Water additions for Blichmann BrewEasy RIMS system

[gvaatveit]

In the BrewEasy system, all the water is added at the beginning. "Sparging" takes place throughout the mash through recirculation.

Beersmith calculates water additions in two batches: mash and sparge. I've been dealing with this by adding together the mash and sparge water additions, and conditioning all the water before starting recirculation. Is that correct?

 

[McMullan]

I don't use a BrewEasy, but based on how the system is intended to be used, yes, you'll need to treat total water. Mainly because one of the primary reasons for water treatment is maintaining mash conditions and your mash water and sparge/rinse water get mixed during the mash. I use a single-vessel RIMS. I don't treat sparge/rinse water and occasionally I do a full-volume mash where total water requires treatment. I find it easier to just use the standalone BeerSmith water treatment tool and simply adjust the water volume to whatever my needs are on the day, or night before if I'm organised enough.

 

[Oginme]

In the BrewEasy system, all the water is added at the beginning. "Sparging" takes place throughout the mash through recirculation.

Beersmith calculates water additions in two batches: mash and sparge. I've been dealing with this by adding together the mash and sparge water additions, and conditioning all the water before starting recirculation. Is that correct?

The BrewEasy is essentially an automated Brew-in-a-Bag system. I would recommend changing your mash profile to make it a BIAB profile, which forces all the water into the mash. This will simplify your process by eliminating you needing to add together the mash and sparge waters and to adjust your water agents based upon the whole amount of water needed for the mash.

 

[Kevin58]

The thing about Beersmith is that it is highly customizable. For example, you can (and should) tweak your equipment profile to accurately reflect all of the volume losses you experience. Likewise you can adjust all of your mash profiles or create custom ones.


As Oginme says, your BrewEasy is, at its core, a BIAB system. Just switching to the correct mashing profile will solve your water problem. But also know you can customize that profile if you wish. I started experimenting with a hochkurtz mash schedule... which is basically two 30 minute step mashes - one at around 144°F and the next at 160°F. So I made a copy of my BIAB mash schedule and created the appropriate steps then saved it as a new profile. I actually have about a dozen mash profiles at different temperatures, with different steps, all depending on what I want to accomplish in my brew.

 

[BeerSmith]

I have a BrewEasy and I use a BIAB mash profile which will combine mash/sparge water into one addition and should also combine water salts for you so you can treat your total water up front while heating up the water (before mash in).