

As Bob said, your volumes are dictated by the equipment profile. I have a series of posts on how I developed the profile for my Anvil 6.5 gal starting with this post: https://beersmith.com/forum/index.p...r-the-anvil-6-5g-brewing-system-part-1.20873/.

The same method for stepping through the profile to dial it in to your specific equipment can be applied to any system. Once you have this set, you can concentrate on how to adjust the mash profile to match how you want to brew.

One caveat to this, if you want to follow the generic Anvil brewing instructions you will need to adjust how you approach the mash profile. Anvil fixes the sparge volume and has you putting in all the remaining water needed into the mash. While this simplification works for most people, I found early on that it led to more variability in my process. Mostly I suspect this is due to the highly variable method of pouring the sparge water through the grain bed which can lead to inconsistent rinsing of the sugared wort from the grist.

The way to mimic the Anvil recommended water additions is to set your 'top off water for kettle' to your intended sparge volume and then using a BIAB mash profile. This forces the software to retain the sparge volume and put all the rest of the water into the mash. You can then take that 'top off water to kettle' use that as your sparge volume.

 

[Kevin58]

Choose a BIAB mash profile with no sparge step at all. Treat the whole volume of water then pull off a gallon or two and set it aside to sparge with later.