Need help with Equip Profile

I'm a beginner extract brewer with a Brewers Best kit and have just loaded up BeerSmith2. I'm hoping someone can help with my Equipment Set-up - it's confusing me a bit.

A little background...
4 gallon pot
I typically start with 3 gallons of water for a boil and add a little over two gallons (call it 2.25) of top-off water into the primary fermenter to get to my 5 gallon batch target.
I bottle about 48 beers, so my loss is around 64oz in the fermenter/bottling volumes.

The additions and losses post boil is confusing me. I input Top Up Water at 2.25 gal. I threw .5 gal into the "Loss to Trub and Chiller", as I really don't know (is that about average?). When  I do this, it spits out a Boile volume of 3.67 and a Post Boil Vol of 3.38 gal. Since I know I started my boil with 3 gallons, how can that be? What am I missing?

I've attached some screenshots.

Thanks!
-Scott

Since you are doing extract recipes right now, I would recommend setting the loss to chiller and trub to zero.  Most often you will be pouring everything into the fermentor, correct?  Only if you leave some of the wort in the kettle with the trub should you worry too much about the loss to trub and chiller.

Next, if you normally start with 3 gallons (I am assuming measured cold) and then add 2.25 gallons to reach your 5 gallon batch size, your aim for water added when heated (which is what BeerSmith is giving you for a target) is 3 gal * 1.04 (thermal expansion) = 3.12 gal. 

Out of your 3.12 gal hot water added, you end up with 2.75 * 1.04 = 2.86 gallons at the end of the boil and before chilling.  Your boil off is 3.12 - 2.86 = 0.26 gallons. 

Does this help?

Re: Loss to Trub & Chiller - I pour my chilled wort into the fermentor through a strainer which leaves a sludge. Should I still set to zero?

Re: Water added & Post Boil Volume - Not clear on what "aim for water added when heated" means and what this target number of 3.12 gallons is. Is it suggesting that if I had started with 3.12 gallons I would have ended up with 3 gallons after the boil? I'm unclear as to what I should be doing with this information and if I am doing anything wrong by boiling 3gal and adding a bit over 2gal or if Beersmith is just using this info to calculate in recipie building.

Basically - is my set-up ok?

Thanks for your answer!

-Scott

BeerSmith gives you the calculated water at an "at temperature" value.  Water when heated expands, which is why there is a "cooling shrinkage" value in your equipment profile.  This is to compensate for the thermal expansion of water up tot boiling.  At this point, the program only figures the thermal expansion as if the hot water is at or near boiling, regardless of the actual temperature of the water.


If you are using 3 gallons of water at room temperature to start your process, BeerSmith will give you a value of "3.12" as your starting volume because it is calculating that as if it were hot water.

Since you are filtering your wort into the fermentor, I would initially set the loss to zero and then measure the volume of what you collect over the next few brews.  You can then edit your equipment profile to compensate for your observed losses.  Assume that the material is essentially all water, since it is essentially 90+% water (as I have tested it anyway).

The rest of your equipment profile looks fine.  Take measurements over the next couple of brews and you can use those numbers to fine tune it.

Incredibly helpful. Many thanks for your time and insight.