Spike Nano- so much boil volume?

[Brewer #404842]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new owner of a Spike nano Brew system, and I use BeerSmith. As far as I can tell, I've entered the correct profile for the Nano into BeerSmith (I used the profile that Spike themselves provided), and hops and grains seem to be scaled correctly. But the amount of water for the mash in and sparge seem like a LOT. And then, when I get to boil, I have way more preboil volume. BeerSmith says I should have 40.43 gals, but I ended up with 45! And then, using the steam condenser lid, my post boil volume was 40 gallons. Of course, my OG gravity was terribly low.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? What am I doing wrong and any advice on how to fix it?

 

[TetersMillBrewing]

I have a few questions to help answer your question. What size batch are you trying to make? Is the target volume set to fermenter or kettle? I brew with a 30 gallon Spike Brewing trio system and it has taken me some time to get all of my information dialed in. For my system, my pre-boil size is normally about 4 gallons higher than my expected fermenter volume. My post boil volume is about 2.5 gallons different from my fermenter volume. This accounts for the all of the loses in the system, which includes the liquid in the boil tank, hoses, and cooler.

As for mash in, the setting you have in for mash thickness will drastically effect that amount of mash in water it will call for. This also effects the sparge waater as well.

How long did your sparge take on the batch. I normally spend about 90 minutes sparging and my OG is normally fairly close.

 

[Donoroto]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new owner of a Spike nano Brew system, and I use BeerSmith. As far as I can tell, I've entered the correct profile for the Nano into BeerSmith (I used the profile that Spike themselves provided), and hops and grains seem to be scaled correctly. But the amount of water for the mash in and sparge seem like a LOT. And then, when I get to boil, I have way more preboil volume. BeerSmith says I should have 40.43 gals, but I ended up with 45! And then, using the steam condenser lid, my post boil volume was 40 gallons. Of course, my OG gravity was terribly low.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? What am I doing wrong and any advice on how to fix it?

I wonder what the Brewers friend version of the recipe might tell you. Could it be that BeerSmith is just plain wrong?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

Hi Everyone, I'm a new owner of a Spike nano Brew system, and I use BeerSmith. As far as I can tell, I've entered the correct profile for the Nano into BeerSmith (I used the profile that Spike themselves provided), and hops and grains seem to be scaled correctly. But the amount of water for the mash in and sparge seem like a LOT. And then, when I get to boil, I have way more preboil volume. BeerSmith says I should have 40.43 gals, but I ended up with 45! And then, using the steam condenser lid, my post boil volume was 40 gallons. Of course, my OG gravity was terribly low.
Has anyone else encountered this problem? What am I doing wrong and any advice on how to fix it?

a steam condenser changes the water needed and boiled, I would ask this on the beer smith forum

 

[Minbari]

a steam condenser changes the water needed and boiled, I would ask this on the beer smith forum

Mine cut my boil off by half