Total Water Calculation

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cscade
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Total Water Calculation

Post by cscade »

Hello everyone. I'm evaluating BTP 1.5 for mac, and I'm seeing something that's confusing me.

On the Schedule display, the bottom of the Infuse/Decoct column has a Total Water field.

If my initial Mash-In is 4 gallons, and my fly sparge is 2.24 gallons, it reads total water as 6.24.

That seems right until you try to brew with it, and then you realize the dead space in the HLT is NOT accounted for in that number. This seems odd, since the HLT vessel is set up with it's correct dead space, and is set as the heating vessel for the Mash-In.

In order to be useful for filling your HLT at the beginning of your brew day, the Total Water field should include the volume left behind in the HLT, yes?

Therefore, total water should be schedule volumes + heating vessel dead space.

Am I missing something?

Outstanding software. Thanks!
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slothrob
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Total Water

Post by slothrob »

The Total Water value is the amount of water to be added, not the amount that will be drained, which is listed under Collected. The difference between the water added and the water collected will include the water absorbed by the grain and the water lost to the dead space. If you check the lock box next to the Total Runoff value in the sparge window, the Collected volume will be calculated from your pre-boil Kettle Volume.
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cscade
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Post by cscade »

Thanx for the reply slothrob.

I think there's a little confusion on what I'm asking though. I'm not talking about collection, all those numbers are right. I'm referring to the fact that the Total Water field does not include the inaccessible water left behind in the water heating vessel, and therefore is not an accurate representation on how much water you will need to heat in order to brew.

So what's the point of it?
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slothrob
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total water

Post by slothrob »

I may still be misunderstanding.

If I increase the size of the dead volume in my calibrated mash tun, the Total Water value increases by an equal amount. So BTP seems to be taking the collected volume, absorbed volume, and the dead volume into account for determining the Total Water field.
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cscade
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Post by cscade »

You are correct about the mash tun, and mine accounts for that as well (again, this is a number that has an effect on collection, not water used).

What I'm talking about is the dead space in the vessel I heat my water in (HLT), which is not my mash tun. It has a dead space of 1.6 gallons. So, on brew day it looks like this:

Mash-In: 4 Gallons
Fly Sparge: 2.24 Gallons
Water left behind in HLT that I can't get out: 1.6 Gallons

Therefore, I need at least 7.84 gallons of water in my HLT in order to finish this session. However, BTP tells me 6.24 gallons. Since I actually need that additional 1.6 gallons in my HLT in order to have enough to sparge with, the 6.24 number is of no use to me, I have to manually add my HLT dead space to it.
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slothrob
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dead space

Post by slothrob »

I finally get it. I was just being dense, I guess. I don't have any dead space in my HLT, so I've never run into this.

This sounds like it might be a bug. Try starting a thread in the Bug Report section, and Jeff or Lathe might see it. If you don't get a response, you could submit a ticket in the support section of the website. There's a good chance they'll fix it if it's a bug.
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ColoradoBrewer
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Post by ColoradoBrewer »

Hi cscade. Have you set up your HLT in "My Equipment"? If not, from the top line menu go Recipe > Add > Vessel. When you set up the vessel you will be able to account for dead space. After that is done the HLT will appear in the recipe. To get it in "My Equpment" just drag and drop. I'm not on a Mac, but I think it should work the same.
Last edited by ColoradoBrewer on Sat Dec 05, 2009 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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jeff
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Re: Total Water Calculation

Post by jeff »

cscade wrote:If my initial Mash-In is 4 gallons, and my fly sparge is 2.24 gallons, it reads total water as 6.24.

That seems right until you try to brew with it, and then you realize the dead space in the HLT is NOT accounted for in that number. This seems odd, since the HLT vessel is set up with it's correct dead space, and is set as the heating vessel for the Mash-In.

In order to be useful for filling your HLT at the beginning of your brew day, the Total Water field should include the volume left behind in the HLT, yes?

Therefore, total water should be schedule volumes + heating vessel dead space.
Good catch, I'll look into it.

Thanks!
Jeff
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slothrob
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HLT dead space

Post by slothrob »

I was able to duplicate this on the Mac.
I couldn't find a way to get the dead space in the HLT to be added to the Total Water following the same method that works for setting up a mash tun.
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