I have a three tier system, mash tun, hot liquor with cu coil heat exchanger, and boil. Using my BeerSmith application, let’s say it calls for 5 gallons of water for the mash… My mash tun has a false bottom that holds about 1 gallon… and the tubing, pump, and heat exchanger holds, say another gallon.
My question is in this example should 7 gallons be used to fill all piping etc, mash tun including false bottom, or 6 gallons, filling piping etc. and mash tun with 1 gallon below false bottom and 4 gallons above? My confusion is due to the recycling of the wort to keep temperature thereby exposing the mash to another 2 gallons ( tubing, etc. plus false bottom). Am I thinking too much?
Yes, all liquid everywhere is part of the calculation in any software or manual calculator.
It’s how much total liquor you add what’s entered in the calculation.
Do yourself a favor when using Beersmith. Create a custom equipment profile. Customized mash profiles are a big help too. Do. Not. simply accept one of the equipment profiles that come with the software. Even if you find the exact same system that you have keep in mind that those equipment profiles are largely, if not all, user submitted. Joe Brewer who also has a three tier system, mash tun, hot liquor with cu coil heat exchanger, and boil is not going to use his equipment exactly the way you do. If you don’t create a custom profile you will find yourself frustrated chasing down discrepancies in volume, gravity etc each and every brew day.
I completely agree with Kevin. I’ve been using BeerSmith for many years and found it took many brews of tweaking my Equipment profile to finally have one that’s reliable and, more importantly, accurate.
+1. I get within 2 pts of prediction 99% of the time based on the refinements I’ve made to my equipment profile. It’s a lot more fun when you can plan on a desired outcome.