BIAB and Cooling Shrinkage

For BIAB brewers using Beersmith, should we zero out the "Cooling Shrinkage" value in our equipment profile if the full volume into the kettle is measured cold?

My Equipment and Mash profiles combine to give me this for a typical recipe:

Volume Tab

* MASH *
Tot Mash Water: 8.08 gal
Grain Absorption: .74 gal
Water Avail from Mash: 7.34 gal

* Boil and Fermentation *
Kettle Top Up: 0 gal
Est Pre-Boil Vol: 7.34 gal
Boil Off: 1 gal
Post Boil Vol: 6.34 gal
Cooling Shrinkage: .25 gal
Trub Loss: .6 gal

* Fermentation/Bottling *
Batch Size: 5.5 gal

Since I put the initial 8.08 gallons into the my Boil Kettle cold (BIAB, Full Volume) I will end up with an extra .25 gallons in the kettle assuming I hit my trub loss, boil off and grain absorption numbers.

I think that as long as you have room for your volume increase with temperature, measuring initally at room temperature will be accurate.

Hot and cold are relative terms. Water reaches its maximum density at 39 F (3.8C). That's too cold to be practical for wort production. Expansion is not linear, either. The expansion percentage will be a good double check to make sure you're not over filling while writing recipes, even if you later make it zero.

brewfun said:

I think that as long as you have room for your volume increase with temperature, measuring initally at room temperature will be accurate.

Hot and cold are relative terms. Water reaches its maximum density at 39 F (3.8C). That's too cold to be practical for wort production. Expansion is not linear, either. The expansion percentage will be a good double check to make sure you're not over filling while writing recipes, even if you later make it zero.

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Thanks for the response. Good point about using the expansion value to be sure I'm not over filing.

I'm mainly checking to see if it's logical to zero it out. Seems to me the math supports the fact that if I use BIAB and measure cold (my tap water right now is 45° F) then any amount factored in to compensate for cooling shrinkage will be excess water.

Any other thoughts or opinions on this?

It would stand to reason that if I measure the water in my BIAB kettle cold then I should not factor in cooling shrinkage.

It would make sense to me...........

But would also be interested to hear from the experts.

Cervantes said:

It would make sense to me...........

But would also be interested to hear from the experts.

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I would be interested to hear from the experts as well, any other thoughts on this??

The number one expert on these boards has already replied to your post.