BabyfaceFinster, there are basically 2 different sizes of auto siphons. I don't recall the actual sizes without going all the way downstairs to measure but, there are 2 and the bigger one is much fast although once again I'm not sure that PP approves of it.
He seems to like things to be drawn out.
I thinks he has gone to work right now so I can say that.
and I also don't hv 2 wrry abt my spllng mstaks

metalhophead wrote:Alright I have done my best to input everything into biabicus. I wasn't sure if I am supposed to put the orange peel and coriander into the grain bill. I didn't know where to put it. Pistol Patch started helping me. I'm still not entirely certain about this eobv-a. (end of boil volume ambient?)If I understand correctly it has to do with whether you accounted for trub loss in the recipe. In the original recipe the end of boil volume was 11.44 gallons yet the batch size was 10.00. This means they accounted for trub loss so is the EOBV-a 11.44? I figured out the SRM thing.

Metal, I've never used wheat, if you have that's great. Do you use a single infusion mash schedule for wheat? It looks like you researched the ppg too for the grains.

I found one thing that stood out, your grain bill showed 9.6 pounds, NOT 9 pounds and 6 ounces. I used the unit conversion sheet, 2nd sheet, you can look and see what I did. I made the change on the attached spreadsheet.

I deleted the 2 over-rides in Section X, unless you have made enough brews to know your average boil off rate and your efficiency, then leave them blank for now, IMO.

EOBV-A is the wort cooled down to ambient is all it means, with all it's contents in the kettle. Everything else looks good!

Happy Brewing, ~richard

metalhophead wrote:Alright I have done my best to input everything into biabicus. I wasn't sure if I am supposed to put the orange peel and coriander into the grain bill. I didn't know where to put it.

Good job on completing the BIABacus
Section F is the place to stick in stuff like spices, irish moss, water corrections, etc.

Happy brewing!

metalhophead wrote:I think I"m getting it. I still have some questions though. So when I know my average efficiency after doing a few recipes do I put it in section X? By leaving it blank does it just assume a default effiency? For my Chinook IPA I believe I hit 72 percent and that was with single crushed grains. How much effiency can you typically get if you double crush? I'm thinking about eventually getting my own mill, but for now I'm stuck with single crushed grains from my homewbrew store.

I'll give my short answer, I would focus on today and furture brews using the BIABacus. I'm not going to re-state all PistolPatch has said before.

metalhophead wrote:Do you do anything different if you are scaling a larger biab or a larger all grain with sparge?

No, not for scaling.
Yes for a sparge and anything you plug into Section X

metalhophead wrote:I dont understand the different between total water needed and total strike water needed. Is that accounting for a slight boil off while heating up to the mash temp? So I'm adding 3.7 gallons to my brew kettle?

In this case, your BIABacus, (Witbier (2)) we are taking about, you are NOT doing a sparge, so your TWN is what you would start with,and the SWN is the volume it expands to at strike water temperature.

metalhophead wrote:There is no accounting for trub loss in to the fermenter. How do you figure that?

I deleted the 2 zeros in Section X, it is now happy.

metalhophead, PP asked me to answer your questions, but you know more about it that I do. I will respond to people's questions when I know the answers and I plan to read this thread so I know more. Would you be able to help out too with people's questions. It looks like you are going for expert status and I'm pretty sure you are nearly there.

I'm learning from your questions and Mad_Scientist's answers.

Thanks very much MS for stepping in and answering Metal's questions (I sent you a pm to say thank you, but I don't think you read your messages, so I thought I'd say thanks on here.)

metalhophead wrote:Cool. I understand now that the water expands when heated. I see that by deleting the 0's in section x it somehow accounted for trub loss. I'm not sure why or how. KFL (Kettle fermenter loss?) Another thing.

Let's let the BIABacus do the calculating for us, RDWHAHB.

metalhophead wrote:In section P. I see that the default effiency is 83%. I assume that is the typical efficiency from a fine grind, but right now I am only able to get a single crush. Can I change the default efficiency to 72 percent which is what my got on my first biab? Otherwise my O.G. will likely be lower than the recipe says.

You are free to do what you want. I single crush my grain, I have my own mill and control the gap. Nothing wrong with a single crush. Maybe until you get a mill, and your crush is coming from one supply store, you may be at their mercy for what you get. With FULL VOLUME BIAB and a voile bag you can crush very fine and your efficiency does run high (83% example).

metalhophead wrote:I hope I'm not asking to many questions. Maybe I am over analyzing. I just want to get it right. Thanks

You can hard code your efficiency to 72 this time and if you have a higher than normal OG, you can add top-up water in the fermenter until you are at your target.

Hey Metal,

After looking again at your BIABacus, I saw you have NO headroom to play with.

I'm attaching yours with some changes in Sections W and X;

72% efficiency pre-set

2.85L or 3 quarts withheld from the mash. (you can add it in after the mash, caution of a boil over, or during the boil, or into the fermenter)

You can wait for the hot break to occur, add your hops and then when ready add as much of the 3 quarts initially as you can and add any remaining anytime later in the boil or at flame out.

Mad_Scientist wrote: So my 'honest' actuals, Section L is 49L VIK and 5.13L Evaporation, can be updated. My VIF actual is only an estimate, but believed to be true because of the numbers and the missing 2L you noted.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286&start=950#p28214
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=286&start=950#p28223

Well I'm quoting myself, please read on. Sometimes I make mistakes. When I submitted my BIABacus on this thread for a post brew day analysis, I filled in Section L, I thought I was being 'honest' , I am turning myself in, I can't sleep, I must come clean. After thinking about my volumes in my corny keg fermenters, and recalling the day, I realized I did not measure my VIF, if I did I 'might' have noticed my Immersion chiller still in the keggle......

metalhophead wrote:I guess what I can do is withhold the .75 gallons like you said and see if I have enough space when I mash. I noticed that when I deleted the withheld water that it didn't change my Total water needed 4.14 gallons. You would think that since you withheld .75 gallons that the total water needed would go down. I guess I am just supposed to subtract the withheld water from the total water?

Your TWN includes all the water to use for this recipe. This is NOW a MAXI (you are witholding .75 gallons water from the mash), you draw your attention to the SWN now as the water you start off with for the mash, it is 13.09L / 3.46 G at mash temperature range. Look at the 'Unit Conversion' sheet now, 13.09 L at mash temp equals 12.84 L at ambient and 12.84 L at ambient equals 3.392 G.

You start with 3.392 Gallons ambient for this recipe.

[The following post took four hours to write so I have missed the latest posts above. I really enjoyed having the time to write the below but I have not spell-checked or re-read it a thousand times like I normally do. Hope you enjoy it and that at least something below resonates if you have the time to read it carefully. ]

Nice answer on the spices Lambert .

[center]Mad_Scientist[/center]

Richard, you are a legend! Even without looking at the files you have posted, I can tell you have really thought everything through in your great answers to metal. Very nice .

I hope you are finding answering the questions the way you have a bit of fun. They are often challenging, do take a lot of time but you certainly get a few, 'Ah!', moments out of doing so. I think any of us that have given detailed answers in this thread would agree with this.

Hopefully your individual attention will result in others passing that help on .

Also saw your post above on the IC bit . Nice work on the 'After Post Edits' too.

[center]metalhophead and other 'Explorers'.[/center]
How lucky are you Fred? Richard has given some great info above.

This will be the only long post I do here today and I'm busy again tomorrow so I'm going to write very little information on numbers and more information on general thinking.

Your questions and enthusiasm are excellent! I'm loving reading them so thank you .

One thing that worries me though when Yeasty, mally, Lambert, Mad_Scientist or myself (hope I haven't forgotten anyone) spend an hour or even much more on a single post is that maybe we give too much information? Is this a mistake?

I don't think so.

The Gold

I have a 'Google Alert' set up with keywords on BIAB and several other terms. Nearly every link the alert gives leads to incorrect advice. What happens with BIAB now is the same as what happened, and still happens, when I first learned traditional brewing years ago. Brewing forum answers are very rarely correct or written well. The poster is often yelling a 'fact' that may or may not be true and, even if it is true, it is often totally irrelevant to the person asking the question.

The detailed and personalised answers given on this site are gold for new all-grainers. They are gold for any level of brewer actually. If you can find gold on any other site it is soon lost in the noise.

We live in a noisy world. Facebook, twitter and forums are, as a general rule, not the highest quality sources of information. They give fast, quick, often incorrect "answers" that, to me at least, seem to be more, "look at me" based rather than "let's look at you."

Most members on this site who answer questions on this site show that they listen, not just tell. That's very important and that is real gold.

The Diamonds

In amongst that gold is something even better. There are diamonds that you will never find anywhere else.

The diamonds here are actually very simple but oddly enough, have taken years to find. Many mineshafts have been run or raced along only resulting in the pain-staking re-treading of steps to find what had been missed. Once a potential diamond was found, they were then cleaned to make sure they were actually diamonds. If true, polishing of the diamond was commenced.

BIABrewer.info is now working on how any diamonds found and polished over the years of mining can be displayed in a manner where the most people can benefit.

Currently though, they are still buried amongst the gold.

What are the Diamonds?

The diamonds are nothing more than simple truths. Let's just look at two...

1. A single brew, instrument or reading from an instrument tells you nothing in brewing.

2. Even if we didn't have the above problem, efficiency (EIK, EOBV-E, or EIF) should never be the same for any two recipes unless, at least, they are based on the same original gravity.

These are two true, indisputable facts.

99% of any posts on other forums will always be along the lines of, "I hit my numbers bang on every time," "I always get x% efficiency on every brew," etc. All such posts mean absolutely nothing. They are not even coal dust.

Finding the Diamonds

Fred, to find the diamonds means firstly to slow down and back-track. That's a big ask in today's world especially if you have that most valuable trait of yours - enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm is essential but if it isn't 'slowed down,' you will race along breathing in a crippling amount of coal dust. I have done that but I don't see why any new all-grainer here should have to do that too.

So, slow down and concentrate on just those two diamonds above first. Once you get those two things clear and settled in your mind (you might have to ask some questions) then you can look at being a diamond cutter...

Becoming a Diamond Cutter

Don't read this Fred until you have absorbed the above .

A diamond cutter knows everything about diamonds but even when they cut a diamond, it won't meet the needs or desires of every person. I can't think of any brewer who could equate themselves with having the same skills as a a diamond cutter in the home brewing world.

The brewing world is very backward in it's level of knowledge. This post shows only two diamonds that the majority of home brewers are totally non-conscious of.

It is important that you understand how little we this trade knows.

A Diamond Cutter's Tool-Belt

If you have absorbed the above, you will see that our home-brewing industry is generally unaware of some of the most agricultural (by that I mean basic) concepts in brewing.

Any diamond cutter, any trade, needs to know the essential concepts.

In any trade, concepts are taught with the assistance of a tool belt full of tools. As the individual's skills and experience develop, they may add or discard tools or even change their tool-belt or maybe not even wear one at all. It depends on the individual.

The BIABacus is a superb tool-belt. It is the best without one shadow of doubt. Can it be "tarted up"? Well, of course it can but that is irrelevant at the moment because nothing else comes close in how it services the user.

A Tool-Belt needs Tools.

Until now, brewers have been offered the worst of tool-belts. These poorly designed tool-belts are full of poorly calibrated tools. The most important tools are missing however.

Auto-efficiency would be the most essential and basic tool that springs to mind but there are many more.

Naming the Tool

The BIABacus is the only tool-belt available that contains the most important and basic tools that have not been seen before. Yes, it has heaps more and could do so much more if programmed but that is unimportant atm.

There is yet another level though beyond the tools and that is how they are named.

Terminology has been the building block of the BIABacus.

The other tool-belts and tools (if they have them and they actually work) result in apprentice brewers being yelled at by poorly skilled tradesmen to use a screwdriver whilst the apprentice is rightly asking, "But should I be using the small or large Phillips head or the small or large blade screw-driver?"

It is that bad.

Your TWN Question

Well Fred, all the above was triggered by your last post where you asked why the TWN didn't change. You also talked about how the capacity of your pot might be bigger than the BIABacus said.

Well, on the latter I gave you an answer on that already so don't be too proud of yourself for triggering such an enjoyable post for me to write. If your kettle defies basic mathematics then put the bastard on e-Bay and send me and Richard all the profits .

Which leads us again to...

Studying/Slowing Down

I see now that Richard has had a crack at your TWN question. It's a hard question to answer because you haven't slowed down enough yet and I now see that a diamond was missed.

The answer as to why your TWN didn't change when the water was moved is simple if you understand the diamond.

That is the only error I can see in Richard's answers. He should not have yielded to you so soon is over-riding the BIABacus auto-efficiency. I know exactly why he did it but you need to slow down and re-wind several posts.

Go back to post #1035.

Two critical diamonds have been missed. The first is the crush question. Study this post. Hopefully it tells you that crushing fine is very poor practice.

The second thing is that you should never fix the BIABacus auto-efficiency at a certain percentage. That option is only for Recipe Detective stuff. There's a lot to say on this but, for now, they are irrelevant unless you have absorbed the two diamonds above*.

Really enjoyed writing this post. Thanks a heap Fred for your enthusiasm and more so to Richard who's detailed answers left me free to write all the above. I've never written anything like the above before and a few things became clearer for me.

You are probably all bored to death now though .
PP

*Mad_Scientist - don't give in so quickly next time - lol!

frederick7 wrote:Hi Everyone,

Id like to replicate the sample APA provided with the BIABacus calculator. This looks like a big advancement from the Maxi-BIAB Calulator. I'm very impressed by all the information provided, but not sure exactly what I need to do to get the Maxi calculations. I have a 19L Pot and want to get 21L in the fermenter. I tried adding the calculations (didn't touch the maxi section), but the Kettle headspaces are all in the negatives. Can someone please post some simple instructions to calculate for a maxi batch (or to convert the APA recipe to my settings)?

Much appreciated!

Welcome Frederick. Please download the "BIABacus PR1.3 - American Pale Ale - NRB's Amarillo APA - Batch 1.xls" and then answer the 6 questions from this link and then post your file here.
~richard

No time for deep posts today ...

metalhophead wrote:I believe I am understanding correctly that I should take out the 72 percent auto efficiency and then I have my final recipe.

That's the ticket Fred . Good on you

...

The following answer originates from this postin another thread.

johns wrote:I do have some questions though:.

Hi there johns,

It looks like the guys in the other thread have answered a lot of your questions . Fred and I have just worked through another BeerSmith recipe file here. Make sure you read from this post on carefully. There is a lot to take in however nearly all the questions you still have have unanswered will be solved there plus more.

I have checked your BIABacus file and made some corrections.

1. From the BeerSmith file I was able to determine that the EOBV-A of the recipe was 9.48 L. I have put this into section D.

2. I have added the colours in for the grains.

3. I have put in the AA% of the hops.

Here is the file... You will need to read the posts I linked above regarding BeerSmith. This will take you some time. In addition to those notes, the main reason why your gravity was low in your BeerSmith brew is because the 'Efficiency into Kettle (EIK)' is set to 94.1%. This is too high for this gravity brew. (The 75% 'Brewhouse Efficiency' you can also see in BeerSmith, in your case, refers to Efficiency into Fermentor (EIF).)

One of the huge advantages of The BIABacus is that it auto-estimates your EIK AND EIF. Efficiency (EIK, EOBV-E, or EIF) should never be the same for any two recipes unless, at least, they are based on the same original gravity.

Just take your time in digesting all this stuff. It can't be done in a few minutes .

Gotta race but
PP

#1043 is a good post PP

You enjoy writing and I enjoyed reading it. It's imaginative, instructive and well written.

There is a chapter for a book there.

If you keep logging your thoughts on here, you'll be able to collate them later for a book on BIAB and BIABacus. Add in a bit of PP humour, maybe a story about your wild fling with Lylo's grandmother, and I think it will be a best seller. I'd like to pre-order a signed copy.

frederick7 wrote:

Mad_Scientist wrote:

frederick7 wrote:Hi Everyone,

Id like to replicate the sample APA provided with the BIABacus calculator. This looks like a big advancement from the Maxi-BIAB Calulator. I'm very impressed by all the information provided, but not sure exactly what I need to do to get the Maxi calculations. I have a 19L Pot and want to get 21L in the fermenter. I tried adding the calculations (didn't touch the maxi section), but the Kettle headspaces are all in the negatives. Can someone please post some simple instructions to calculate for a maxi batch (or to convert the APA recipe to my settings)?

Much appreciated!

Welcome Frederick. Please download the "BIABacus PR1.3 - American Pale Ale - NRB's Amarillo APA - Batch 1.xls" and then answer the 6 questions from this link and then post your file here.
~richard

Thanks Richard! Per my previous post, I'm trying to figure out my first MaxiBIAB using the new BIABacus calculator. I'd like to use the sample Amarillo APA recipe just to keep things simple. I entered all the known information into the calculator, but am not sure where to go from here. Can someone please provide some guidance?

Have to taken a look at this post yet?
"Using Maxi-BIAB to Brew a 'Single Batch' Mini-BIAB"
viewtopic.php?f=89&t=352#p2735
,it is detailed to use a 19L pot to achieve a 23L outcome. I would like to know how to enter this into the BIABacus too!