Vessel Calibration Question

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Legman
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Vessel Calibration Question

Post by Legman »

When calibrating the mash vessel (7 gallon cooler), and entering the "Environment" temperature, does this mean the air temp or the starting temp inside the cooler? And does this value need to be changed each time I brew or is this a constant?

Also when entering the "Dead Space", is this also a constant or a variable each time?
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slothrob
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calibration

Post by slothrob »

I believe that the environmental temp is the air temp and that thentun needs to be the same temp for the calib to me accurate. it is a constant.

The dead space is the volume that can't be drained from your tun and should be a constant.
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Legman
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Environmental Temp

Post by Legman »

If this is a constant, then what about the effect different air temperatures may have on holding mash temps? If it's 80F one day and then 40F the next time I brew, wouldn't that change how well the cooler holds the mash temp?

Seems like this should be checked every time.
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billvelek
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Re: Environmental Temp

Post by billvelek »

Legman wrote:If this is a constant, then what about the effect different air temperatures may have on holding mash temps? If it's 80F one day and then 40F the next time I brew, wouldn't that change how well the cooler holds the mash temp?

Seems like this should be checked every time.
I could be wrong, but I believe that we are supposed to set the "Environmental Temp" only when we are doing the initial calibration, and then it should be left alone; if you change it, then it is going to throw all of your calibration data out of whack. Your concerns about different temperatures on brew day are covered by the "Ambient Air" and "Source Water" temperatures that are set under the "Schedule" tab at the bottom of the screen -- and they should be checked and changed as needed from one brew day to another.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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Legman
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Post by Legman »

Ah, that makes sense. I didn't see that before.
Thanks!
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ColoradoBrewer
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Re: Environmental Temp

Post by ColoradoBrewer »

billvelek wrote:...Your concerns about different temperatures on brew day are covered by the "Ambient Air" and "Source Water" temperatures that are set under the "Schedule" tab at the bottom of the screen -- and they should be checked and changed as needed from one brew day to another.
That's what I thought too, Bill, until I tried it. Perhaps I'm doing something wrong, but I didn't see anything change. Here's what I did:

opened a recipe and had the mash schedule showing in the window
opened the Schedule tab below the main window (mash schedule)
changed Ambient Air from 70º to 40º
changed Source Water from 60º to 50º

I'm not sure of the relevance of changing the source water temp since you'd be adding strike water heated to ~170º. I should also add that under "My Equipment" I right clicked on my mash tun and selected "Add to Recipe". So, is this not what you are talking about, or am I doing something wrong? One final thing. I guess I hadn't really given this much thought until Legman's post becuase when the weather turns cold I usually bring the mash tun inside during the mash. Of course that probably isn't practical for everyone.
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Probably a bug

Post by billvelek »

Thanks, Colorado. When I posted, I was posting from merely a logical analysis rather than from actual experience, because I always mash inside the house, and the temp is consistent enough that I've never actually bothered to change the setting from one recipe to another. But I'm pretty sure that my description is the way that it is _supposed_ to work, so Jeff and/or Lathe probably need to take a look at it. If it's not a bug, then the program needs to better describe the functions of the temp fields.

Cheers.

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Post by ColoradoBrewer »

Thanks for the reply, Bill. I was under the same assumption as you about how this supposed to work. In fact, I was about to post essentially what you posted. Seeing your post I decided to try it and discovered I didn't get the result I expected. To be a little more specific, I set up a mash schedule and expected the temp to be lower at the end of a 60 minute restafter I changed the "Ambient Air" temp from 70 to 40 degrees. Didn't happen. In fact, I'm not seeing any kind of temp drop now when I think I used to in previous versions. In other words, the temp at the end of the rest is the same as my strike temp. I mash in a 48 qt, Igloo Ice Cube, BTW. Guess I need to delve into the documentation.

Edit: OK, so now I'm confused. I just noticed that the software works as Bill suggested in his post above. This was a recipe other than the one I tired at first. Since it worked in that recipe I tried a third ans everything worked there as well. So I went back to the recipe I tried originally and it doesn't behave the same way as the other two. The temp at the end of the rest does not change. There must be something wrong with that particular recipe file. Perhaps it's corrupted in some way.
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