Hi Gang,

Long time no see.  Hope all is well with everyone.

Morebeer is having an Xmas sale with 12% off most things on their site. This includes their Russian River's Pliny the Elder kit, which is $51 (with yeast), or $44.88 after the 12% discount. I reckon it would cost at least $62 if I bought the ingredients from my local homebrew shop. So I'm kinda into the idea of brewing this great IPA at a somewhat reduced price. Question: How hard is it to set up the recipe in the BIABacus? Below is an image of the ingredients that I grabbed from a site that will remain nameless   

Thanks very much,
Steve

Doh! Forgot the water part  :headhit:I'll see if I can find that info.

Hi Steve - Don't worry about the water, BIABacus will take care of that.  We will mock up a file based on what we know.  Hopefully the kit will give some basic information.

Thanks MS! Starting to wonder if this is going to fit my 11 gallon kettle in the first place..

I'm predicting the mash at 11.68 gallons, you can withhold what you need, just a slightly thicker mash.  With the high amount of hops on this one, I'm setting the OG to 1.070 to get you the most amount of wort to work with, as you will lose about 1/2 gallon due to wort retained by hops.

Just let us know when you have the kit in hand and if there is any instructions, total grain weight, hop AA%, hop schedule, etc. and we will go from there.

Steve's screenshot has nothing to do with the kit (he linked), the kit's OG range is 1.070 - 1.074.

I guess the kit is popular -- it's out of stock 

Well, I intend do this kit especially after all the great input from the Mad Scientist so I'll come back once it's available again.

Back in stock with a one-day 10% discount today -- sweet! I bought a few extras that I needed, which put the total over the free shipping threshold -- double sweet. I'll post more details when the package arrives.

[font=Arial]Package arrived today, and here are the details from the included instructions:[/font]

[font=Arial]70% Mash Efficiency[/font]
[font=Arial]Mash at 151-154F / 66-68C[/font]
[font=Arial]1.072-76 OG[/font]
[font=Arial]6 SRM / 11.8 EBC[/font]
[font=Arial]100 IBUs [/font]
[font=Arial]ABV 8%[/font]

[font=Arial]Fermentables[/font]
[font=Arial]13 lbs / 5897 g -- 2-row [/font]
[font=Arial]6 oz / 170 g -- Crystal 40L (159 EBC / 81 SRM)[/font]
[font=Arial]1 lb / 454 g -- Carapils 1.5L (2.5 EBC / 1.3 SRM)[/font]
[font=Arial]1 lb / 454 g -- Corn sugar (last 10 mins of boil)[/font]

[font=Arial]Hops[/font]
[font=Arial]2 oz / 57 g -- Cascade 6.4% AA (whole) -- MASH at 60 mins[/font]
[font=Arial]2 oz / 57 g -- Magnum 12.4% AA  -- Boil at 90 mins[/font]
[font=Arial]1 oz / 28 g -- Simcoe 12.9% AA -- Boil at 45 mins[/font]
[font=Arial]1 oz / 28 g -- Columbus 10% AA -- Boil at 30 mins[/font]
[font=Arial]2 oz / 57 g -- Centennial 12.0% AA -- Flameout[/font]
[font=Arial]1 oz / 28 g -- Simcoe 12.9% AA -- Flameout[/font]
[font=Arial]3 oz / 85 g -- Columbus 10% AA-- Dry hop for 5-7 days[/font]
[font=Arial]1 oz / 28 g -- Centennial 8.9% AA[/font][font=Arial] -- Dry hop for 5-7 days[/font]
[font=Arial]1 oz / 28 g -- Simcoe 12.9% AA -- Dry hop for 5-7 days[/font]


[font=Arial]1/2 tab Whirlfloc -- Boil at 5 mins[/font]

[font=Arial]Yeast [/font]
[font=Arial]Safale US-05 at 68F / 20C[/font]

[font=Arial]Mash water calculation: total lbs of grains * 1.1 qts -- 14.375 * 1.1 = 15.8 qts / 4 = 3.95 gals[/font]
[font=Arial]Sparge water calculation: total lbs of grains * .5 gals -- 14.375 * .5 = 7.18 gals[/font]
[font=Arial]Total water: 11.13 gals / 11 gals 17 ozs / 42.13 liters[/font]

Mad_Scientist wrote:I'm predicting the mash at 11.68 gallons, you can withhold what you need, just a slightly thicker mash.  With the high amount of hops on this one, I'm setting the OG to 1.070 to get you the most amount of wort to work with, as you will lose about 1/2 gallon due to wort retained by hops.

Just let us know when you have the kit in hand and if there is any instructions, total grain weight, hop AA%, hop schedule, etc. and we will go from there.

Hey MS -- Please see my latest reply, which has all the details you requested. Thanks!

Take a look at this Steve.  Open for discussion.  I did factor in the wort loss from hop absorption (I added .6 L to the KFL to show what to expect for the VIF).  If you use paint strainer bags for the hops and squeeze them "dry" when done will have the least amount of wort loss.

Mad_Scientist wrote:Take a look at this Steve.  Open for discussion.  I did factor in the wort loss from hop absorption.

Side effect of new site layout?

I had it open for editing, maybe that was it.  Try again.

Mad_Scientist wrote:I had it open for editing, maybe that was it.  Try again.

Same message. Tried on IE 11,  FireFox and Chrome. Are you able to download?

You are right, I couldn't either.  Here is the same file, let's try again.

Mad_Scientist wrote:You are right, I couldn't either.  Here is the same file, let's try again.

Ok, that's better! Will work with this spreadsheet today -- thanks very much!

Mad_Scientist wrote:You are right, I couldn't either.  Here is the same file, let's try again.

Ok, MS, this looks great! I am getting a mash volume warning for my kettle (36 cm x 40 cm) -- if I hold back like a liter for a sparge then that warning goes away but then I get the "Decrease Water used in a Sparge" warning. I brew with a Bayou Classic kettle, and place the bag inside the kettle's perforated basket. So I think for safety's sake, I think I can ignore the sparge warning by lifting the basket, and running the sparge water through it. Make sense?
Also, I want to do some learning here. The fermentable section is straightforward -- sum the total weight of malt, and itemize the sugar. How did you arrive at the hop bill information?

You can totally mash that close to the rim, but to play it safe, withhold some and add it back after dough-in.

My hops thing is just a quick entry, go ahead and enter your hop bill in.  Mash hops might be entered as zero minutes.

Mad_Scientist wrote:You can totally mash that close to the rim, but to play it safe, withhold some and add it back after dough-in.

My hops thing is just a quick entry, go ahead and enter your hop bill in.  Mash hops might be entered as zero minutes.

Much obliged, MS. Have a Happy New Year!!!

[font=Arial]Hi Guys,[/font]

[font=Arial]Just a quick note to let you know that I brewed the MoreBeer Pliny the Elder kit last weekend. All went well, thanks to Mad Scientist's help with the BIABacus! The result won't be exactly right as I suffered from a short spate of temporal dyslexia -- I added one of the hop charges at at 1 hour 45 mins rather than just 45 mins so perhaps more bitter than intended.[/font]
[font=Arial] :headhit: [/font]

[font=Arial]Steve[/font]

[font=Arial]Well, the MoreBeer's Pliny the Elder tastes pretty damn good. I haven't tried the real thing in a few years so not sure how close it is, but I'd buy kit again for sure.[/font]

Ok another kit query. Attached is the BIABacus for a Tripel that is supposed to produce 5 US gallons of 11% ABV beer, but I am seeing 4 gallons of 9.4% ABV beer. Did I do it right? Thanks, guys!

Hey there Steve,

For some reason I and others have totally missed this thread. (There's an email notification problem going on that, thanks to Microsoft etc will need a university degree to correct )

Anyway, let's have a look...

I think you are correct and they are wrong. Would need more info though to confirm that. For example, if you order the kit, are they delivering the exact weights you have listed on the left hand side of Section C of the BIABacus? If yes, then, even if you set your Kettle to Fermenter Loss to zero in Section X, things still won't balance.

(Top job in Section Y btw )

Really need a photo or list of actual ingredients to double-check though