BIAB with Sparge

[CraigF]

Hello,
I'm new to the forum and not seeing the specific topic in need help with.
I use a Clawhammer 20 Gal all electric closed loop BIAB system.
After adding water adjustments i separate a few gallons for sparging.

My question is: how do i configure BS?

thanks Craig

 

[BOB357]

There's an equipment profile for the Clawhammer 20-gallon in add-ons. Install the add-on and make adjustments as needed to represent your batch size, procedure, etc. Once you've done that, make the necessary adjustments to the mash profiles you use.

 

[Oginme]

BeerSmith setting for BIAB mash designates to the software that all the water being added, less any top offs to the boil or fermenter, is used in the mash.

There are two ways to get around this. The first is to use a standard mash profile and adjust the initial infusion to leave a couple of gallons out for the sparge. The drawback on this method is that you may need to make adjustments within the recipe if you want to keep a consistent sparge volume, since the program uses the sparge volume to make up any difference in water needed for the recipe. If you are not so concerned with allowing the sparge volume to vary, then you will be set. You will then need to make sure you have the setting in the water profile page of the recipe set to add all the water agents into the mash.

The second method is to use the BIAB mash setting and set your equipment profile to add 2 gallons (or whatever your sparge volume will be) as top off water to kettle. The drawback here is that the water profile within the recipe defaults to the mash water needed in order to properly calculate the resultant mash pH.

Either way of dealing with the mash profile will work fine once you get accustomed to using them and learn the steps you will need to take to make it work for you.

 

[BeerSmith]

Yes my recommendation would be to use a standard mash profile. If you want to adjust the volumes used you can double click on the mash steps in the mash profile and set the water/grain ratio for each step. I don't recommend going too low (below 1.0 qt/lb) on the water/grain ratio however or you will get a very thick mash. Anything water needed that's not in the original mash steps effectively becomes the sparge water amount.

 

[CraigF]

There's an equipment profile for the Clawhammer 20-gallon in add-ons. Install the add-on and make adjustments as needed to represent your batch size, procedure, etc. Once you've done that, make the necessary adjustments to the mash profiles you use.

Thanks Bob for the equipment tip.
I did some math to determine deadspace vs. gallons in kettle - i'll have to chew on the BS generated Mash Volume, and Sparge/Lauter numbers to make sense of them.
---Craig

 

[BeerSmith]

Here's a quick summary of how the sparge water is calculated:

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 value (from the equipment profile)
kettle_top_up is the top up water (from equip profile) added to the kettle pre-boil

 

[CraigF]

Thanks Bob & others for your comments.
My ultimate goal is to use BS to guide me on water additions - so getting the water volume is paramount.
I've written a spread sheet that inputs grain pounds + intended volume into fermenter + grain absorption + boil volume loss + hops absorption + shrinkage, and computes mash total water volume required.

I've been able to adjust BIAB grain absorption within BS to match my spreadsheet calculations.

I've also created a table informing me as to deadspace based on volume of mash water, so for example at a computed mash water volume of 16.5G, i'll have 4.5G of deadspace within the clawhammer 20G kettle.

I can follow BS adjustments to Mash Volume Needed based on various Tun Deadspace inputs. - it does look like BS adjusts Mash Volume Needed regardless of whether i've checked the box for Adjust Mast Volume for deadspace.

I'd expect the Sparge Vol field to update based on my inputs, but does not????

Based on the 40.6 lbs grains, 4.5G deadspace & 10G fermentation BS computes Mash Vol = 24.6G. my own calcs. show that only 16.5G is required for mash volume, i have to assume that BS uses a much higher Water to Grist ratio than i use ???? thoughts?

One last question:
the clawhammer equipment profile lists the kettle volume at 20G - since there is a full gallon of additional space within the kettle, is there any reason i couldn't modify the profile with the 21G figure?

Thanks Again,
Craig

 

[FatherSonBrew]

From my understanding it would be appropriate to change kettle size to 21 gallons, if this is the true volume size.
What this buys you is that BS calculates "Mash Volume Needed" under the Mash tab of recipe. If you increase your batch size this will help you up front visualize if you be going too far. We have found this useful on our 10 gallon Electric B.!.A.B system where we actually have an 11 gallon kettle. High gravity 5.5 gallon batches will push a 10 gallon kettle creating a large likely hood of boil overs. Just sayin

 

[CraigF]

I’ll update my Clawhammer equipment profile. The kettle has 1G markings up to 20, there is 1+ G of additional space to the rim, which I’ve leveraged on a batch or two.
Thanks for your input.