Beersmith

[mckenry]

Hi all,
I am on my L plates with AG. It seems I have been winging it a bit to get my final volumes, gravity etc right, I have been using recipes in the dbase here. I have been using what I considered the right amount of mash in water to get right texture then sparging once or twice as required to make up to approx 25L. I lose a bit in the boil roughly 3L, then I no-chill, take an O.G and ferment. I get about 22L into the fermenter. I must add, the beers are good and the Alc/vol is around 5 so no complaints. I have been doing a lot of FWK lately due to time, but want to ramp the AG right up with daylight saving and xmas holidays etc coming. SO....

I decided to get the trial version of beersmith & put in one of my (read AHB recipes ) and see what it comes up with....
Well, now I am more confused than before starting AG
Why, [when I have set my batch size to 22L and 60 mins boil time] does the formulae give me
mash in with 15.52L @ 77.0C (to make 70C with grain) at 45 mins
and mash out with 6.21L @ 91.5 (to make 75.6) at 10 mins
This gives me a total of 21.72 pre boil as far as I can see? and only 55mins?

But when you look at the header in the recipe page it says the boil size is 25.18L (makes more sense - but where did it come from?)
and sparge water is 9.41L @ 75.6C - Isnt the sparge water the mash out?

So my question is why dont these numbers add up? Mash in + sparge still only equals 24.93L - close but not 25.18L - If I accept the 9.41L - why does it say mash out 6.21L?
What dont I get with this software? Do I have my brewing terminology mixed up?

Maybe I will be one of those that enters a poll with NO I DONT AG ANYMORE - the fxckin software sux
Hoping not to be that bloke but.... HELP :excl:
I also d/loaded the promash trial version - dont like it either.

 

[Screwtop]

Maybe I will be one of those that enters a poll with NO I DONT AG ANYMORE - the fxckin software sux
Hoping not to be that bloke but.... HELP :excl:
I also d/loaded the promash trial version - dont like it either.

They work for everybody else - does that tell you somethin :lol: PM me the Beersmith text and I'll look at mash and equipment settings to give you a hand.

Screwy

 

[buttersd70]

Mash out and a sparge are two different things, mashout is adding water to the tun before the first runnings are drawn off. The amount of sparge water is not shown in the edit view, it is in the recipe view, as you saw.

One of the first things that you need to do is to enter the details for your system. Loss to deadspace, boil off, loss to trub, etc, as all systems are different. There is also an option that you can tick to set the boil gravity based on the equipment, and this is probably what is giving you odd amounts.

Under the tree on the left, go to equipment, and from there you can put in the details of what your system is. Then when you create a recipe, you can choose that particular equipment, and if you want, you can get beersmith to calculate the boil size required to match it.

 

[AndrewQLD]

Hi all,
I am on my L plates with AG. It seems I have been winging it a bit to get my final volumes, gravity etc right, I have been using recipes in the dbase here. I have been using what I considered the right amount of mash in water to get right texture then sparging once or twice as required to make up to approx 25L. I lose a bit in the boil roughly 3L, then I no-chill, take an O.G and ferment. I get about 22L into the fermenter. I must add, the beers are good and the Alc/vol is around 5 so no complaints. I have been doing a lot of FWK lately due to time, but want to ramp the AG right up with daylight saving and xmas holidays etc coming. SO....

I decided to get the trial version of beersmith & put in one of my (read AHB recipes ) and see what it comes up with....
Well, now I am more confused than before starting AG
Why, [when I have set my batch size to 22L and 60 mins boil time] does the formulae give me
mash in with 15.52L @ 77.0C (to make 70C with grain) at 45 mins
and mash out with 6.21L @ 91.5 (to make 75.6) at 10 mins
This gives me a total of 21.72 pre boil as far as I can see? and only 55mins?

But when you look at the header in the recipe page it says the boil size is 25.18L (makes more sense - but where did it come from?)
and sparge water is 9.41L @ 75.6C - Isnt the sparge water the mash out?

So my question is why dont these numbers add up? Mash in + sparge still only equals 24.93L - close but not 25.18L - If I accept the 9.41L - why does it say mash out 6.21L?
What dont I get with this software? Do I have my brewing terminology mixed up?

Maybe I will be one of those that enters a poll with NO I DONT AG ANYMORE - the fxckin software sux
Hoping not to be that bloke but.... HELP :excl:
I also d/loaded the promash trial version - dont like it either.

First off, the software DOESN'T suck.

Have you set up your equipement in the options dialog box?
Have you selected a mash profile to use?
have you set up boil off percentages in the options box?

Look here for setting up your equipement, this is IMPORTANT when first using beersmith.
Also ticking "set boil volume based on equipement" is essential to get your final volumes correct.
As is " adjust temp for equipement" please tick this also.

Batch size is the volume of wort you expect to get at the end of the boil.

Andrew

 

[Aaron]

Try a search too. Just about every aspect of using this software has already been covered. You will probably find your questions have already been answered.

 

[mckenry]

Mash out and a sparge are two different things, mashout is adding water to the tun before the first runnings are drawn off. The amount of sparge water is not shown in the edit view, it is in the recipe view, as you saw.

One of the first things that you need to do is to enter the details for your system. Loss to deadspace, boil off, loss to trub, etc, as all systems are different. There is also an option that you can tick to set the boil gravity based on the equipment, and this is probably what is giving you odd amounts.

Hey Butters,
Thanks - that clears it right up. I had set all the fields up for my gear and where unknown, just used the beersmiths suggested numbers.
Screwy - thanks for the offer - should be sorted now. I hate not being an expert straight away - bad character floor...

I do however have another question. What is the difference between choosing mash profile = Single infusion, full body, batch sparge (which I feel is what I always do) and;
Single infusion, full body, no mash out. ?
The second option - (no mash out) says in the description Batch Sparge:No but when chosen in the recipe, it tells you to use (for my recipe) 15.62L sparge water @ 75.6C. This is identical to choosing the mash profile Single infusion, full body, batch sparge. which describes it as Batch Sparge:Yes
Cheers for the help.

 

[Screwtop]

Hey Butters,
Thanks - that clears it right up. I had set all the fields up for my gear and where unknown, just used the beersmiths suggested numbers.
Screwy - thanks for the offer - should be sorted now. I hate not being an expert straight away - bad character floor...

I do however have another question. What is the difference between choosing mash profile = Single infusion, full body, batch sparge (which I feel is what I always do) and;
Single infusion, full body, no mash out. ?
The second option - (no mash out) says in the description Batch Sparge:No but when chosen in the recipe, it tells you to use (for my recipe) 15.62L sparge water @ 75.6C. This is identical to choosing the mash profile Single infusion, full body, batch sparge. which describes it as Batch Sparge:Yes
Cheers for the help.

It's SOFTware, thats where you get to enter the HARD facts. Enter what you like the values are a guide. You want 2.75L/KG enter that, the software will work out temps. Don't like measuring part litres, enter whole units or change the part litres to whole litres, again the software will calc the temps. If the temps don't match the recipe mash schedule, change the temps the software will recalc the volumes. Offer still stands McKenry

Screwy

 

[mckenry]

It's SOFTware, thats where you get to enter the HARD facts. Enter what you like the values are a guide. You want 2.75L/KG enter that, the software will work out temps. Don't like measuring part litres, enter whole units or change the part litres to whole litres, again the software will calc the temps. If the temps don't match the recipe mash schedule, change the temps the software will recalc the volumes. Offer still stands McKenry

Screwy

pm sent