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   1. BIABacus — where to keep notes during a brew?

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in Measurement, Mathematics and Records

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      Hi there
      
      I'm using the BIABacus and am wondering where other brewers keep notes during the course of a brew?
      
      For instance, I like to keep notes about temp changes, gravity readings, obversations etc
      
      I'm aware of the 'Special Instructions/Notes' field but on my mac, this doesn't allow paragraph breaks so it gets a little unwieldy in there.

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      Take a look at this thread. I use the sheets from it and add other notes in the margins if needed.
      7 Replies
      18756 Views
      Lumpy5oh
      9 years ago
   2. Can't bring new BIAB kettle to the boil on stove

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in The Boil (Sweet Liquor to Wort)

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      I was using a 19 litre Big W stock pot for my 11 litre batches.
      
      But I had trouble fitting everything in with higher gravity beers and didn't really like the flimsy nature of the pot. Plus, the latter aspect made holding mash temperatures more difficult.
      
      So recently I bought a new 25 litre pot, much heavier in construction, and mashing in it was a definite improvement. Much more thermal mass meant less fussing over temperatures.
      
      However the downside of this became apparent when bringing to...

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      Do you have your kettle insulated? I put camping mats or something like that around my kettle. Just take care that it cant burn.
      
      Example:
      3 Replies
      16862 Views
      Aries
      10 years ago
   3. 15 min hop additions and no-chill?

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in Chilling

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      I know this topic gets discussed widely on all brewing forums but I just wanted to get a second opinion on hop additions for a no-chill clone I'm doing of Fullers 1845 Ale.
      
      The recipe aims for 50IBU roughly, of which 40 IBU come from the 60 minute addition and 10 from a 15 minute addition.
      
      In translating this to a no-chill scenario, I'm thinking of leaving the 60 minute addition as it is, but changing the 15 minute addition to flame-out and leaving to stand for 20 minutes before pulling the...

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      Does this sound a reasonable approach to dealing with a 15 minute addition? The short answer is, No.
      
      We know the well-known chart and unfortunately this is one of those things that lead people away from being educated into asking the right questions. When copying a recipe, one of the most critical things is knowing the chilling methods and timings used by the original brewer. No software, apart from the BIABacus, allows fields for the management of later hop additions and it is the management...
      4 Replies
      13621 Views
      PistolPatch
      10 years ago
   4. Doppelbock stuck at 1.028

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in Fermentation (Wort to Still Beer)

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      Brewing a doppelbock with 34/70 yeast.
      
      Initial fermentation took off quickly and was very active. Fermented at 11C and after a week was 65% attenuated to around 1.028 so raised the temperature to 18C for a diacetyl rest.
      
      Note that I'm following the quick lager method here:
      
      Now after 3 days at 18C, the gravity hasn't budged. I'm still at around 1.028 and have tried gently rousing the yeast.
      
      I don't know what to do now. Just leave it? If the yeast have stopped working, then I'm left with a...

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      what temp did you mash at?? without that any guesses are simply guesses. Recipe would help too
      8 Replies
      16879 Views
      Bellybuster
      10 years ago
   5. BIABacus — how to adjust grain absorption?

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in Measurement, Mathematics and Records

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      Just brewed a batch today and my Volume into Boil (VIB) was higher than anticipated by my BIABacus spreadsheet.
      
      So the spreadsheet is overestimating my grain absorption rate — where can I amend the default for this?
      
      I was expecting to do so in Section X but can't see the appropriate amount there.

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      Thanks MS for taking the time with this, it was useful to see your xls.
      
      I squeeze pretty hard, bag on a rack on top of the kettle and use the kettle lid, then into a colander where I squeeze some more so I'm closer to 0.5l/kg it seems than the defaults.
      
      I brewed my Brown Ale yesterday, first batch using the BIABacus, and hit my pre-boil and gravity of ambient wort (GAW) numbers on the dot: 1.046 and 1.056 respectively, exactly as estimated by the BIABacus, so that was satisfying. Only opened...
      3 Replies
      13085 Views
      rsandilands
      10 years ago
   6. BIABacus "pre-pitching corrections" and adding DME

      by rsandilands, 10 years ago in Intermediate Brewing

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      I have a few BIAB 10 litre batches under my belt and am currently investigating the BIABacus. I'm doing so by plugging in a couple of BeerSmith recipes that I'd previously brewed, as well as mapping out the next two brews I have in the pipeline, a Brown Ale followed by a Fullers 1845 clone.
      
      My last batch was a 1.085 Doppelbock. I'm not going to make a habit of brewing beers this big, mostly because I don't really enjoy drinking strong beers, but thought it would be an interesting project...

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      Thanks MS.
      
      Recipe file attached.
      
      The recipe is based on Cigar City's Maduro Brown Ale, but I'm not looking for an exact clone.
      
      As mentioned, I already have the milled and bagged grains on hand, so I've tweaked my volumes to fit my estimated OG and BIABacus kettle efficiency figure.
      4 Replies
      7592 Views
      rsandilands
      10 years ago

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