Okay, there's a lot of stuff going on here.

The first thing is to say congratulations and thanks for giving your report .

I won't be able to make sense of some of your numbers unless you post a file. (I know I probably have it already but if you saw how many BIABacus files are on my computer, you would forgive me for asking.)

There's a lot of numbers above and some I can't make sense of sorry. For example, "After boil gravity went from 1.040 at high temp to 1.054 at roomtemp."

And, "Volume that went into the was around 9,25 liters and we have at least 2 liters of trub sitting in the kettle. According to the calculator an efficiency into fermenter of 55,5% (the problem)."

I think we are missing the word fermentor above at least )

A Few Points...

1. Efficiency into Fermentor is a useless figure unless it is accompanied by EIK or EOB-E. But, it is excellent that you said 2 L of trub. That's a lot on your brew! We need to talk about why it was so high.

2. The BIABacus is a lot better than an overview! It's actually light years ahead of anything else out there. What we need to make sure of is that everyone can drive it as well as possible.

3. If you add 3 L in 'Water Added During Boil" in the Maxi-BIAB Adjustments section, you won't need less malt, it will be exactly the same as if you put the 3 L into 'Water Added to Fermentor'. You will however need more hops. I won't explain this now as the post will become too long. (If you search my posts though I'm pretty sure I have written a detailed explanation on this in the last week or so. Use the Advanced Search feature and look for posts done by me that contain the word, 'utilisation').

These are good questions you are asking Dauthi and one very hidden aspect of the BIABacus is that it aims to get the right questions asked.

My Big Worry

What is really worrying me is your comment, "I can tell you the BIABacus makes brewing life a dream, it is good for an overview."

The BIABacus has a hundred times the power of The Calculator but even the Calculator is a tool I relied on in preference to any other brewing software.

When you say, "it is good for an overview," it implies that you view the BIABacus as primitive in some way.

Is that because it is just a spreadsheet or is it the way it is presented or was it just a typo above? Would love to hear more from you on this. It's very important to any of us who have worked on this.

Congrats again on your first all-grain pitch ,
PP

Dauthi wrote:...shame on me, but that's how we learn...

and too right!!!

Thanks for the post above. There is a lot of info on one sheet. Maybe the slightly new layout will make the BIABacus a bit less scary . The positive of having everything on one sheet is that you can actually see what's going on (especially with a big screen). The negative is the daunting bit.

We did make a 'Baby' BIABacus but canned that idea as it would create a massive logistics problem in the layout and structure of the help and for the user as well. Maybe things will be easier when the help is written and linked up to the BIABacus?

Your Brew

I have your original file here but I think a lot has changed since then - pot size etc. I'd probably need the file you ended up using but I don't think there's any major worries on your brew.

What I'd do before your next one is do a dummy run to check your evaporation rate to confirm whether the estimated evaporation is way off. If it is, you can over-ride it. On your dummy run, you don't need to fill the pot right up as the evaporation rate does not change between a full and half empty pot.

The other thing I would look at is your trub management. Your EIK (Efficiency into Kettle, same as EOB-E) is probably okay (not sure unless i have the file) but your EIF (Efficiency into Fermentor) is low because of the high Kettle to Fermentor Loss. It would be nice to see this go down a bit if possible.

To do this, you can try using a hop sock or maybe even just allow more time for the kettle to settle before you do a gentle transfer. Or, you can try a whirlpool.

Anyway, I reckon you've done well. Small maxi-BIAB's are the hardest brews to do so good on you .

One more thing. I know you are into cooking. After you have a few more brews under your belt, have a listen to this podcast with Gordon Strong. He talks a bit on how he sees brewing like cooking. I think you'll enjoy it.


PP

Your hop addition timings should be the same as your sourse recipe.
Nothing to the boil.Just let it roll along until your time is up or your volume is right.Volume is more important but if you entered everything properly it should be very close, I find that 1/2 or 1l here and there is no big deal.
Whirfloc is not a deal breaker at all. I regularly find it sitting on the table long after the boil is done!
Total water needed TWN is out of the tap.Hot strike water needed in cq29 is what you shoul have at mash temp. I find that if I am using heated water out of the tap (approx 56C) I need to be somewhere between these two figures.
Good luck

Welcome back Keith ,

Don't worry about the crystal 40 vs 60. All will be fine.

Here's a bit more explanation on the hop mins for you. Under the 'Substitutions' column, you would only rarely put in a 'Mins' value. In nearly all cases, you'll be using the 'Mins' value you can see under 'The Original Hop Bill Design' column on the left hand side.

One instance where you might use the right hand 'Mins' column is as follows. I like giving the boil ten minutes to settle down before I add my bittering hops, so if I was brewing Todd's recipe, I would type 80 into the 'Mins' column on the right hand side. (This will mean I'll end up using a tiny bit more bittering hops).

One thing you will need to use a lot under 'Substituions' is the 'AA%'. For example, in this recipe, the original hops have an AA% of 17.5% which you can see on the left hand side. However, when you buy your hops they might only be 16.0%. You'll need to type that 16% on the right hand side.

Here's a screen shot of how your BIABacus would look if you made the changes above.

SnH
You've made beer - to quote either Lylo or Bobbrews - congrats! Your gravity and efficiency is a bit low but don't worry about it - the numbers for one brew is not enough to draw conclusions from.

Your questions:
- EBC = European Brewery Convention. The European/another way of expressing/determining beer colour. Wiki linky
- Pre-lauter Gravity = Gravity just before you pull the bag (separate the grains from the wort). It might differ from Gravity in Kettle because of water top-up/addition, rinsing the bag (sparging) and adding the resulting liquor or mashing out. That is my understanding of the field and it might well be that other brewers on here can give a better answer!
- Dry hopping - I add dry hops to the fermenter between 4 and 7 days after I've pitched the yeast. I basically wait for the yeast activity to subside as this activity might drive off some of the aroma of the hops. I normally just add the dry hops in a bag made from leftover BIAB bag material and drop it into the fermentor. You can sanitise the bag by boiling it in water for 15 minutes - I just soak it in Starsan before use... This works for me because I syphon the beer from my fermentor and I can pull the bag with all the hops before staring the syphon. You can also just add the hops directly to the beer...

Hope the above helps!

Strengthnhealth,

Each and every brew from now on will get easier. You will still screw-up but in different ways! That's what makes this so exciting. Congratulations on your brew!

Strengthnhealth wrote:Thanks again for all the help guys.
Love the site, BIAB & haven't even tasted the beer yet. LOL

Multiply that x 10 when you’ve tasted your delicious brew!

As Yeasty says: It's an international pub here

Howdy all,

I'm set for my next Mini Maxi and was hoping you guys could give a little guidance to help me sort out my hop bill/ schedule.

From the enclosed BIAbacus file you can see that I have gone for a single Malt (Golden Promise) and have included the hops recommended by the original Timothy Taylor's recipe. I'm aiming for 13L in to fermenter.

However I love a hoppy beers so wouldn't mind upping the stakes in terms of Hopicity (made up term). BUT... I'm clueless as to what goes with what despite manic googling/reading. Would be very happy with decent Pale Ale or even IPA style beer.

I have the following hops in my stash and don't mind what gets used;

40g Challenger 7.6%
40g Styrian 3.4%
40g Amarillo 8.2%
50g EKG 5.6%
50g Fuggles 5.0%

What would you guys do? Suggestions and comments appreciated as always

Lee

With BIABacus how do I put a sugar in instead of grains? I have a recipe with invert sugar but treating it as a grain wont work as it will ferment completly.

BrewBagMan wrote:......I love a hoppy beers so wouldn't mind upping the stakes in terms of Hopicity (made up term). BUT... I'm clueless as to what goes with what despite manic googling/reading. Would be very happy with decent Pale Ale or even IPA style beer.

I have the following hops in my stash and don't mind what gets used;

40g Challenger 7.6%
40g Styrian 3.4%
40g Amarillo 8.2%
50g EKG 5.6%
50g Fuggles 5.0%

What would you guys do? Suggestions and comments appreciated as always

Lee

I loves me some Styrian (I sprinkle them on my breakfast cereal) but if you want a hoppy/citrusy/yummy APA you can't go wrong with this: NRB's All Amarillo APA

---Todd

novaris wrote:With BIABacus how do I put a sugar in instead of grains? I have a recipe with invert sugar but treating it as a grain wont work as it will ferment completely.

Hi novaris

Check out post 807 of this thread Here

If you still have problems post your file and I'll explain further.

Yeasty

Thanks Yeasty that fixed the sugar issue. Now I have a question about calculating estimated FG. How do I best estimate the assumed attenuation? I am aiming for a dry beer. I am mashing low 65c, have 20% invert sugar and am using a yeast with 75% attenuation. Default settings give me 1.014 but I believe the recipe should finish at about 1.005.

Novaris;
Do you have any more info on your ingredients/recipe (OG & yeast)?
1.005 seems a bit low to me, unless it is a low gravity brew
you would need 1.021 at 75% to get 1.005

Hi novaris

First of all whats your OG. If the beer is a high OG 1.014 will not be that bad.

Secondly I would look up your yeast type or ask here to see if you can get a better attenuation figure for your yeast. All yeasts have a range of attenuation, the 75% is a figure often quoted as an indication/average. With a reasonable OG of around 1.045 a low temp mash and the addition of sugar you can expect to hit the high end of the range. The Higher your OG, the higher you mash and the absence of fermentable sugars will put you lower down the range. You really have to take an educated guess on a new brew and even with experience you are "shooting" at a percentage rather than nailing it down to an exact figure.

What are you brewing mate ? something nice ??

Yeasty

Hi All,

So far I've had 5 BIAB attempts with varying degrees of success (low to average quality beer so far) and I'd like my next brew to be a little more satisfying. With that in mind I thought I'd run my recipe and my newbie BIAB/Biabacus questions past you in one post.

I’m going to make a Guinness clone from Graham Wheeler’s book, and I’ve attached a copy of the Biabacus with the quantities filled out. I am assuming the 23 litre recipe is intended to result in 23 litres into the fermenter based on the text at the start of the recipe section in the book.

I’d like to do a Maxi Biab to make more use of my limited brewing time, I’ve a 19 litre pot I use for mash/boil and another 15 litre pot I’d like to use as my “plastic bucket” for the sparge step described in the maxibiab guide.

So…

What should I put in the Maxi-BIAB section of the BIABacus to end up with 23 litres into the fermenter and a mash that fits in my stockpot?

Would I be better to do one large Sparge or 2 smaller ones as per the guide?

Which cell in section W would this addition come under?

What should the EOBV-A be set to, to ensure the correct amount of hops?

Thanks,
Dave

brewdave wrote:Hi All,

So far I've had 5 BIAB attempts with varying degrees of success (low to average quality beer so far) and I'd like my next brew to be a little more satisfying. With that in mind I thought I'd run my recipe and my newbie BIAB/Biabacus questions past you in one post.

I’m going to make a Guinness clone from Graham Wheeler’s book, and I’ve attached a copy of the Biabacus with the quantities filled out. I am assuming the 23 litre recipe is intended to result in 23 litres into the fermenter based on the text at the start of the recipe section in the book.

I’d like to do a Maxi Biab to make more use of my limited brewing time, I’ve a 19 litre pot I use for mash/boil and another 15 litre pot I’d like to use as my “plastic bucket” for the sparge step described in the maxibiab guide.

So…

What should I put in the Maxi-BIAB section of the BIABacus to end up with 23 litres into the fermenter and a mash that fits in my stockpot?

Would I be better to do one large Sparge or 2 smaller ones as per the guide?

Which cell in section W would this addition come under?

What should the EOBV-A be set to, to ensure the correct amount of hops?

Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave

I'm not a Maxi biaber but I've given it a go. The thing to remember is to get as much water into the mash as possible and to keep your kettle topped up during the boil.

I've attached your file after I've played with it, have a look and see where I've added volumes in section W. I've left your volumes untouched but note that GWs volumes are EOBV-A so your volume in the hop section is correct.

Have a play with the sparge and top up volumes and see how things change.



Yeasty

Yeasty beat me to it

Brewdave - I hope this will work out for you. Like Yeasty, i have never done Maxi, but i have ended up with a similar outcome on my version.
Whilst i was filling in the BIAbacus i was thinking that the sheer volume of this compared to your equipment might make this difficult to achieve.
Maybe somebody on here better experienced than me can say whether this is ok or not? You could certainly scale the recipe to suit your equipment better (less volume)?

I have added my version it in case you wanted to see any differences.

Yeasty wrote:Hi novaris

First of all whats your OG. If the beer is a high OG 1.014 will not be that bad.

Secondly I would look up your yeast type or ask here to see if you can get a better attenuation figure for your yeast. All yeasts have a range of attenuation, the 75% is a figure often quoted as an indication/average. With a reasonable OG of around 1.045 a low temp mash and the addition of sugar you can expect to hit the high end of the range. The Higher your OG, the higher you mash and the absence of fermentable sugars will put you lower down the range. You really have to take an educated guess on a new brew and even with experience you are "shooting" at a percentage rather than nailing it down to an exact figure.

What are you brewing mate ? something nice ??

Yeasty

It's a bit of an experiment I do small batches so I can brew more and accelerate the learning without destroying my liver. I made some invert sugar that I was thinking of using in a mild but I was also looking at cloning a Coopers sparkling. The coopers is very dry measures 1.004 and has 5.8% ABV. Based on that I figured if I used the pale malt and combined it with the invert sugar I could get the dryness and color.
So I used
76.7% Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (5.9 EBC)
4.9% Wheat Malt, Ger (3.9 EBC)
18.4% Invert Sugar (30.0 EBC)

OG was 1.048 and I am aiming for a final of 1.005 and fermenting with coopers bottle yeast.

I hopped Pride of Ringwood to 24 IBU with a 15min for flavour and an extra 7 IBU
I keep getting different reports on the bitterness of Coopers sparkling from 20 to 40+ so I went 31 to see how I like it. Hopefully it will resemble what I am looking for.