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BeerSmith Newbie

mgtenn

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Oct 27, 2013
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Hello fellow brewers,
I'm new to BeerSmith and have started brewing again after a 14-year hiatus.  I stopped brewing when I moved to Seattle  ;)  I've been living in Ala-freaking-Bama since '07 and I'm missing the beers I've become accustomed to.  I've got a Brew Tree setup that I bought when I knew I was leaving the Northwest and I'm brewing all-grain.  Alabama finally made it legal to homebrew this year  :)After a rough start, shaking off the rust and cobwebs and dumping some nasty tasting concoctions I'm starting to feel better about my beers.  It's become an obsession now.  I bottled a Porter last week, need to bottle an ESB today and have a Winter Ale in the primary. I'd be happy to hear some input on the accuracy in the calculations in the BeerSmith recipe design program as I've had some issues over the past year with OG, FG and ABV with other programs.
Thanks.
 
IMO, the formulas inside BS2 and other softwares are likely very similar, if not identical.  Some things could be more intuitive in BS2, as it was a major upgrade from v1.4, and again, IMO, some of the basic utility got buried behind some degree of "feature overload" that some beginners have difficulty working through. 

Since you've brewed before, you may not have those learning-curve issues as much as someone learning AG as well as learning brewing software. 

But once you set up your Equipment Profile with accurate volumes and any repeatable losses, the software does the math and predicts the basic targets very well. 

There's decent help screens, some how-to videos on the site, and this forum to get answers. 
 
MaltLicker said:
But once you set up your Equipment Profile with accurate volumes and any repeatable losses, the software does the math and predicts the basic targets very well. 
There's decent help screens, some how-to videos on the site, and this forum to get answers.

+1.  I love the software!  Getting your equipment set up in there will make things pretty simply.  I brewed with my first batch sparge ever last week (I'd always fly sparged) and hit my numbers spot on.  Pretty impressive.  Glad to see people brewing in AL (I knew some who did even in spite of the ban).  Welcome back!
 
Thanks MaltLicker.  I've set up my equipment profile, which was something I had not done previously and I see the changes in the calculations.  I'll probably have to tweak it more and after a few more batches I'm hoping to have it set correctly.  I'm also noticing 75 minutes on the mash time instead of 60 and I'll incorporate that change as well.
 
Mtnmangh, Thanks for the welcome back.  What's the difference between batch sparged and fly sparged?  I think I have my equipment profile set up properly now.  I'll find out on my next brew day.  I did brew a couple of batches before it became legal  ;) and I'm glad I'm not breaking any laws now, except the laws of gravity (high gravity, that is)
 
mgtenn said:
Mtnmangh, Thanks for the welcome back.  What's the difference between batch sparged and fly sparged?  I think I have my equipment profile set up properly now.  I'll find out on my next brew day.  I did brew a couple of batches before it became legal  ;) and I'm glad I'm not breaking any laws now, except the laws of gravity (high gravity, that is)

Sparging is the rinsing of the grains after the mash is complete, in order to get as much sugar out as possible.  You obviously already know this, but someone that reads this that isn't an all grain brewer will benefit from knowing what sparging is.

Now, to the difference between batch sparging and fly sparging.

Batch Sparging:
Adding heated water in large batches (just pouring it in) and then draining the Mash Lauter Tun to pull the sugars out with the rinse water into the boil pot.  It's a very simple way of extracting the sugars.  You basically add a small amount of heated water to your mashed grains, while they are still in the original mash water, in order to bring the water temperature up to about 168F.  You then vorlauf (slowly draw some water out) and recycle it slowly back into the MLT, until you're drawing off clear wort.  Vorlauf, basically means to slowly recycle until you get clear runnings coming out, with no grain husks, etc in those runnings.  Once you have vorlaufed and have clear runnings, you simply drain the MLT into your boil pot.  You then add your larger batch sparge addition, trying to keep the temperature at 168F. stir and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.  You then vorlauf again and drain.  If you have your equipment profile set up correctly, this should give you your precise preboil volume at your anticipated preboil OG.

Fly Sparging:
Fly sparging has the advantage of higher efficiency in most cases.  Fly sparging involves having a Hot Liquor Tank.  A hot liquor tank, is basically a container to hold your sparge water at 168F.  The term "liquor" in the beer making process means "hot water".  To fly sparge, you once again vorlauf your MLT until you have clear runnings.  However, instead of adding batches of water to rinse, instead you slowly sprinkle the sparge water over the surface of the grain bed, as you slowly drain wort out at the same rate that sparge water is going in.  This requires that you have some extra stuff in your MLT, such as a special set up, so that you pull wort out of the MLT over the entire bottom of the MLT.  You also have to have an arm over the top of your MLT, that sprinkles water evenly over the entire surface.  The rinse water needs to drain down evenly through the entire grain bed, or you will leave some areas unrinsed, and lose efficiency.  If you fly sparge too quickly, you will get channels developing where the rinse water goes through easily, and water from other parts of the MLT will divert to that channel instead of down through the grain bed.  Fly sparging correctly can take 60-90 minutes to properly and efficiently rinse the sugars out of the grains.  Fly sparging is not easy, and requires patience, but once you get a fly sparging system dialed in, you'll get the most out of your grains.

I am a batch sparger.  I sacrifice a little bit of efficiency, but save a lot of time.  I also avoid the worries about my sparge water channelling and leaving sugars behind.  I have to up my grain bill a few ounces or a half pound to account for the slightly lower efficiencies, but the savings in time is worth it to me.  I've noticed that most published recipes are batch sparges, so I only need to worry about the small differences in efficiencies between the recipe creators system and my system.  Now that my efficiencies are getting consistently up around 80%, most of the time I'll actually miss my OG's high, if I miss them.

I hope that this helped you.
 
Batch sparging took me from about 6 hours to brew (including all the clean up) to about 4.5.  I fly sparged pretty slow as I found it pushed my numbers up pretty well.  I think batch will be the way I go in the future.  I brew on days off, so the time is not a huge issue, but my brew buddy usually has to work the next day, so, since I really appreciate his help, I try to shorten things up.
 
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