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Lost on batch sparging utility

OK,
 I'm working through the batch sparge additions mentioned above.  I should have an update ready sometime this weekend for those that want to test it.

 I will post a link here in this thread first so you can try out the patch before I release it as a formal update.

 Thanks again for all of your inputs!

Cheers!
Brad
 
When I changed % on my MLT volume to 40% I got 2 rounds of sparge.  That is what I was looking for.

Don
 
OK,
 I patched the batch sparge "bug" and also added the new batch sparge features.

 http://www.beersmith.com/download.htm

 I consider this a beta version - and I may change the features if you don't like it.  The build number is 021 (About box on the Help menu will show the current version and build).

 Let me know if you find any problems, as I want to get all of the bugs out before I incorporate this in the main version.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Brad,
Just installed the patch & the first thing I see is that when you select the equal batches option, on the brewsheet the "Batch Sparge Round 1" drains the tun & the "Batch Sparge Round 2" does a sparge with the full volume needed. Is there any way to make it so you can drain the tun & then do 2 sparges. So in other words going from what it gives me above, you would have a "Batch Sparge Round 3" & if you need 4 gallons to make your pre-boil volume after you drain the tun, Round 2 & Round 3 would both be 2 gallons to equal the 4 gallons you need.

Danno
 
I think you want to decrease the percentage of the tun to use for sparging.  I set mine at 100%.  This works great for me, but I have a 30qt mash tun.  If you have a 48qt mash tun, you probably should set it down to 75%.  This should give you 2 sparges, instead of one.

I have to say, now that the patch is loaded, the batch sparge feature is absolutely awesome!  Thanks for listening Brad.
 
This is one of the things we were trying to eliminate, messing with the fill percentage when doing 2 sparges. I can do that without the patch. Is there someway to have an input box where you can tell Beersmith I want to do 1, 2 or even 3 sparges, & have it take the needed volume & divide that by the number in the input box?

I'm getting the same value with the Batch Sparge & the Drain boxes checked as I am with the Equal Volumes box checked. To me the drain volume should not be considered in the batch sparge volume.

Danno
 
Danno,
 I can probably change the batch numbering - it is not all that hard to alter.

 As far as the number of batches, BeerSmith basically takes the mash tun capacity left (after the grains and absorbed water are accounted for) and then uses that to divide up the remaining sparge water needed.

 If I put a simple number in there, it would certainly be possible to overflow the mash tun (which is OK, I guess, but could be a little messy).

 However, I may have totally missed the boat on your post - so please provide clarification if I'm way off here.

Thanks again!
Brad
 
I am getting 4 rounds including the drain to start no matter what % I set the MLT volume at.

round 1 drain
round 2 1.68 gal
round 3 1.68 gal
round 4 1.2 gal
this is for a 5 gal batch.

I have been doing 2 round since I started sparging this way.  I thought if I messed around with the % it would change but it has not.  

Any Suggestions?

Don
 
Don,
 I had this happen once - it turned out my equipment settings were way off - take a look and make sure your mash tun volume in the equipment settings WITHIN the recipe are correct.

Cheers!
Brad
 
I have a 5 gal. Rubbermaid system.  It is set to 5 gal vol.
4 lb MLT weight


That should be correct.  I think 8)

Don
 
God damn! wrote my whoel post then had an error & lost it all, so here goes again!

Brad,
The method I use is to drain the tun first, then do two sparges of equal volume. So I would like to see it so you check the drain tun box, then input the number of sparges you want to do, 1, 2, 3, whatever. Then check the equal volumes box.

a quick example using a 7 gallon pre-boil volume:

say I get 3 gallons from my intial tun drain. I specify I want to do 2 sparges. It takes the remaining 4 gallons & gives me two sparges of 2 gallons each. If I specified 3 sparges it would give me 3 sparges at 1.33 gallons each.

Not sure if I'm asking for too much here, but this is what I would like to see. I think it would make it more versitile with peoples different sparging techniques. I can always mess with the fill % if it's to much of a pain to change. You have done an awesome job with this program & upgrade & am in no way putting it down.

Danno
 
Forgive me for my programming ignorance, I'm not sure how difficult my ideas are to do, but as far as overfilling the mash tun, could you have the batch sparge utility look at your tun volume that you enter in your equipment setup & create an error window or something if it is over filled during one of the sparges?

Danno
 
Danno,
 That sounds very reasonable - perhaps one more option for sparging using a certain number of batches.

 Only concern I have is to try not to make the batch sparge options too complex.  Still it seems reasonable.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Man I love having an office at home.  Here I am having a stout and messing with beer stuff ;D.

Any how,  I still get strange things with the batch sparge.  I choose drain tun first and I am still getting the round 1 sparge of .17 gal.  Every time I go back to the details button it is back to the default of 90% and only that box checked No matter what I do it will not change in the brew sheet.

Any ideas while I have another beer :D

Don
 
Don,
 Most likely this is caused by one of two things:

 1) Your equipment settings are not correct - so there is no room in your mash tun.  Check the equipment parameters (mash tun capacity) for this recipe.

 2) Your mash tun is almost filled to the top with grain - for example you might be brewing a high gravity ale.

If neither of the above are true - email the recipe to me and I will run it through the debugger!

Cheers!
Brad
 
Brad

Heres what problem I'm having......no matter what I change my mash tun % to I only get one step.  My equiptment is set to 15 gallon mash tun (default for 15 gallon brewtree system).  being new to all grain batch sparging heres what I would like to see hope it's not too much to ask for I spent allot of time reading about all grain brewing and this way seems the most straight forward I downloaded an excel spreadsheet that fiqures all this out and It's pretty much been dead on for me...here goes  when batch sparging is selected you choose the amount of runoffs you would like (for me 2) and the software figures out based on the amount of grain how much water you need for the first run off taking into account the amount the grain absorbs, (water volume will be more for the first one) and and then tells you how much water to add for the second one, to achieve 2 euqal runoffs  after the grain absorbtion is taken into account.  also it would be great to have runoff gravities in there and a utility to tell you what your effic. is based on actual readings.  one more thing that would be good when importing a recipe that you wish to brew by using batch sparging it would be good to have the prog scale up the amount of grain needed based on recipe volume to achieve the same efficency as a non batch sparge brew session that may have a higher effieiency.  heres a link to the spreadsheet I mentioned I find it's features very useful without it I would of had a much harder time understanding how to get started.  http://home.elp.rr.com/brewbeer/files/nbsparge.xls


thanks

Jason
 
Thanks - I will take a close look at the spreadsheet.  I still have not gone final on this so I hopefully there are some minor adjustments that can be made.

Other points:
- Hopefully you have downloaded the latest batch sparge update:
   http://www.beersmith.com/download.htm

- BeerSmith does calculate the water needed for the sparge based on your grains, absorbtion,  etc...and then divides that as needed to match the parameters you specify in the batch sparge options.

- I am looking at an option to specify the number of runoffs...and will certainly examine your spreadsheet before I proceed.

- The pre-boil target gravity is displayed on the brewsheet.  I could probably also estimate rough starting/ending runoff gravities but obviously this can vary significantly during the runoff.  I will look into it however.

- You can easily scale a recipe by efficiency - just use the "Scale Recipe" button and change the efficiency number in that dialog.  The program will adjust ingredient amounts to match the new number.

Cheers!
Brad
 
Brad,

look at these batch sparge spread sheets.  (sent by email) They follow what you have seen, but they are based on recipe formulation, not conversion, and thus predict gravities based on available points in the grain bill (estimated by grain wt * 37).

Also look at the fall-off of effeciency as gravity increases.

Fred Bonjour
 
Thanks!
 I will take a close look at the spreadsheets this weekend and try to decide where I need to go next.

 Clearly an option to specify number of batches would be nice, and separately some kind of calculator for the gravity of the runnings/falloff over time.

 The latter piece I might not include right now, only because I need to do some research and testing first.

Cheers!
Brad
 
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