I tested the CE based BIABcalc by doing an NS Ale brew on Sunday
The quick answer is that I've never had a brew be so spot on!
The only real problem I had was that I didn't wait for my hydrometer samples to cool down, and instead used a converter, and the calculations apparently weren't accurate.
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Okay, So I decided to brew a Nelson Sauvin Summer Ale. The plan was to use the defaults I had established of 99% and 1.41L/KG for Conversion Efficiency and Absorption.
The only system specific parameter I needed was my evaporation rate, which is about 7L/hr, so 10.5L for a 90 min boil. I have actually had 11L for a 90min brew before, depends on atmospheric conditions I think.
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Because I was going to be testing the accuracy of the calculator's predictions with this I decided to work out the actual potential from the grain, as per malt specs.
My base recipe is 4.5KG of Thomas Fawcett Golden Promise and 400g of Weyermann's Pale Wheat Malt made up to an OG of 1.050
I used the grains tab in the CE Calculator to work out the actual laboratory potential for the grains. Normally you'd just use a preset, but I wanted exact
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The Fine Grind Dry Basis % for Wey Wheat is 84.2% with Moisture content of 4.4%
The FGDB% for Golden Promise was 79.4% with Moisture content of 3.3%
The grist calculator calcuated 77.083% extract potential. Closer enough to 77.1%
The current BIABacus defaults would've been 79.43%, so this was worth doing for accuracy, because I would be undershooting my grain if I was expecting 79.43% extract potential from grain with only a 77.1% extract potential.
When I asked the CEcalc to target 25.5L of 1.050 wort it spat out a 5.25KG grain bill, you can see the grist tab has 4.820KG of Golden Promise and 430g of Wey Wheat. So that is what I used.
Total Strike was 40.5L, Total grain bill was 5.25KG and we were aiming for 25.5L of 1.050 wort.
....
So commence the brew
I did the mash, and measured the mash gravity at the end of mashout, before pulling the bag.
1.036, which matched my Start of Boil gravity, 1.036, thus confirming that Mash gravity should be the same as Start of Boil gravity, which nicely confirms one of my assumptions in this calculator's design.
...
I actually only achieved 1.034 for Start of Boil/Mash Gravity, but that reading was taken at 50C and I believe was out by about 2 points, as I will show later
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So, pulled the bag, squeezed and squeezed... till hardly anything was coming out, and dumped it.
Start of Boil volume was 37.6L and gravity was 1.034 (actually higher, but I didn't wait to cool the sample because of all the samples I was taking! and not wanting to get involved with ice baths... I really should start using my refractometer more)
Target was actually 37L, so I had an extra 600ml.
Which means my absorption was 1.3L/KG not 1.41L/KG, but as I said in an earlier post, if you squeeze the bajeezus out of your grain, you should get about 1.26L/KG, so I was close to that.
(more on the non-difference that absorption makes later)
According to the calculator, with original readings, my achieved Conversion Efficiency was 93.8% and my Into Boil Efficiency was 78.8%
I was fairly disheartened by this... as I was expecting about 83% into boil efficiency, damn. Oh well, we'll just use 95% CE in future... but my research had led me to be fairly certain that 99% was the right efficeincy.
Anyway, boil continues... end of boil readings...
26.9L, when I wanted 26.5L, not too bad...
Actual evaporation was 10.7L not 10.5L and the absorpiton was 110ml/KG less.
OG was 1.048, and my EOB efficiency matched my SOB efficiency, which was all making sense and is how things are supposed to be................
..................Except I waited for the sample to cool properly, and at 20C, it actually read 1.050! Oh happy days
So, I hit my OG perfectly, and my End of Boil volume was just +400ml... which means MORE BEER than planned for
Which means I hit my 83% Into Boil efficiency. And if I bumped the Start of Boil gravity up to 1.036 so I can get the same Into Boil efficiency as End of Boil efficiency (which is correct), then my conversion effciency was actually 99%!
Which is exactly what it was supposed to be!
So, I'm fairly certain, that if I had properly cooled the samples, everything would read as it should, and I'm pretty much bang on my gravity and my volume is a mere 400mls out... which is just an extra glass of beer, as its full strength wort
Now, my absorption was out by 110ml/KG. This is not a problem because all this means is I get more first runnings that I was expecting, and as I have shown, first runnings are at your Start of Boil gravity, which means you just end up with slighty more wort than you were expecting. If you're evaporation is slightly stronger than you were expecting and your absorption is slightly less, then it all balances out nicely, so its best to overestimate absorption (1.41L) and underestimate boil off, as this will lead to, at worst, as stronger wort at End of Boil, which can be diluted into the fermenter if necessary.
So, I cubed 24L of hot wort, and had about 2.5L left over. After sieving I have 2.25L of kettle dregs which I'll use the non-break portion to make a starter.
So, here is a pretty chart
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