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Measuring grain absorption

pedrovic

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Hi, I hope everyone's okay.
I realized that the default values for the grain absorption of BS don't correspond to the values measured in my post-mash volume. As I don't want to lose my next batch, I thought I'd measure the absorption in small scale, with 1oz of malt pilsner in a cup of water and calculate the volume difference after 1 hour. Is this method correct?
Thank you
 
Since you are doing BIAB (I am assuming since you posted this in the BIAB topics), the measurement of grain absorption is pretty easy.

Add your water into the kettle and measure your volume when at strike temperature.  Do your mash and remove the grains.  Add back any wort you squeeze out or allow to drip out, then take another volume measurement.

Difference in measurements if your water absorbed into the grain. Take this value and divide it by the weight of the grain and you have your grain absorption rate to plug back into BeerSmith.

 
The units used in this calc is gallons for water and pounds for grains?
Thanks for the help. Yes, I'm using BIAB.
 
I used 2.2 gal in my initial volume of water (I brew small batches), with 3.3 lb of malt. After I removed the grain bag, the new volume was 2.0 gal in the kettle. I did this calc and the result was 0.0559. It would be correct?
 
BeerSmith absorption uses fixed units of fluid ounces per ounce of grain.  So, in your case:

Volume loss = 2.2 gal - 2.0 gal = 0.2 gal * 128 flu oz/gal = 25.6 fluid ounces

Grain weight = 3.3 lbs * 16 oz/lb = 52.8 ounces

Absorption = 25.6 fluid ounces / 52.8 ounces = 0.4848 fl oz/oz of grain

Hope this helps with the conversion broken down.
 
I'm reopening this question: in the case of measuring in metric units, is just convert Liters in fl oz and Kilograms in oz? Thank you.
 
Yes. It is just a conversion from one system to another.

From: L/Kg x (3785 gal/L) x (128 fl oz/gal) x (Kg/1000 g) x (28.3 g/oz) = fl oz/oz
 
Since you are doing BIAB (I am assuming since you posted this in the BIAB topics), the measurement of grain absorption is pretty easy.
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Add your water into the kettle and measure your volume when at strike temperature. Do your mash and remove the grains. Add back any wort you squeeze out or allow to drip out, then take another volume measurement. https://sharpedgeshop.com/collections/bunka-knives-multi-purpose

Difference in measurements if your water absorbed into the grain. Take this value and divide it by the weight of the grain and you have your grain absorption rate to plug back into BeerSmith.
Thanks a bunch for the detailed instructions! That makes a lot of sense. It seems like a straightforward way to measure grain absorption during the BIAB process. I'll definitely keep this in mind for my next batch.
 
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