With new equipment comes brew design switch

[farmskis]

So I have just finished overhauling my brew setup (from coolers to kettle EHERMS) I used to calculate and design most everything by hand with my old equipment but since time is of importance these days I am thinking I am going to use my Beersmith2.3 software to design and keep track of things.
Does anyone out there purely use BS2?

I figure the best time to make the switch is with the new equipment since everything needs to be dialed in again anyway.

Once both process and equipment is dialed in how does BS perform?

I am kind of curious how the first batch is going to go since I will be basically flying blind. Any suggestions to help that go smooth? I am excited to get this going as I have been overhauling it for about the last year at least.

 

[Oginme]

I use BeerSmith all the time for designing and calculating my process inputs. I do this across three basic set ups: indoor 10L BIAB, outdoor 14L BIAB, and a 20L mash tun system. Once I got them all properly calibrated into the system, the software worked nearly flawlessly. We recently replaced our gas stove with one that has a higher BTU burner (Yea!) and it took three brews to nail down the new boil off rate.

How well does it work? I do a water and sugar balance for every brew and it works out to less than 0.8% error each time. This corresponds very well with my maximum measurement error for volume (+/- 0.1 liters). It has become a good predictor of changes in my grain source and if something else is going wacky in my process (change in crush, poor stirring in of grains, incidental spills, etc.).

Things that will help with getting it dialed in quickly are to measure your water volumes as accurately as you can, pre-measure any lauter tun losses, and give a reasonable number for trub losses until you have a good handle on efficiency of your new system.

 

[farmskis]

I use BeerSmith all the time for designing and calculating my process inputs. I do this across three basic set ups: indoor 10L BIAB, outdoor 14L BIAB, and a 20L mash tun system. Once I got them all properly calibrated into the system, the software worked nearly flawlessly. We recently replaced our gas stove with one that has a higher BTU burner (Yea!) and it took three brews to nail down the new boil off rate.

How well does it work? I do a water and sugar balance for every brew and it works out to less than 0.8% error each time. This corresponds very well with my maximum measurement error for volume (+/- 0.1 liters). It has become a good predictor of changes in my grain source and if something else is going wacky in my process (change in crush, poor stirring in of grains, incidental spills, etc.).

Things that will help with getting it dialed in quickly are to measure your water volumes as accurately as you can, pre-measure any lauter tun losses, and give a reasonable number for trub losses until you have a good handle on efficiency of your new system.

Thank you! That is very encouraging to hear. Do you think that the default efficiency will get me close enough that it will be a decent brew? I plan on measuring my deadspace and giving ample trub loss until it is dialed in.

 

[Oginme]

It really depends upon your crush. I have my own mill (corona type) and push the limits of crush for the BIAB systems. I can easily get 90+ mash/lauter efficiency. I started out with store milled grains and was averaging about 68% total efficiency, which was in the range of 75% mash/lauter efficiency. I would recommend starting from what you achieved with your last system, as you should not be too far from that point in the end.

edit: I also focus on my mash/lauter efficiency and will adjust my brewhouse efficiency to match what I expect from my mashing/mash tun. I've been able to plot trub vs hop loading and can predict my losses quite well for each given recipe.

 

[farmskis]

The crush really does matter for efficiency. Hence the reason I want to eventually crush my own. Not so I can save the extra few Oz of grain per batch but to have better predictability on the outcome. I would say that leaving the total efficiency at the default 72 would be a good starting point. I will need to see what that puts my predicted mash efficiency at. Not sure if I can change the predicted mash efficiency directly.

 

[Oginme]

With BS2 you can not change the mash efficiency directly. I know where mine usually comes out, so I can change the BH efficiency to make sure the mash efficiency is at my target.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

With BS2 you can not change the mash efficiency directly. I know where mine usually comes out, so I can change the BH efficiency to make sure the mash efficiency is at my target.

What he said. BS2 calculates the mash efficiency from the BH efficiency and kettle losses, so you have to adjust one of those two.

 

[farmskis]

What he said. BS2 calculates the mash efficiency from the BH efficiency and kettle losses, so you have to adjust one of those two.

Thank you! I did see how changing the bh changes the mash efficiency. It looks like on the initial run of I at least have decent volumes in there I can adjust the bh until what I guess my mash efficiency will be. They should hey me close to start dialing it all in.