Water Volumes Different From Grainfather

[somekindaguy]

Hi....I am completely new to this site (as of yesterday), although I have been brewing all grain beer successfully for about 2 years using my Grainfather G30 (110V) unit.

I want to start to build a few of my own beers, so thought that I would give this site a try.
I went into my profile settings and chose the Grainfather G30 unit default as my equipment.

Just to get a feel for the software, I input the recipe ingredients from my last Grainfather brew - a Sierra Nevada clone - into the recipe creator. I wanted to see how closely the two recipes would compare.

I was surprised to find a very large difference in water volumes, particularly for mash and sparge, but also to a lesser degree in total water required.

eg: GF recipe shows Mash (strike) = 4.566 gallons......Sparge = 3.648 gallons....Total = 8.214 gallons
Brewers Friend shows Mash (strike) = 2.33 gallons....Sparge = 5.28 gallons....Total = 7.61 gallons

Why the difference?
I definitely question the difference in the mash volume, as 2.33 gallons water for 11.25 lbs of grain seems extremely low.

As I am new to this, I am guessing that I have set something up incorrectly in my profile or chose something wrong perhaps?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

BTW...the Grainfather brew turned out very well.

 

[TetersMillBrewing]

Why the difference?
I definitely question the difference in the mash volume, as 2.33 gallons water for 11.25 lbs of grain seems extremely low.

I would agree, 2.33 gallons is a bit low. I use a 3-vessel brewing system so my settings are significantly different than yours. There are several uses who have similar setups to yours and should be able to provide you a bit more insight. I would look though the settings and see if something looks off. My guess would be your grain absorption setting or Mash Thickness.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Hi....I am completely new to this site (as of yesterday), although I have been brewing all grain beer successfully for about 2 years using my Grainfather G30 (110V) unit.

I want to start to build a few of my own beers, so thought that I would give this site a try.
I went into my profile settings and chose the Grainfather G30 unit default as my equipment.

Just to get a feel for the software, I input the recipe ingredients from my last Grainfather brew - a Sierra Nevada clone - into the recipe creator. I wanted to see how closely the two recipes would compare.

I was surprised to find a very large difference in water volumes, particularly for mash and sparge, but also to a lesser degree in total water required.

eg: GF recipe shows Mash (strike) = 4.566 gallons......Sparge = 3.648 gallons....Total = 8.214 gallons
Brewers Friend shows Mash (strike) = 2.33 gallons....Sparge = 5.28 gallons....Total = 7.61 gallons

Why the difference?
I definitely question the difference in the mash volume, as 2.33 gallons water for 11.25 lbs of grain seems extremely low.

As I am new to this, I am guessing that I have set something up incorrectly in my profile or chose something wrong perhaps?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks!

BTW...the Grainfather brew turned out very well.

What's your grist/water ratio?
Sometimes i find this can't put out a weird mash in volume if you've got different real time brewday inputs.

If you've been brewing on the G30 for two years you'll have this dialed in pretty tight.
I'd load your known equipment profiles into the brewersfriend equipment profile right up the top right corner of the Web page.

It's this equipment profile that the software is going to do its calculations from.