SS Brewtech 10 gallon mash tun

Hello,

Have recently started using BeerSmith in conjunction with my SS Brewtech 10 gallon mash tun and copied some setting I found on their knowledge website to set up the details of the equipment. I have brewed twice since I did this and on both occasions I have missed the strike temperature by at least 7 degrees and have then had to add a lot more hot water to get up to the correct temp. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

Cheers

mike

(1) Do you have the option for adjusting strike temperature for equipment clicked on?

(2) Are you updating the temperature of your mash tun on your mash tab to the current ambient conditions (this goes for grain temp as well) to get an updated strike temperature?

(3) If you have done the above, then you will need to make a change in your equipment profile and correct the weight of the mash tun and/or its specific heat.

Hi Ogin,

I have the adjust for strike temp box ticked but I hadn't adjusted the grain or ambient temps. The 2 times I have brewed have been in the last 3 weeks when the weather has been a bit cooler and the time before that was over the summer when the ambient and grain temps will have been higher. Am due to brew this weekend and will make sure I update with accurate readings for both before I add the strike water and see how I get on.

Thanks very much for your help.

Mike

Hi Ogin,

I adjusted for all those things and the strike temp was still 8 degrees out. Any more ideas?

Thanks

Mike

The 'cheaters' way of making the adjustment is to make a copy of a recipe you brewed.  Adjust the mash profile to give your actual mash temperature achieved when you added the strike water and grains.  Now edit the equipment profile (it's the little check mark icon next to the equipment profile on the design tab) and adjust the specific heat value (up to raise the strike temperature, lower to reduce the strike temperature) and save the profile.  Now click back to the mash page and see if the predicted strike temperature is closer to your actual recorded strike temperature.  If not, make another adjustment.  Rinse, lather, and repeat, until you get a calculated strike temperature that is very close to your actual strike temperature with the target being your actual mash temperature.


Once you have the software correctly giving you those values, click on the disk icon next to the equipment profile to save that profile to your library of profiles.  You can give it another name if you want to differentiate it from your past equipment profiles -- and I highly recommend that.  I add the date of the correction to the end of the profile name so that I can see if I have updated the equipment profile in one of my recipes to the newest one at a glance.

Thanks Ogin, will give that a try.