Tsar wrote:Now I'm having an huge problem, in Portugal we only have two homebrew shops, and they only sell "generic" grain, like "Pale Ale 7ebc Malt"...

Tsar, this mightn't be as big a problem as you think.

Currently, pretty much all areas of brewing have hopeless terminology and malt names are yet another good example of this. The exact same malt for example might be known and sold under several different names depending on the country and/or maltster. How stupid is that?

It gets worse as with some malts, their basic classification is not even agreed upon .

The easiest rule to work from in such a silly world is not the names but the colour. It won't work with every malt but as a general rule, if you are sold a malt that is 50 SRM but called something different from another malt that is also 50 SRM, then 9 times out of 10 those malts will be the same/produce the same effect.

So Tsar, if your shops are online, post us a link and we'll see if we can find the right grains for you. If not, tell them that in addition to an ale malt you also want a Munich 1 malt (they should know that one) and a caramel/crystal malt of around 100 EBC's or 50 SRM's. Let us know how they respond.

My thinking is that if they sell Amarillo hops, they will probably have the above as well.


PP

Tsar, From what I see, most all the hops have the English names after "lupulo" and the grains are in English after "Malte".

I hope Lupulo is "hop" and Malte is "grains" but I do not know Portuguese, Sorry....

Muita Boa Sorte

loooks like an old one of mine that PP helped me with that's been changed (file name is the giveaway ) That one is going to taste good

Actually it does look good, although I'd like more hops and I would put them all in at the end or FWH them, but that's just what I like. Then if it becomes all about hops, which isn't, then you could leave out the crystal so you can appreciate the hops more. I'm just stuck in a rut, but I like it there. You probably know what you like and you are heading there and that's just the thing. Cheers!

Good luck and enjoy.

Tsar wrote:Thanks PistolPatch,

The site is in Portuguese, but the malt and hops names are the same (almost).

Malt -> http://www.cervejartesanal.com/produtos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... e-em-grao/
Hops -> http://www.cervejartesanal.com/produtos" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ... es/lupulo/

From your link to the grains, I would go with;

Malte Cara-Amber 60 ebc
Malte Munich 15 ebc
Malte Pale-Ale 7 ebc

Tsar, I would set your boil time for 60 minutes, and change your 'Water Added During Boil' to 2 L, this will give you the maximum dilution rate of 25%. You are currently at 35%.

I googled 'irish moss', 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons / 19 L added to the last minutes of the boil.

~richard

Tsar wrote:

Mad_Scientist wrote:Tsar, I would set your boil time for 60 minutes, and change your 'Water Added During Boil' to 2 L, this will give you the maximum dilution rate of 25%. You are currently at 35%.

If I do this, BIABacus shows me the warning "Mash volume exceeds kettle size"

Now set your boil time to 60 mins.

These 2 changes are my suggestions for your recipe. A 1.7 cms headspace is workable for mashing, imo.

Mad_Scientist wrote:A 1.7 cms headspace is workable for mashing, imo.

Just pull your bag slooowly

I've brimmed my pot leaving just 5mm for the lid recess and got away with only a slight spillage when pulling the bag. Patience is the key..

metalhophead wrote:Wuz up everyone. I brewed my Centennial ipa last night. (the one with Guinges's file name)I hit my volumes spot on for the first time. I was also able to hit my SG for the first time, though I kinda cheated. My efficency still appears to be the same around 65 percent, but this time I squeezed the bag super duper good and I sparged some with the gallon I witheld and kinda figured it out by taking a few gravities and using a calculator to get to around 1.056 Before the boil. I mean is 65 percent with no sparge bad? In the future I'm going to account for a whole sparge. I also used two thermometers this time so I feel pretty good about my mash temps. Oh and one more thing. This beer came out really dark which is fine, but I didnt expect the crystal 60 to be darker than crystal 80. I guess its because I used 11 percent instead of 5 this time....Anywas cheers guys!

Metalhophead

Well done on your most successful brew so far. Give us your numbers if you are still unsure about your efficiency. Your estimated GIK was 1.054/6 so you exceeded that with 1.056 and your estimated EIK was 69.7% so you are not far off. I'm just confused a bit as at first glance it doesn't make sense. With a sparge of 3L with the 6L held back should have yielded about 74%


Post your file with your actual numbers, it would be interesting to look at.



Yeasty

Tsar wrote:

Mad_Scientist wrote:this will give you the maximum dilution rate of 25%. You are currently at 35%.

Where did you get that number?

I think I rather make a smaller batch than taking a chance on a boil over :\

Thanks

Here is a couple of links Tsar. 15% is very acceptable and 20% is getting close to the 'red zone'.

There are a number of different ways to hammer-out this recipe to 'suit your equipment', so work out which numbers you want to work with.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286&p=29707&hilit=dilution#p29707
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286&p=28072&hilit=dilution#p28072

Just about to head into what could be some serious Friday afternoon drinks so will try and do two posts here first re metalhophead and then Tsar...

metalhophead wrote:Wuz up everyone. I brewed my Centennial ipa last night. (the one with Guinges's file name)I hit my volumes spot on for the first time. I was also able to hit my SG for the first time, though I kinda cheated. My efficency still appears to be the same around 65 percent, but this time I squeezed the bag super duper good and I sparged some with the gallon I witheld and kinda figured it out by taking a few gravities and using a calculator to get to around 1.056 Before the boil. I mean is 65 percent with no sparge bad? In the future I'm going to account for a whole sparge. I also used two thermometers this time so I feel pretty good about my mash temps. Oh and one more thing. This beer came out really dark which is fine, but I didnt expect the crystal 60 to be darker than crystal 80. I guess its because I used 11 percent instead of 5 this time....Anywas cheers guys!

metalhophead

Hey there Fred ,

As you know, I have happily spent a fair bit of time on your 'efficiency' problem so far. What is worrying me now though is that I might have been throwing too much info at you in a single post.

What I'm saying is that the quote above shows that a lot of ground we have already covered previously still needs to be absorbed. I don't think there is any way around this apart from reading things slowly and allowing some time for it to sink in.

I'll give one example... above you talk about an efficiency of 65%. We won't get anywhere on this until you do some more study on EIK and EIF. We can't even address the sparging issues until we are sure you understand the difference between those two. (There are several other comments above that tell me you are going to have to re-read all the stuff I wrote in other posts to you, line by line, point by point. There are no quick answers in this area unfortunately Fred.)

Anyway, first up, let me/us know when you understand the difference between EIK and EIF. If you have any questions let us know.


PP

P.S. One question that can be answered in your post above is the colour one.... Hold on, strike that! There are actually several problems in the BIABacus file you have posted Fred. We talked about some of these previously I remember. Before you brew next, you really need to post your BIABacus file here, in this thread, a week before you want to brew so as we can iron out the problems.

This is one of those areas where quick answers will not serve you well. Allow some reading and writing time and we'll get you sorted one step at a time. First step - EIK versus EIF!

Tsar wrote:...my question is witch of those grains should I use for this recipe?

I agree with MS's suggestions although an interesting discrepancy pops up. The original recipe in this thread calls for a Cara-Amber at 93 EBC whereas the Cara-Amber on your linked website has Cara-Amber at 60 EBC. Your website is closer and I have always brewed this recipe using Cara-Amber so ignore the colour rating in the orignal recipe I reckon.

Tsar wrote:Thanks Mad_Scientist

My recipe is almost ready to brew
Last doubt (I hope) is that I'll be using Irish moss instead of whirlfloc, so how much should I use?

Thanks

From memory, Whirfloc is Irish Moss but just packaged into a tablet form. A half tablet of whirfloc is recommended for a 5 gallon (19 L) 'batch' (EOBV or VIF???) however...

Addition time should be 5 minutes before end of boil. (You'll often hear of 15 minutes - this is incorrect.)

Regarding the File (Dilutions etc)

I'm working off post # 1234 here (nice number ). I think that file is looking very good .

I might be missing something but to me the dilutions look fine. For example, any water added before the boil does not diminish quality so we can ignore that. 'Water Added During Boil' is 6 L versus the EOBV-A of 22.2L. 6/22.2 is 27%. Even a dilution into the fermentor of 30% can be okay in some situations but we are in a much better position than that as it is getting added during the boil so the 'real' dilution rate is much, much less that a a dilution in the fermentor - they are two entirely different kettles of fish.

So, I reckon all is good. MS might be seeing something I am not seeing (or vice versa) but I really do think the file you posted in 1234 is great.


PP)

Okay PP, I see the math you used for this. I will make a note. I learned something...

I was using FUZZY MATH. I divided the SWN by TWN and it was roughly 35%, which is what I reacted to.

F U Z Z Y M A T H ***********************

Addled Jim wrote: I need some clarity does Mash Volume = TWN + Grain added - so I would start with 35.05 litres in boiler and with grain added would take it to 39.84 litres?

That's correct Jim. Good luck on your brew day.

Yeasty