• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Yet another Batch Sparge question...

max42

Brewer
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
Messages
35
Reaction score
0
I'm very confused as to how to setup Beersmith for batch sparging.  I understand the process of batch sparging but not how to get Beersmith to create the preboil volume which is produced from 1) a Mash volume (plus an additional amount of water to compensate for grain absorption after the mash and before runoff); and 2) a sparge volume.  The 2 runoff volumes from 1) & 2) are equal.  Here is the general batch sparge description from Denny Conn's website:

"Let’s see how this works in a brewing session.  Assume a recipe with 10 lb. of grain, and that you need to collect 7 gal. of pre boil wort.  A mash ration of 1.25 qt./lb. would require 12.5 qt. or 3.125 gal. of strike water.  Based on an absorption of .1 gal./lb., the mash would absorb 1 gal. of water so we’d get 2.125 gal. of water from the mash.  Since we want to collect 3.5 gal. (or 50% of the boil volume), after the mash is complete we’d add 1.375 gal. (5.5 qt.) of water to mash tun before the first runoff.  Stir the additional water in, let it sit for a few minutes, then vorlauf until clear and start your runoff.  After the runoff, we add 3.5 gal. of batch sparge water.  Stir it in well, then vorlauf and runoff as before.  These two runoffs will give us our pre boil volume of 7 gal. of sweet wort."

Preboil 7 gal
Mash = 3.125 gal
After mash add 1.375 gal. of water to mash tun before the first runoff
Runoff = 3.5 gal
Sparge with 3.5 gal
Total collected for preboil = 7 gal

I selected Single Infusion, Medium Body, Batch Sparge for the Mash Profile.  Under the Details I have tried all the various check boxes for batch sparge and get different answers but none that produce equal runoff volumes.  Selecting equal sparges gives you equal sparge volumes but does not provide for equal runoffs (from the Mash and Sparge).  Changing the percentage of mash tun volume does not help.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

 
I am a little surprised at the lack of any response.  I also posted this on the Northern brewer forum and am getting good discussion.  Most responses don't seem to be that Beersmith can do this but work around methods.

One close suggestion pointed out that my phrase "...after the mash is complete we’d add 1.375 gal. (5.5 qt.) of water to mash tun before the first runoff.." is really a mash out (and I agree).  Then he just added a mash out step in Beersmith.  I like that idea except that determining the amount of water does not seem automatic, which is basically what I'm looking for.

I hope to hear more from the experts here...
 
max42 said:
Then he just added a mash out step in Beersmith.  I like that idea except that determining the amount of water does not seem automatic, which is basically what I'm looking for.

+1

Unfortunately, Beersmith doesn't currently automatically calculate a mash out on batch sparging.  I add the mash out step and then play with the amount of the mashout to get equal runoffs when I create a recipe.  Not sure if this is something that will be included in the next release but it would be a great enhancement for us batch spargers.
 
Back
Top