How much grain Lylo, and what is the target OG and volume?
Basically that sounds feasible, except you need to heat the water to what's known as 'strike' temperature so that when you add the cooler mass of grain (i.e. has its own thermal mass), together they settle at the lower strike temperature. If you don't know how to calculate strike temperature, don't worry the calculator does it for you.
Hope this helps!

No real goal in mind other than a descent first try.The only reason I am thinking of bumping the wts. is because,when I compare this recipe to others it seems like it should be closer to 6 to 7kg total bill.If you think it looks good as is,I am all for it.
Thanks

Lylo wrote:So,please bear with me it's been a long winter.
I will heat 38.12liters water to mash temp.
Mash for 80 min
Mash out for 10
Hopefully have about 34.79 liters of water to start my boil
Boil for 90 min while tossing in said hops.
Am I gettin it mate?

Yep, sounds good Lyle. Have fun mate

joeyrainbow wrote:I'm still new, and thus far spectacularly unsuccessful at BIAB...

...So my question is, what sort of numbers at pre boil gravity would tell me if I need to add more fermentables to the boil?

Sorry if it's a stupid question

Joey

LOL Joey

Just about to head out the door mate but can you plug your figures into The Calculator? If you can, it will tell you your expected pre-boil gravity. If you need a hand to do this, I could do it tomorrow morning (in 12 hours) but you might be brewing by then?

We'll have to workout the murky bit too . If we don't hear from you before you brew

Good to hear about the thermometers

Okay Joey, here you go...

First, I think you'll find that for the first few brews, the only figures you need to change are the red ones. In fact, you are meant to change these. Some figures you may or may not want to change down the track are things like evaporation rate, trub losses and efficiency. Leave them alone for at least three or four brews.

Second, Hopville recipes seem to use the end of boil volume as their 'batch' size. This may have caused you problems before as it has caused others. 21 L "end of boil" is going to turn out to be only about 17 L of beer. (You'll see the spreadsheet below will give you your 21 L into the fermenter like you want.)

Thirdly, maybe get a new wife?

Below is The Calculator for your brew. Let me know if anything doesn't make sense.

Cheers
PP

joeyrainbow wrote:Do you think it will be very roasty with 9% caramunich and 4% carafa?

I also bought some "black sugar" today, which smells like molasses so I'm tempted to chuck some of that in as well.

I am the worst person to ask the above questions of. I just steal good recipes and know if they are not quite right!

I better leave it up to someone else to answer the above sorry.

Glad to hear the spreadsheet made sense though
PP

First of all, thanks a mill for all the info on this site!
I believe that I'm ready to purchase the grains & hops for my first (mini) BIAB. I would like to run the converted recipe past the experts.
I'm looking for a easy best bitter to do and found this one http://www.beersmith.com/Recipes2/recipe_191.htm. It seems to be straightforward enough and all the info for the recipe conversion is at hand.

Based on my kettle diameter of 28cm and a max volume of a shade over 15,5 l - that is filled to the brim - I've arrived at a brew length of 7 litres. The only change I've made to the "Volumes etc" tab is the end of boil efficiency - 75% instead of 79%. That gives me an approximate max volume of 15,14 l.
Based on the above I've arrived at the following Grain bill:

OG = 1.048
S-04 yeast as per the recipe.
Mash temp at 70deg C

Malt

• Pale Ale Malt - 1622g

• Caramunich malt - 144g

• Wheat malt - 72g (will this little make a difference?)

Hops

• Goldings 19.6g (90 minutes) - somewhere I've read that BIAB should be limited to 60 mins?

• Goldings East Kent 7g (15 minutes)

• Goldings East Kent 7g (dry hopping)

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Lambert

Hi lambert and welcome!
Looks about right in the calculator. Its not a very big batch, but these initial ones are where you'll find your feet. If you're careful, you may be able to minimise trub and ferment losses to yield some more, but don't count on it.
The wheat malt is 3.9% so as far as having a profound effect it would be debatable, IMO it wouldn't hurt to leave it out, in which case it should still be a fine beer, just slightly different. Wheat tends to have a slight drying effect with some particular aromatics, but again, at that rate, not significant.
No, a 90 minute boil is fine, there's no limitation for BIAB in that sense- the information provided to you is quite erroneous.
Hope this helps!

Ralph
Thanks for the quick feedback. I'll get brewing this weekend and post the results here.

Lambert

No worries Lambert, more than happy to help.
BTW, check your hops- if they're not the same %AA (Alpha Acid content) as the recipe then you will need to adjust, it will not be OK gram for gram, rather its all about each addition''s IBU. Let us know if you're unsure about it.

Hi there Mike,

I'll attach a copy of The Calculator below that will get you under way.

I think the reason you had problems with the grain bill not scaling is that you need to blank the percentage cells (column B on the Grain Bill sheet)rather than typing in zero.

When you get a chance, use the advanced search (set results to a 1000 characters) for terms such as "batch size," "brew length" and "end of boil" and look for posts that were been written by me in this thread. This will explain your questions on IBU's in The Calculator and how "batch size" is not a clearly defined term etc. For example, in your recipe, you want a 'Volume Into Fermenter' of 23 litres. This means your brew length needs to be 21.3 litres. (The original recipe is even harder to determine because all that is written is 'Size'. btw, I have worked out in this case size means 'End of Boil Volume.')

In the earlier pages of this thread you might also be able to find a few posts I wrote that have step by step instructions on how to convert a recipe. I'm stuck for time tonight otherwise I would dig it up for you. (I should bookmark these so I can find them ) I think a search of "How to Scale a Recipe" might get the right post. Fingers crossed.

Sorry to not have time to make the above clearer but I am hoping it will get you under way. If you have any more questions, I should have more time tomorrow to answer if no one else beats me to it.

Look forward to hearing how you go
PP

Hi Michaelvw and welcome to BIABrewer!
With all- grain brewing there are several distinct and important steps involved, however in this whole process often some folks will talk about terms such as 'batch size', 'brew length', 'volume' etc as though they're interchangeable and referring to the same thing. Sadly, they're not!
Brew Length is what we can expect to consume at the end of the whole process. We will lose some of the volume which went in to the fermenter originally- none of us are willing (I hope!) to actually drink the litre or so of yeasty debris that settles at the bottom of the fermenter, so there's a factor in the Calculator to account for that. That's why there is a difference between the Brew Length and Volume into Fermenter, the Comment column should explain them well enough, brief though it is for some. With the Calculator, Brew Length is the basis from which many other factors are calculated, hence it is important to accurately distinguish what it is.
Hope this helps, let us know if you have any questions!

[Edit: Sorry Michael, Ralph got in before me on some of the below.]

This whole thing confuses a lot of people Michael. What I really should do is write a thread called, "Why people get so confused when converting recipes," as it is very confusing.

I've answered variations on this question many times in this thread but finding these answers would require a lot of searching or reading the entire thread which has become very long now. This is unfair for new users.

On the other hand, new all-grain brewers (traditional and BIAB) also need to be prepared to sit back and do some concentrated reading as there are no quick answers to some areas of brewing. Sometimes you need to grab a beer, sit back for a half hour or hour, do some thinking and wait for the, "Now I get it!".

For example, I could answer your question on 'Brew Length' in two lines or less (see my post-script) but this wouldn't answer your real question which is really about understanding definitions. Put your feet up and have a think on the following...

'Batch', 'batch size', 'size', ' 'efficiency' and 'brewhouse efficiency' are terms the new all-grainer become quickly familiar with but these terms actually mean nothing to the reader, only the writer.

The Calculator is the only tool I know of to date that clearly defines what it means by a term it uses. For example, study columns A and D of the first sheet of The Calculator and you won't see any of the terms used in the paragraph above. Everything is clear except for the fact these 'familiar' terms can't be seen.

There is currently no common language between software. A lot of software doesn't even bother to define the terms they use. This, in turn, has led to thousands of brewers posting on forums thinking they are all talking the same language. They aren't.

When a brewer on a forum says, 'Size' or 'Batch Size,' they might mean B5, B7 or B11 on the 'Volumes' of The Calculator. When a brewer on a forum says, 'Efficiency' or 'Brewhouse Efficiency,' they might mean B9 on the 'Volumes' sheet of The Calculator or B19, B21 or B22 of the last sheet of The Calculator.

Not knowing what the writer means by the above terms makes it impossible or very hard to copy their recipe.

New brewers usually study their first recipe or computer program in detail and get used to the terms used in it and then, very reasonably, expect that everyone else is talking the same language. So, they then compound the problem as they become writers .

There is no room for misinterpretation of the terms used in The Calculator. 'End of Boil Efficiency' is simply your 'End of Boil Efficiency.' 'Volume into Fermenter' is simply your 'Volume into Fermenter.'

When translating recipes, terms such as, 'batch', 'batch size', 'size', ' 'efficiency' and 'brewhouse efficiency' convey no clear message to another brewer although the writers of these terms will expect they do!!!

Is it ridiculous that these widely used terms have no widely accepted definition?

Of course it is.

And that is the hardest bit to understand for any new brewer.

Does the above make sense after a slow read, Michael? If you'd prefer a quick answer that offers no depth read my PS below

Cheers,
PP

P.S. 'Brew Length' is how much beer you want to end up drinking. You can't drink everything you put into your fermenter! Read D5 and D7 of The Calculator.

Hi there Drum,

I think what you'll need to do first is download The Commentary and have a read of that - make sure you take your time reading it and exploring The Calculator. This will give you a good base to work from and get us all on the same page.

Once you've done that, post back here and we can sort the details out. When you post back, make sure you include the diameter of your kettle so we will be able to work out your evaporation rate.

Cheers and welcome,
PP

Txredrum, if you're using Libre Office/ Open Office, you just need to go File, Save As, and give it a new name. Its a common mistake, don't be embarrassed!

Okay Drum,

We can't go any further until we know you can input figures into The Calculator. How did you go with this? Also..

You also said we could give you a hard time if you weren't being an 'attentive grasshopper,' . I am going to give you a hard time because I don't think you are slowing down enough and absorbing the info already offered. For example...

1. You still haven't provided the diameter of your kettle so we can't estimate your evaporation rate.

2. We still don't know the original gravity you are aiming for on this recipe and this is a critical factor.

3. After reading The Commentary, you should have your answers re mash goals etc. Have you got those?

On the plus side, you have told us your brew length...

My goal is to end up up with 5 gallons of drinkable beer.

So, grasshopper, I still think you need to grab a beer, sit back for an hour or two and really absorb The Commentary and the first sheet of The Calculator. Once you have done this, then I'll convert your recipe, no problem.

Until then, more study
PP

P.S. BTW, way too many finings in that recipe (whirfloc and irish moss).

Hi there Jimmy,

Thanks for getting back with the extra data.

I reckon downloading OpenOffice might be the go if you have lost your key. It's free and being able to edit The Calculator will come in handy as you do more brews. I see that you can still read files in Office so I'll convert your recipe into The Calculator and attach it below.

A few notes for you...

1. The goal of pure BIAB is to use a single vessel for brewing. With your 15 gallon kettle, you can pure BIAB. In other words, you should not consider holding back any water for sparging because you don't need to .

2. Don't worry that The Calculator says your IBU's will be 17.1 compared to the original recipes of about 21 IBU's. We are still working on this formula in The Calculator as the current one reads lower than most other software.

3. There is always some guesswork in recipe conversion. In this situation, I had to guess at the original recipe's end of boil volume, efficiency and hop AA percentages by playing 'twenty questions' and also by plugging the ingredients into some other software. The attached file adds up well though.

4. You will need to get OpenOffice or Office working as before you brew this recipe, you will have to change the figures in Cells J11 to J14 of the 'Hop Bill' sheet to match the AA% of the hops you buy.

5. As mentioned before there are too many finings in your brew. These will add an off flavour. Forget the Irish moss. Just use 1/4 tablet of whirfloc.

6. Unlike extract brews, all-grain brews don't really need a yeast nutrient so you can forget that as well.

7. Your strike temperature is too high. Remember The Commentary ? Just go 1 to 2 degrees higher than your desired mash temp. I'd be mashing this at 66 C (151 F) and therefore heating my water to 68 C (153 F). This will work nicely if your grain bill is at about 20 C before you add it.

...

I'm not very good on knowing what recipes will taste like but I am a bit worried about the apricots. I think it is important on anyone's first all-grain to do a tried and trusted recipe. This way, if all goes well, the brewer gains confidence in the process. If all doesn't go well, we can more easily track down the problem such as a dodgy thermometer. The fruit here might create a possible problem so maybe do something like NRB's All Amarillo Ale for your first brew? Just a thought.

Anyway Jimmy, have a look at the file below and feel free to fire away with any questions.


PP