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Lauter tun deadspace

L

linusstick

I'm trying to grasp the equipment profile since there was none in Beersmith and I'm building my own. With lauter tun deadspace, should I put 0 there if I am doing batch sparges? Is mash tun and lauter tun considered two different things? If not, then I understand this field. Then I just fill my mash tun with water, let it drain until it stops and measure how much water hasn't gone through the screen. Sound right?
 
Yes, for some people it may be two separate vessels, and they physically move the mash from the mash tun to the lauter tun; for most I think they mash in a converted cooler or stainless vessel that has a valve at the bottom so they can drain from there and start lautering. 

Whatever liquid that remains in the bottom of the vessel is considered lost "deadspace" but you need to account for it since it is wort (of the same OG) that you made with the certain quantity of grains and water you used.  BeerSmith tracks this loss and factors it into your overall brewhouse efficiency.  If you did not take "credit" for this amount, your efficiency would look lower than it should. 
 
So am I right in how to calculate lauter tun deadspace? I'll just put water in my mash tun and drain it until it stops coming. When it stops I will pour that water that's left into containers to see how much is left?
 
I would think that would get you close enough to make a good entry for the next batch.  With water's expansion when hot, you might get a slightly different number when measuring actual wort at approx. 155F after your next batch.  Whether that matters much may depend on the size of your rig. 
 
It's a 5 gallon Gott cooler. How else is there to measure lauter tun deadspace than what I just said? Heat the water to 155F and do the same? I wouldn't think I could do it after draining the mash other than maybe after it's done draining turn the cooler on its side and measure what comes out. With there still being a grain bed in there I can't see any other way. Is there something I'm missing here?

MaltLicker said:
I would think that would get you close enough to make a good entry for the next batch.  With water's expansion when hot, you might get a slightly different number when measuring actual wort at approx. 155F after your next batch.  Whether that matters much may depend on the size of your rig. 
 
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