Hi Brad, thanks for the quick response. The setting you are referring to allows the user to change the amount of volume/space occupied by a Kg of grain in the tun. What I'm looking for is a way to set the amount of water absorbed by the grain during the mash. I lose .15 gallons per pound or slightly more, meaning that when I mash 10lbs of grain, I lose 1.5 gallons of water to absorption by the grain. If I mash in with 16qts of water (4 gallons), I'm going to get right at 10qts (2.5 gallons) out on the first run. Beersmith takes this loss into account but uses a percentage that is too low, in my opinion.
Beersmith allows the user to set lauter tun deadspace, losses to trub, etc. All of those things affect the calculation that shows up as "Prepare X gallons of water for brewing," the "boil volume" calculation, and the batch sparge volumes. Somewhere in that calculation is a fixed variable that takes into account the amount of water lost to absorption by the grain and adds it into the amount needed on brew day. I know that I'm going to lose more than Beersmith thinks I am, so I have to scribble adjustments on my brewsheets. If that variable could be set by the user (or even just adjusted upward a little), I think it would be easier to create brewsheets that were better reflections of reality.
Thanks again,
Chad