You're spot on Bill.

All straight sided and flat bottomed pots have a little curve, don't worry about that little bit.

Here is the screen shots of B and U.

Ok.. here is the spreadsheet for the beer I brewed today. I screwed up on some volume measurements... but, otherwise, I think the session went well for my first full volume BIAB. I used my new induction hotplate to help maintain my temperature.

I found out that heating the strike water to 76.6 was not near enough as the temp dripped in the kettle to 65* when I added the grains. I had to turn the heater up to bring the water up to 69.9-70* and stir long enough to get a good mix. Once the temp remained stable, it was easy to maintain it.

Beyond that point, at the end of the dough-in, I should have taken a volume measurement.. but.. I need help here. The volume would be skewed because I not only have grain in the kettle, but I also have a large ss basket that came with the turkey fryer that holds the grain bag off the bottom of the kettle.

At the end of the mash I should have taken a volume measurement.. but, again.. the bag and the basket might skew the numbers??

I pulled the basket at the end and squeezed (squoze) all the wort out that I could. I took a measurement.. but it doesn't make sense based on my next measurement.. This measurement read 205 mm or 19.16 L
However,
My end of boil measurement read 21 cm or 19.63

I know I screwed up on something here.. I'm used to taking pH measurements and SG measurements during the process... but, not volume measurements.

Next time I will need a <<<<<<<PROCESS SHEET>>>>>>>

I don't know if anyone can, or wants to attempt to help reconstruct my mistakes.. I don't know how to do it.

Also, one thing that puzzles me.. I have my meter stick to measure the wort in the kettle.. and that works well when I remember to take the reading.
However...
I'm not sure how to do this same thing with the cooled wort that I'm putting into the fermenter. I have gallon and half gallon markings on my carboy.. but.. that's not as accurate as my meter stick on a stiff sided kettle. My fermenter is a PET carboy. Possibly there is some sort of calculator that can be used for the carboy using a meter stick. :D :D Oh what a dreamer.

OH, and one final thing. I didn't hit my expected OG. I didn't boil off as much wort as I thought I would. I'll have to find out where to put those numbers in the spreadsheet..

Anyhow, here is the spreadsheet......

You have a huge discrepancy in your VAW in your actuals, Bill. 5 L, which one is correct?

The volume in the fermenter is the key at this point. At the very least make a mark on the fermenter so you can measure that exact volume at a later time.

MS

I'll do a proper post tomorrow on your file.

I've removed everything from the pre-pitching section (L) that I either don't know or am fuzzy on. So the spreadsheet in #27 is new tonight....

I know I have close to 3.6 gallons of wort in the fermenter. I know I only had 0.15 L of gunk that I didn't transfer from the kettle into the fermented. Everything seemed to stay in the bag.. NO hop sludge at all.. I use the lower leg of my wife's panty hose and that is so fine that NOTHING escapes. Haven't had hop sludge since I've been doing that. No one thinks it's worthwhile option.. but.. that's my choice.

Back figuring, somehow, I guess we could come up with a VFO.. but I don't know how to do that.. I think there is a 4% change.. ??

I do know I had 20.5 L going into the kettle ambient. I know I had 3.375kg of crushed grain.

I also know I had apprx. 2.27 more liquid into the fermenter than I had planned on despite a good rolling boil for 90 minutes.

You could always weigh your pot & basket (on scales) beforehand and then deduct that from an either hot or cold VAW weight (other than burning yourself)
The main point here is that when weighing it doesn't matter what the temp is.

Oh.... and the BIABacus handles that too!

:D That would be great.. but, my bathroom scale does not weigh to the ounce/gram.

What is done is done. However, I'm having quite a difficult time wrapping my self around Sect L while using the basket/bag combo. I know they both displace water. Do any other brewers use a basket like this? (SS Cajun Cooker pot with basket of perforated SS) If so what do you/they do? I can only see running an experiment using both.. no grain, just water and using my almost magic metal yard/meter stick. That would add a whole other dimension to the measurement from the top.. because for every cm I measure in Sect V.. OMGosh.. even V wouldn't work because of the basket.

I'm probably overthinking this. It might be a LOT easier if I only had a simple cake cooling rack on the bottom. That would displace very little volume.

Bill, I do not want to promote any product....But, 34.5cm seems to be 13.70 inches, so..

Check http://www.amazon.com/Wilton-13-Inch-Ro ... B0000DDWTP

for a 13" cake rack.

Mad_Scientist wrote:I'll do a proper post tomorrow on your file.

I reckon that is going to take you an hour at least. Good job MS

This thread is way out of control...

We might need to Skype again Bill and go over again the stuff we did. We did cover TWN versus SWN and we did cover Sections U and V so maybe we should chat on this again?

Let me know,
Pat

One way to figure the basket displacement would be to fill the kettle to whatever your TWN is (without basket), measure headspace and put into section V. Record the # of litres, then put in the basket, and take the headspace reading again. Record # of Litres, now subtract 1st recording from 2nd, and that is the volume your basket is occupying.

This volume will change slightly depending on the level of water/wort in your pot, as I assume there would be more or less of the basket submerged, but the amount would hopefully be negligable enough to not effect much... Could probably minimize that by taking the measurements with the water about halfway in between your predicted mash volume and predicted post boil volume...

Thanks again..
Joshua.. I was looking at something like this when I first started looking at BIAB.. but the chrome plating turned me off. I have a few cake racks that would do the job, chrome plated, and i see rust spots where they were spot welded together. However, your post started me looking again and I did find a SS steaming rack that is slightly smaller than the ID of my pot by about 1.5". I can live with 3/4 to 1" per side as the bag won't droop over the edges of the rack.

PP.. That's what happens when I'm trying to brainstorm my issues. I had a problem of FORGETTING to make two measurements that were critical to Sect L. While I took VIB and VFO.. I must have mis recorded something. As mentioned above.. I need a PROCESS SHEET.. check list. A priority before then next brew.

And, yes, we did cover the context of U/V in our chat.. but, it was related to my question about the TOTAL height of my pot (inside) vs my likely high water mark, so to speak. I didn't relate that to U/V.. only to Sect B.

So, most missed info this round for me was my evaporation rate.. and that's a real bummer.

On the bright side.. I have 3.5g of a delicious stout going.. 12 hours into it, it's happily bubbling. It will be a lower gravity than I expected due to lower boil off.. but, hey.. session beers are nothing to sneeze at.

Bill, I have a LARGE bag that I pull over the outside of the Stockpot, and Tie Down With A bungle Cord.

I do not think the Bag can droop over my Pizza Screen.

Exactly.. I also have a bag made for this pot and also fits my Blichman 10g pot. Not sure what a pizza screen is.. but, here is what I'm ordering..

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000LN ... PDKIKX0DER

Bill,
That will work Great, use Some S.S. bolt/Screws and Nuts to lift it about 1" above the Bottom!

HbgBill wrote:I've removed everything from the pre-pitching section (L) that I either don't know or am fuzzy on. So the spreadsheet in #27 is new tonight....

I know I have close to 3.6 gallons of wort in the fermenter. I know I only had 0.15 L of gunk that I didn't transfer from the kettle into the fermented. Everything seemed to stay in the bag.. NO hop sludge at all.. I use the lower leg of my wife's panty hose and that is so fine that NOTHING escapes. Haven't had hop sludge since I've been doing that. No one thinks it's worthwhile option.. but.. that's my choice.

Back figuring, somehow, I guess we could come up with a VFO.. but I don't know how to do that.. I think there is a 4% change.. ??

I do know I had 20.5 L going into the kettle ambient. I know I had 3.375kg of crushed grain.

I also know I had apprx. 2.27 more liquid into the fermenter than I had planned on despite a good rolling boil for 90 minutes.

20.5 L ambient = 21.32 L boil, so VIB = 21.32

Based solely on your VAW of 13.63 L and your 1.056 OG, GAW, let's see how we go.

VAW = 13.63 L x 56 points = 763.28 @ 14.6 cm volume height
VFO = 14.18 L x 53.82 points = 763.28 @ 15.2 cm volume height
VIB = 21.32 L x 35.80 points = 763.28 @ 22.8 cm volume height The evaporation is calculated at 7.14 L @ 90 mins. boil.

Your GIB is quite different (1.044) compared to the 1.035/8 I got, we can not trust numbers from a single brew.

I have tried to show you what the numbers are you didn't capture, that is all.

PistolPatch wrote:

Mad_Scientist wrote:I'll do a proper post tomorrow on your file.

I reckon that is going to take you an hour at least. Good job MS

Pat

What else am I going to do whilst at work, eh? ...For my friend Bill....

AWESOME.... Thank you VERY much. What your back figured number for VIB is spot on. One of the numbers I had written down for volume was 210mm of wort from the mashing. That is right at 5.63G. I'm positive I took a VFO reading.. but, obviously, didn't write it down. That would have given me the numbers I needed. Regarding the GiB. I got the same number with both my Refractometer and my hydrometer.

I wanted to shoot for a slightly higher OG.. but looks like I'm going to get what the original recipe called for or 1.055 rather than 1.065. Didn't want to mess with adding DME.

Great to see you are all sorted thanks to MS .

One thing though Bill, don't expect to match the numbers estimated by the BIABacus or any other program on all your brews. Matching numbers to software estimates is a rookie mistake. Estimated numbers are a tool, a guide, not a God .

...

Last night, I read a post on a forum where the brewer explained to the software author that they would have achieved the final gravity figure predicted by the software if the author had allowed for a certain factor of one grain.

I could have pointed out far more major errors in that software but the point is the reader was expecting to achieve the final gravity predicted by the software whereas this almost never happens.

Later ,
PP

Yessir.. again.. thanks to ALL who helped.. M_S, you da man o' da moment Great forum why a lot of great folks.

Now.. on to a process sheet while Mr McQuaker is perking along.

Hay Bill,

Going with the numbers you gave, and because you evaporated more that expected on the BIABacus, I reconciled your predicted OG / GAW to a 1.060/0 gravity, if you made up the evaporation loss difference of, 7.14 minus 6 (as entered in Section N).

I can't explain the 5 point gap from 1.065 and 1.060, but anyways, your 1.056 OG is closer to the 1.060 mark. Just thought I'd let you know



MS