understanding beersmith 2

[paulg]

I have copied a recipe from my previous BIAB calculator into beersmith and have created a profile for the 50l BM.
when I click on the brew steps icon the page gives me a step of filling mash tun with 10.98 litres and then fly sparging after mash.
now obviously with the BM you are working like BIAB so where do I tell the software this fact (i assume somewhere within the profile needs changing).
also the recipe only gives pre boil volumes not pre mash volumes although the brew steps includes all volumes.I am new to beersmith having only used BIAbacus and brewmate software before
thanks
Paul

[Dicko]

Beersmith, although being great brewing software is not Braumeister friendly.

If you go into the Mash window, near the bottom you can select BIAB which will make it close and then you may enter your water volumes as you design your mash.

What I do is start off with 25 litres of water for the mash and then add the balance of the water needed for the brew at the mash out specification.
I am not on my desktop at the moment but when I go on there I will take a screen shot and post it here as explanation is difficult and a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Luis Coentrao]

Beersmith, although being great brewing software is not Braumeister friendly.

Hi Dicko,
I'm trying to move forward with Beersmith 2 into a BM20L profile.
I've seen your recipe posted in this forum for a Continental Lager. Do you still use that Beersmith2 profile for your BM20?
If you made any changes on it, I woul like to ask you if you could post your BM20L profile?

[Dicko]

Guys,
if you click on the recipe for Continental Lager in THIS topic and you have Beersmith 2 then you can access my figures for the software.

My boil off has changed by 260mls since using my Cheap Domed Lid but that shouldn't worry anyone.
If you click on the Mash tab from the design window you can manipulate the water quantities to read what ever you want.
For example you can start the mash by adding 25 litres (for a 20lBM) and then make no additions until the mash out step and then call it a "sparge" step and add the water volume to equal the "total water" volume.

[Dicko]

Here is a screenshot of the mash profile in the above recipe...


and here is the mash profile from the above recipe altered to reflect the sparge amount....


Personally I wouldn't bother unles you are absolutely pedantic about figures.
All I do on brewday is fill my BM with the required amount of water as per Beersmith and then drain off the amount to bring the water back to 25 litres (20l BM) and then after the mash is complete I sparge the rest of the water.

[Dicko]

In the end each individual brewer will need to fine tune their settings in Beersmith or any software to correctly represent their equipment and methods.

The info above is only meant as a guide and will get you started as it is based on my equipment and methods.

There are other brewers on here that mash with the total amount of water which will generally cover the top of the malt pipe so there are many ways
to "skin a cat"

[Cervantes]

All I do on brewday is fill my BM with the required amount of water as per Beersmith and then drain off the amount to bring the water back to 25 litres (20l BM) and then after the mash is complete I sparge the rest of the water.

This is exactly what I do as well. That way any water treatment can be done with the full volume in the BM, then I drain down to 25 litres for the mash and the extra goes into the Burko and is heated ready for sparging.

[Nesto]

I have copied a recipe from my previous BIAB calculator into beersmith and have created a profile for the 50l BM.
when I click on the brew steps icon the page gives me a step of filling mash tun with 10.98 litres and then fly sparging after mash.
now obviously with the BM you are working like BIAB so where do I tell the software this fact (i assume somewhere within the profile needs changing).
also the recipe only gives pre boil volumes not pre mash volumes although the brew steps includes all volumes.I am new to beersmith having only used BIAbacus and brewmate software before
thanks
Paul

Paul,

Apologies if this is more basic than needed, but it sounded like you had picked one of the default Mash Profiles for your recipe. What Dicko has shown you is a customized Mash Profile. In case you needed a few more hints, here they are.. It sounds like you've made your 50l BM Equipment Profile, which is only one of the places you need to setup before you design a recipe. Another setting to make is in Beersmith Preferences...

...where you need to set the Grain Absorption constant. I'm paranoid and set both to 0.7000 in case I forget to check the BIAB box on the Mash Profile.

What Dicko showed you was a Mash Profile. I'm guessing that you selected a mash profile from one of the pre-populated profiles that come with Beersmith. Dicko has edited or created a new one. I have a few different Mash Profiles I play around with, some have a sparge step and I've recently created some new ones that don't have a sparge step. When you're creating a recipe, you can select the Mash Profile you use on the Mash tab in the recipe...

...the selection up near the top of the screen, under Mash Profile, is a drop down selection list and I've selected BM20, Light Body for this beer. If you want to edit the profile just for this recipe, you can do basic editing right from within the recipe. If you want to edit the full Mash Profile, click in the the little check mark next to the profile name. If you want to save your edited profile, click on the little disc icon - it won't overwrite your existing profile, it will save a new copy.

I know my learning curve with Beersmith was, literally, years. I do love it now.

[paulg]

thanks for that guys
coming from a BIAB background I have tended to take all my water measurements from Biabacus software and use bru n water for water treatment and brewmate or beer engine for recipe design.
I am currently finding beersmith a bit of a handfull such that I am tempted to continue with biabacus etc .
my problem with beersmith is if in a recipe I click on a mash profile I can see preboil volume but cannot see total water required ie how much liquor including loss to grain absorbsion ( how much to treat with acid etc)
I will have another play reading the above replys
thanks Paul

I am using a mash profile sent to me from another BM user (I forget who) which has 4 steps in temperature but shows no water additions .the brew day steps tab tells me to mash in with 17 litres and sparge with 21litres.
I think I have found the problem ,
do I need to tick the biab box in the mash profile? what does boil volume basis mean (it is currently set at 18.93 litres)in each mash profile I assume I need to set this to the initial amount I fill the BM to when mashing in.what happends then when using short or long malt pipe as this will be different do I add seperate mash schedules for each pipe type?
sorry to ask so many questions I am struggling still

[paulg]

dicko said

All I do on brewday is fill my BM with the required amount of water as per Beersmith and then drain off the amount to bring the water back to 25 litres (20l BM) and then after the mash is complete I sparge the rest of the water.

I think I may have cracked it .I assume the boil volume basis box next to the biab tick box should be left blank .on the profiles I was sent it already had a figure in it .I have now changed it to 0 .
now when I look at the brew step page for a recipe ,(with the mash profile tickbox set to biab) I am told to add malt pipe with a figure of water.this figure changes with the malt bill for the same brew length.
so I guess if I always fill the bm with the same volume at mash in (say 25 litres) I can just subtract this amount from the total specified and sparge the rest.as per dicko above

if anyone can understand my ramblings does this make sense?

[Dicko]

You have got it paulg.

If you go to the "design" window in Beersmith you can chose from a list of options in a drop down menu to include "total water needed" and it will then give you the figure that is correct for your recipe given that all other perameters are correct in your settings.
By setting this to appear in the design window you wont need to toggle to the mash profile to find the total water volume and it will appear on your print out for the "classic brew steps" page.

Cheers

[paulg]

thanks dicko
thats what I needed
I will mash in with a fixed amount each time and sparge the rest.
what are the good amounts ? for a 50 litre BM with standard and short malt pipes 30 litres & 55 litres?
for a 25 litre brew length it seems I will need about 38-40 litres for a 1.035-1.045 beer ,so therefore sparging 8-10 litres
for a 50 litre brew 65 litres -68 litres

[Dicko]

thanks dicko
thats what I needed
I will mash in with a fixed amount each time and sparge the rest.
what are the good amounts ? for a 50 litre BM with standard and short malt pipes 30 litres & 55 litres?
for a 25 litre brew length it seems I will need about 38-40 litres for a 1.035-1.045 beer ,so therefore sparging 8-10 litres
for a 50 litre brew 65 litres -68 litres

Mate, I can't help you with the 50 litre figures but from what you have posted it seems close.
Give it a go if no one else posts some accurate figures and make software adjustments from your results.

[paulg]

yep should collect my BM on tuesday, it will arrive on the island monday ,I plan to brew wednesday and will measure everything accurately and see how close I get
Paul

[paulg]

real bummer
collected BM as planned tuesday cleaned it ,spent hours playing with beersmith and reading internet.
had yeast starter bubbling nicely in brew fridge.
got up wednesday morning no water to the village,problem with the supply pumps, today friday still no water
berw day on hold until water returns and I am confident it is back for some time.
meanwhile BM sits in corner shining at me.