Shouldn't the BH efficiency then be calculated off of those measurements?
Why is it then left to the user to enter in an arbitrary scaling percentage to then match the output?
I'd rather have it so I can measure gravity post mash and enter in my mash efficiency (since that can be measured) instead of having that be the item beer smith "estimates", then have the software calculate (or estimate) for me my brew house efficiency.
If I notice an incorrect measurement in my equipment profile and tweak it, by what you are saying I then have to re-baseline my BH efficiency for any of those numbers to actually make real world sense. That seems like the entire point of the software doesn't it?
If I increase the measured loss in a piece of equipment shouldn't BS lower my brew house efficiency?
Mike,
Responding to your questions from your response above:
Modeling the brewing process gives us two open material loops which must be solved. The first material balance is volume, which requires at least one variable to be defined by the user. In this case it is the volume to the fermenter. The second material volume is the sugars. To do this the user must either define the amount extracted when measuring at the beginning of the process (mash efficiency) or at the end of the process (brew house efficiency). In this instance, the designer chose the brew house efficiency.
The choice of brew house efficiency is hardly arbitrary. It may be a calculated guess when you first enter in your process into the software, but when the user spends the time and little effort to calculate the values to ensure the validity (or even just use the calculated value BeerSmith gives you on the 'session' tab) then it can be dialed in for that specific balance of volumes as defined by the equipment profile.
I, too, would like to use mash efficiency as my defined sugar extraction variable. But I do not write the software nor produce the model. In the end, either model is valid for solving the open-ended equations.
As for noticing a poor reading or estimation used for your equipment profile, this is one of the reasons I have stated many times on this forum that the user should keep track of the losses and efficiencies over several brews before locking down their equipment profile. The software is just a set of equations and not an AI. It does not draw any conclusions from your entered values in comparison to the targets. It was on my wish list in the suggestions forum to have the 'vols' tab list both the target and measured values for each of the critical parameters in the equipment profile so that the user can discern if the equipment profile does need adjustment or if one of the readings is in error. Hopefully, Brad will look to add this soon, since it is only an output of current values which are already input by the user for both the modeled and the actual readings.
Having the software automatically readjust your BHE in response to you changing a parameter outside of the equipment profile could be done, but the software does not think or recognize the intent of the user an since the BHE is one of the user defined values, there is no basis to make any adjustment within the software. The software trying to adjust a user defined variable is a quick way for the software to get into an infinite loop which would cause the software to crash.