Hi

I was bought Wheelers Brew Your Own British Real Ale for Christmas, I'm trying to scale the Everards Beacon recipe.

I'm a bit confused about volumes - he quotes 'Total liquor' and 'Mash liquor' - can anyone tell me how to use these volumes in the BIABacus.

I've attached my current version of the BIABacus, using the following recipe:

Everards Beacon
OG 1036
Vol 23 litres

Pale Malt - 2960g
Crystal Malt - 355g
White sugar - 175g
Torrefied Wheat - 105g

Challenger - 27g for 90 min
Fuggles - 9g for 10 min
Irish moss - 3g for 10 min

Total liquor - 31.7l
Mash liquor - 8.6l

Mash - 66C for 90 min
Boil - 90 min
FG - 1007
ABV 3.8
EBU 25
EBC 20

I've been tending to do 60 min mash and boil, just so I can fit a brew into an evening once the kids are in bed, so it's like that in the BIABacus intentionally.

Could someone please have a quick look over to see if I'm on the right track.

THanks

Keith

Yeasty, thanks for the reply - I'd seen your name in various threads about GW recipes. It's a good looking book, and I'm happy to get some practice in making several beers from it, so need to get my BIABacus technique sorted out.

I've made some changes to my version of the file based on your suggestions. If you've got 5 minutes to have a look over it please, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks

Keith

Yeasty - thanks for the help. Looking good to make this tonight, or maybe at the weekend. Last BIAB I managed to get to bed before midnight, starting once the kids were in bed, so that means I can do more mid-week brewing!

Keith

Good morning all.
Over the holidays my wonderful wife got me a Caribou Slobber AG kit from Northern Brewer She is hoping that I can reproduce the Moose Drool ale she tried on one of her trips out west. Since this kit is a traditional AG I just wanted to make sure I'm on the right track as I'm doing BIAB and am not quite sure what if any differences I may encounter. Northern puts together smaller kits specifically for BIAB but not for this particular brew. I'm also trying to be better about using and understanding the BIABacus spreadsheet.
This will be my 2nd BIAB batch so I'm still very new to this. This is also my first batch where I an not following a more detailed recipe from the forum.
Couple of questions.
1. Am I missing anything obvious on the sheet that I need to compensate for because of BIAB vs traditional AG?
2. My kettle is a "not so correctly advertised" 10gal which comes in at an actual 9.6-9.7 gallons (theoretical 9.9)so by using 90 minutes as my boil time puts me over my kettle volume. I've compensated for this by adjusting the time to ~70 minutes but would rather use 90. Would it be advisable to stick with ~70 minutes and less volume (9.88 gal) or can I add water during the boil to offset the evaporation loss (10.25 gal total) so I can boil for 90 minutes?
3. Sec G says I'm supposed to do a secondary chilling. I'm unfamiliar with this so what is it and why do I need to do it?
$. In sec R the est FG was 1.016. How is this calculated if the only info given is the weight of the grains used and not any particular info on each grain.
Thanks for the help
M

Well all-righty then. Since I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel I'll just drop my time a bit and go for it this weekend.
Thanks for the help.
M

I've been doing BIAB for a little over a year now and have 9 batches under my belt. I have regularly lurked on these forums and the HBT forums and gotten a lot of useful information from both. From the beginning I have used Beersmith and haven't had any issues hitting my numbers, but all my beers so far have been regular gravity (1.052-1.058) with grain bills in the 10-12# range for a 6 gallon batch.

I have been trying to give BIABacus a shot for my next batch and think I have my equipment setup correctly. I have a 15.5 US gallon keggle with a side pickup tube. I would like to see if the more knowledgeable here can give it a look over and see if I'm missing anything. This is going to be my first high gravity brew (19.5# grain bill) and I don't want to come in way low on my OG due to the inefficiencies inherent with large grain bills.

Attached is the recipe. The original grain bill is from my recipe in Beersmith. Am I assuming correctly that the "What you will use" column is what I need to adjust my grain bill for when ordering to actually hit my target OG? I also didn't have room in the Hop Bill to list all my hops that will be dry hopped and had to add them under Section F: Miscellaneous.

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hello all,

I made my first Maxi-BIAB batch on Christmas Day, using information cobbled together from around the net--then I found BIABrewer.

I have done a ton of reading here, and in working with the Abacus it is clear what a fantastic amount of work has been put into this tool. Unfortunately, I am using OpenOffice on a Mac, and I think there are hidden comments I can't see (probably time for me to upgrade and reinstall...). But, amazing work, and I give great thanks to this community.

I understand MaxiBIAB does not take full advantage of the awesomeness of BIAB, and I think I won't do Maxi for long. But, our family does a whole lot of Back to Basics type stuff (check out my website http://www.smallanddeliciouslife.com/) so we already have a lot of equipment and not enough storage. For this reason, and for the benefit of people in the same bind I am in, I would like to stick with using my canning kettle for now.

I have tried to fill out the Abacus with the next two recipes I would like to try. Questions came up, so I wanted to ask some advice and see if someone could look at my files and see if I am missing something.

I hope I am following the correct posting procedures and etiquette--apologies if I am not.

I am following the recommendation to start from Brewing Classic Styles, and have selected the Belgian Pale Ale, and the American IPA.

So, questions:

1.
Brewing Classic Styles gives me IBUs, but I don't see how to incorporate that in the case of hops substitutions. I have noted my AA%. Should I be worried/learning about IBUs?

2.
Why is my Belgian Ale grain bill calculated smaller than the recipe? The IPA recipe is adjusted larger, which I assume is the compensation for loss of efficiency with the MaxiBIAB method.

3.
Belgian Yeast--Brewing Classic Styles calls for White WLP515 Antwerp Ale or Wyeast 3655 Belgian Schelde. I can get a Wyeast Kolsch or Wyeast Belgian Saison 3724 locally. Or I may be able to get Fermentis S33 Belgian Ale dry yeast in the next city. Any suggestions for substitutions?

4.
Where does 0 Minute hopping fit with a MaxiBIAB mashout?

Thanks again. I look forward to any and all comments.

Thanks PistolPatch.

I added the IBU tweak you mentioned and read the linked posts, and the links within the links.

I also did the advanced searches and read the several posts that came up. I have done those searches before and read most of those posts already.

But, I still don't understand...here are all the smileys that seem related:

Hope the emoticons help...

Anyhow, the questions:

1. Why is my grain bill lower with Maxi. I thought Maxi was less efficient (sweet liquor shop posts) and therefore the grain bill would go up. This is related to #2 below.

2. I see that if I don't sparge, my kettle overflows. But, by my math, if I follow the Abacus I need to boil off three gallons of water, which seems extreme. Is that actually accurate and what is needed to achieve the OG? I tried reducing my OG, but that just cut the grain bill but not the water demand. If I reduce the sparge, my kettle overflows and the grain bill still doesn't change, which surprises me.

3. Where does the sparge water go? I can see the sparge water is magically filling up the space taken up after I pull the grain bag, but that is only a few litres, not ten litres. When I try to shift the sparge water to additions before and after the boil, the water bill just increases.

4. When do I sparge? Or is mashout no longer recommended? Before I found this site I made a Maxi batch. I mashed, then mashed-out, then sparged, then added the sparge liquor to the boil, then topped up with plain water.

Thanks for the reply PistolPatch....and thanks for inventing BIAB.

The sourdough comparison is maybe not the best. I was thinking of tea. I was told the Russians brew a very strong tea concentrate, and then when they want a cup, they dilute it with boiling water from the kettle on the back of the stove.

So, that makes sense to me, and fits from an extraction perspective with your examples of dirty jeans in a washing machine.

By the grain bill getting smaller, I mean the original recipe calls for 6687 grams of grain and "what I will use" calls for 6649.

Now, the recipe was scaled for a six gallon fermenter I believe, and I only have a five, so I can see the bill going down a bit. But on the flip side, my total water is standing at 7.85 gallons.

So, yeah, I get that this is killing much of the awesomeness of BIAB. I can tell you my Christmas Stout, which I made BIAB in my canning kettle and diluted down to probably 2% alcohol still tastes fantastic!

After I have done a couple of batches as a beer tourist, I will buy another bag and split a full BIAB between my TWO canning kettles--which will reduce both our headaches.

Thanks again.

Oops. And here is the file. Last night I reduced the dilution to be in line with the 30% maximum suggestion.

Cheers.

Still don't understand Maxi and the Abacus.

Wow. I keep staring at my Abacus and changing numbers. I keep re-reading Ralph's guide, and re-reading linked posts and trying to figure things out, and it still doesn't make sense.

I don't see where sparge water is accounted for being added back into the boil. Primarily, I don't see where that water shows up in the water bill, and I am worried because it carries sugars that I need.

Can anybody tell me where that sparge water is accounted for? The recipe in Brewing Classic Styles says 7 gallons should make 5.5 gallons into the fermenter. The Abacus is telling me I need 7.5 gallons to get 5 gallons into the fermenter, which means I have lost a gallon.

That gallon can't be stuck to a larger grain bill, because my grain has shrunk 700 grams.

I am confused.

Thanks for this PistolPatch.

Have you seen this video on compounding German words? It is about Barbara who has a bar that serves barbarians... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG62zay3kck

That is a bit how I feel when I try to type BIABacus. My brain always twists a bit in my skull as I try to figure out how many 'ab's I have typed already.

I have been thinking about your request for helpful posts. I have bookmarked several of them, but there are also many that I just read and closed. I spent quite a bit of time reading when I found this site so I have quite a mishmash of information in my head... But, I will try to put together a useful list.

Your explanation above clears up a lot of things for me. Especially:

1) grain holds about .6 litre of water per kilo. So six kilos holds one gallon, which is a whole lot of water.

2) and, as you say, BCS recipes are from extract. I hadn't thought about that at all. They tell you how to convert to all-grain, and I hadn't thought that would still effect many other things.

So, I think I have a vague idea of the process from start to finish, rather than having large and total gaps in my comprehension.

It is very good to hear about all the different factors that make my BIAB-acus ;-) recipe look different. I was assuming it was just because I was making mistakes and didn't understand. Turns out it was just that I didn't understand... So, Trust in the Force.

I do get that it is harder to do a Full Volume Variation with a higher-gravity beer (back to the dirty jeans in a washing machine).

And I apologize again for how I am approaching this. I know the wise thing to do would be to start with regular BIAB and make several batches until I get my feet, then experiment with FVV. What can I say? I regularly make unwise decisions.

So. How about I ditch the idea of making a 19L FVV of high-gravity IPA. My wife likes Belgian, so here is my BIAB-acus of the BCS Antwerp Afternoon.

It is lower gravity, and has a smaller grain bill, which puts it in the efficiency zone Ralph has written about--approx 4.5 kgs of grain for a 19L batch.

So, my kettle (canning pot) is actually 20L. I will mash with 15L, and add the grain, which will fill my pot to the brim. I will pull the bag and sparge with 10L. I should be able to put 2-3 litres of sparge into the kettle right away and begin the boil. Over the next hour I will add what I can, probably another 3-4 litres, then let the boil finish for half an hour with no more dilutions. Cool it and transfer to my carboy, top it up with four litres of water.

Does that seem less extreme?

Still a couple of questions. Mashout--do you still do that before a sparge? So, do I mash, then mashout, then pull the bag and sparge?

And second, I know the magic of BIAB is one pot brewing and sparging adds another vessel. But, should I just throw my 10L of sparge water on the stove and boil it while I boil the wort? That would concentrate it and should give me a higher gravity sparge to add to my wort. Is there anything wrong with that other than the hassle?

Phew. After I have played around with FVV a little I will be trying out using two canning kettles to make true full-volume batches, just split into two pots (since I already own them). Hopefully that will make me less of a pain in the butt.

Thanks again for all of your help.