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Tun Losses and Additions Tabs

bucko

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After upgrading to V2.3 I found that the new version has renamed Mash Tun Deadspace to Lauter Tun Losses and added a new Mash Tun Additions tab.  How exactly are you suppose to use these two tabs?

I brew on a Blichmann Top Tier and also use a Tower of Power for RIMS controller.  My batch sizes are typically 5.25gals and I "mash and lauter", as most homebrewers do, in a single vessel. I use 10gal Boilermaker and use the associated false bottom screen.  Prior to the V2.3 upgrade I had .249gal set in the Mash Tun Deadspace tab and that carried over to the new Lauter Tun Losses tab.  My .249gal of tun losses are from .130gal of waste left in the mash tun after the sparge is complete plus .119gal of losses in the pump and hoses that does not make it to the boil kettle.  Should I split up these two values, (.130gal tun loss  + .119gal hose-pump loss) on the Mash additions tab and Lauter Losses tabs or just leave things as they are with my total losses setting in the "Lauter Tun Lossess" tab?

The description under the Mash Tun Additions tab is somewhat hard to understand.  It says "recoverable space under the mash scren".  Recoverable???? really???? I have never been able to recover the lost wort under my mash screen.  It has 10-13lb of grain sitting on top of it.  In my case it is a measely  .130gals, but on a much larger mash tun I could see that being much larger with more lbs of grain sitting on top of it.  So what exactly are these two tabs used for and more importantly what other values outcomes in other sections of Beersmith are effected based on the entries in one or both of theses tabs?

My pre-boil vols have been "dead on balls" (that's a technical term for highly accurate) with typically only about a pint of recoverable wort left in the mash tun after I hit my pre-boil vol.

BTW IMO Beersmith is the only way to go.  With the combination of Beersmith and Blichmann Engineering I get a  mash efficiency of  90%-93%
 
The split was added due to some people with systems using a basket, highly set false bottom, or other separating device between the grains and the mash tun drain which caused some distress in that the mash infusion of a given water to grain ratio would not fully cover the grains.  This allows for those systems to configure their equipment such that there are the mash tun losses (wort which cannot be drained out) and Mash tun additions (wort which is above the drain, but below the grain) in a proper way to account accurately for the actual grain to water ratio for the infusion.

IMHO, you should consider all losses (lauter tun and hose) as your lauter tun losses. If you split them up, the program will add the amount of wort for 'mash tun additions' to your runnings.
 
I do explain the new mash addition here: http://beersmith.com/blog/2016/08/07/beersmith-2-3-update-new-features-detailed-overview/

Basically the mash addition is added to the first mash step but is not considered a loss (i.e. it is recoverable volume), while the lauter tun loss is considered deadspace (i.e. the wort is lost during the transfer).

Brad
 
Thanks for the response.  Being not totally familiar with separate issues BIAB system brewers might have, I now realize that "recoverable wort" in that type of mash is very much a possibility.  Since those issues don't pertain to my setup I will record my Mash Tun Losses only. 

Which now leads me to the reason for my initial post.  Maybe this should go in the bug list or require a new post but after I upgraded V2.3 I noticed a small anomaly in the computation of Est Pre-Boil Volume. I am not sure if this is a new rounding error or a change in how that value is now predicted.

If I open a recipe CREATED with V2.2 and then SAVE it again I notice that the before opening and after saving value of the Est Pre-Boil Volume is different even though I did not modify anything on either the recipe or the Equipment profile used.  It is a very small difference with a 5gal batch so I am not sure if it is larger as batch size grows. 

I exported a recipe to XML format file before opening and after opening and found two values that had changed before and after. <BOIL_SIZE> and <EVAP_RATE>
 
Not sure - I did find an issue today with some volume unit conversions (particularly calculated values) which I corrected in 2.3.7 (coming shortly) so you might want to check that.

I did rework some of the pre-boil estimates based on some issues we had in estimating proper mash volumes, post-mash OG and mash gravity.  I don't think any of those should have affected the pre-boil volume however.

The pre-boil volume is pretty easy to calculate - just start with the batch volume and work backwards to calculate it including your boil off, cooling losses, boil top up, etc...

Brad
 
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