Beersmith My Equipment ?

[DC]

Hi all, I have recently taken advantage of the Beersmith offer and downloaded it for the sale price. I am looking to setup my equipment on the equipment page but I am struggling a little bit with some of the boxes and what to put in some of them? I am assuming I will need to set this information up for both my 70L marmite pot mashtun and my picnic cooler mashtun before I start to create any recipes?



Can someone point me in the right direction regarding figures to enter in the various sections?

Mash/Lauter Tun

Mashtun = 70L Stainless steel Marmite Pot
Mashtun Weight = Is this the actual weight of my stainless steel Marmite Pot?
Mashtun specific heat = Whats this?
Lauter Tun dead space = Usual dead space in mashtun?
Adjust mash volume for dead space = I am assuming this takes into account how much I loose in dead space?

Boiler

Top up water for kettle = what’s this?
Calculate boil vol automatically = what’s this?
Boil volume = Is this the boil volume per individual brews?
Boil time = the usual 60 or 90 mins?
Boil off = is this populated automatically or manual?
Evaporation rate = is this populated automatically or manual?
Post boil vol = is this populated automatically or manual?
Cooling shrinkage (4%) = What’s this?
Cooling lass = = What’s this?

Fermenter/Bottling loss

Loss to trub and chiller = Straight forward loss to trub
Top up water = whats this?
Batch volume = What’s this?
Fermenter Loss = What’s this?
Bottling vol (without starter) = What’s this?

Cheers DC

[Befuddler]

Mash/Lauter Tun

Mashtun = 70L Stainless steel Marmite Pot
Mashtun Weight = Is this the actual weight of my stainless steel Marmite Pot? - Yep.
Mashtun specific heat = Whats this? - There's an equation to calculate this if you google it, but if you can't be arsed, the suggested setting for stainless is 0.12
Lauter Tun dead space = Usual dead space in mashtun? - Yep.
Adjust mash volume for dead space = I am assuming this takes into account how much I loose in dead space? - Yep. Turn it on.

Boiler

Top up water for kettle = what’s this?- Leave it at 0 if you mash and boil full volume.
Calculate boil vol automatically = what’s this? - This gives you a calculation of how much wort you need to collect to hit your target batch size post-boil. Turn it on.
Boil volume = Is this the boil volume per individual brews? - Calculated automatically
Boil time = the usual 60 or 90 mins? - Yep.
Boil off = is this populated automatically or manual? - Automatically, based on the percentage below.
Evaporation rate = is this populated automatically or manual? - Set this depending on your gear. I use 10%, but my boil is fierce.
Post boil vol = is this populated automatically or manual? - Auto.
Cooling shrinkage (4%) = What’s this? - How much volume you lose as the wort cools in the kettle. Default is fine.
Cooling lass = = What’s this? - Calculated automatically from the percentage above.

Fermenter/Bottling loss

Loss to trub and chiller = Straight forward loss to trub - Yep.
Top up water = whats this? - Leave it at 0 if you boil full volume.
Batch volume = What’s this? - Target batch size used to calculate everything else.
Fermenter Loss = What’s this? - Loss to yeast slurry and trub in the fermenter.
Bottling vol (without starter) = What’s this? - Final volume out of the fermenter into your bottling bucket or keg.

Cheers DC - Welcome

[orlando]

Perfect answer Befuddler.

Something I have struggled with though you might know the answer to. I set up my equipment profile when I was using one element for boiling and was finding evaporation loss of around 5.5 l depending on ambient temp. Now with two the losses are closer to 8-9. Problem is I haven't found a way of changing it and saving it at the new loss? Any ideas?

[Aleman]

Create another equipment profile for two elements???

[orlando]

I'l try it, thanks.

I did and it works, I just didn't get why you can't change your equipment profile. Thinking about it the software is set up so you can replicate recipes so sets things in stone so it now makes sense. Thanks again.

[Matt12398]

You should be able to change your current equipment. I have been able to. I'll take a look at it when I get home and try and remember to let you know how.

This is a good post because I've used it quite few times and still not sure how accurate my figures are and always found it to be a bit of a black art to some extent. Evaporation rate I would assume can vary if for example you brew outside and it's cold. Might be wrong though.

[Steve1262]

Good thread guys, I've been in the dark about these parameters too.

Just goes to show that what might at first sound like a bit of a daft question can bring the doubters like me out of the woodwork.

[DC]

Hi all, Just a quick update regarding equipment profile set up, I managed to find a page on the Beersmith website explaining in a bit more detail how to set up your equipment profile. Printed a copy out ready for setting my equipment profile up once my laptop is up and running again

http://www.beersmith2.com/equipment-setup/

Cheers DC

[Matt12398]

Orlando, I don't know if you worked out how to amend your current equipment but from checking with mine I think the key is to edit from the profiles tab rather than in a recipe. If that doesn't work then I don't know.

[orlando]

Orlando, I don't know if you worked out how to amend your current equipment but from checking with mine I think the key is to edit from the profiles tab rather than in a recipe. If that doesn't work then I don't know.

Followed Alemans advice and created another profile. The key to this is understanding how BeerSmith has set itself up. The idea of it is founded on replication, they want you to be able to recreate the same brew exactly as it was brewed so the recipe is lockstepped with the equipment profile. If they didn't do this then every time you changed your kit and edited it accordingly you would no longer have an accurate replicable set up. It makes sense when you think about it and although there are "hints" about this in the various help sections they probably don't emphasise it enough so it becomes a confusion. So bottom line is if the kit changes, or indeed the way you use it changes in a significant way, create a new profile. Oh, and make sure you then choose that profile when you create a new recipe following it.