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Crazy water calculation.

pilgrim

Apprentice
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
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Location
Wanganui, New Zealand
My first BIAB APA turned out great and for a 23 litre batch Beersmith brewsheet said to prepare 30.94 litres of water for brewing. For the protein Rest at 0 minutes it told me to add 27.2 litres @ 52.1 C. This was for 4.5Kg of grain. No problem so far. For my second BIAB APA of 20 litres I've upped the grain bill to 6.8Kg and now Beersmith tells me to prepare 29.7 litres of water and to add 40.21 litres @ 0 minutes. How can the the water to add be greater than the water I'm told to prepare. Something screwy here. I need to sort this by Saturday as I'm brewing first thing Sunday Morning.
 
I have done at least a dozen BIAB’s so far. I just put in enough water to account for boil off and loss to spent grain. As long as the end result is 5 gallons I don’t measure or worry about water. It hasn’t seemed to make any difference to me as far as water to grain ratio for starch conversion. Someday BeerSmith will add provisions for BIAB. Until then simple and quick is the way to go
 
The BIAB concept seems to really simplify the transition to All Grain brewing. I wish I had found out about it when I made the jump to AG.
 
I made a mash tun and used it for years. I still will have to used it for BIG grain bills. I am happy with BIAB so far. I can brew with less work and cleanup it is as easy as dumping the bag of grain into a bucket (for the horse). I also have been using NC (No Chill). I drain the hot wort into a (cube) and let it cool on it's own. Days or (weeks) later I drain the wort into a bucket to ferment. It makes reusing the yeast from a finished fermenting bucket easy.
                                                      BobBrews
 
BobBrews said:
I made a mash tun and used it for years. I still will have to used it for BIG grain bills. I am happy with BIAB so far. I can brew with less work and cleanup it is as easy as dumping the bag of grain into a bucket (for the horse). I also have been using NC (No Chill). I drain the hot wort into a (cube) and let it cool on it's own. Days or (weeks) later I drain the wort into a bucket to ferment. It makes reusing the yeast from a finished fermenting bucket easy.
                                                       BobBrews

I'm with you on the No-Chill.
Suggestion; Add No-Chill Option
 
I followed your suggestion Bob and ignored the crazy calculation. I just allowed sufficient water for grain absorption and evaporation during the boil. Only problem is, if Beersmith can screw up that calculation it kind of shakes your confidence in it's other calculations. That said I find it's usually pretty much spot on.
 
Hi,
  The water calculations are highly dependent on the equipment settings you are using.  Depending on losses and other parameters you have set these could be off.  If you want to send me a copy of the recipe I can take a look at it to try to find the source of the water calculation issue.

Brad
 
Hi Brad,

Sorry, may sound a bit dumb but how do I send you the recipe? Do I Export it in Beersmith file format? What is the eMail address i send it to. You can reach me at pilgrim@inspire.net.nz if you would prefer to take this offline.

Cheers
Peter.
 
Can I ask a stupid question? What does BIAB stand for? ???
 
Brew In A Bag
It's typically a partial-mash technique, depending on the size of the bag, whereby you put 4-5# of grain in a nylon mesh bag and steep/mash those grains, then lauter/sparge as best you can to get out the sugars into the wort, then augment with extract to reach the OG target. 
Great mid-step between mostly extract and the hassles of all-grain.  One limitation of malt extract is the lack of malt aroma, which you can get thru this method.
 
>>It's typically a partial-mash technique, depending on the size of the bag, whereby you put 4-5# of grain in a nylon >>mesh bag and steep/mash those grains.

Not so fast. Check this link http://www.biabrewer.info

I have been brewing BIAB for quite some time now. It is full "all grain" brewing. I regularly brew 16 or 18 pound grain bills. Their is no partial mash anywhere. Many clubs in Australia are 100% BIAB many are NC "No Chill" also. Brew in a bag is growing fast because it is very easy for a novice to become proficient with all grain brewing. Less cost, less time, award winning beers to boot!

Here is a PDF file on BIAB http://www.biabrewer.info/uploads/BIABBooklet.pdf

HomeBrewTalk link on No Chill http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/exploring-no-chill-brewing-117111

Here is a link to "No Chill" http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=10536
 
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