BIAB Recipe Calculator Configuration

[JustBrewIt]

So I have been brewing for many years, the last 7 mostly on my 3 kettle system, but, I do sometimes brew a batch BIAB and have tried several times to setup a equipment profile for BIAB but have never had any luck. How do I add a equipment profile for BIAB so that it will show me my total water requirement for my full volume mash? I always end up calculating my water requirement outside of Brewer's Friend. I can't believe Brewer's Friend doesn't just have a flag you set for BIAB and it then just adds the fields to the recipe for water requirements. Such a simple thing but I can't seem to find it.

 

[GFHomebrew]

You can select different equipment profiles before you brew depending if your going Biab or 3v but you have to set them profiles up first.
I'm sure you can toggle from "all grain" to "Biab" settings in recipie tool too.

 

[JustBrewIt]

I believe I did this, I seen the BIAB profile selection, however after changing it I still don't see the field that changes a total water volume based on how much grain you add and your desired preboil or post boil volume. For BIAB, you should enter your desired preboil volume and it should give you your total water needed based on grains, grain volume and temperature. I don't see this number anywhere even after selecting BIAB as a new equipment profile. Have you used BIAB in brewers friend or are you just guessing?

You can select different equipment profiles before you brew depending if your going Biab or 3v but you have to set them profiles up first.
I'm sure you can toggle from "all grain" to "Biab" settings in recipie tool too. View attachment 6649

 

[GFHomebrew]

No not at all I've used the equipment profile to load in all my losses working backwards from my desired final fermentor volume of 21lt. as always every system is different and we have different losses depending on our equipment and choises we make in the brewing process. My first loss along the line before transferring chilled wort to fermentor is my dead space under my pick up outlet in kettle that .5lt next is hop absorbtion which ive left at brewersfriend pre set. then it's boil off I'm an electric Biab rig and at 2400whatt 60 min boil in a used 50lt keg is about 1.5 - 2 it depending on weather mostly wind. Then it's grain absorbtion I squeeze the bag a bit but don't throttle it these days so I record a lesser loss than you would in a 3v system. What next well any liquid left in pump and pipework and miniscule gravity amounts and tastings through the day.

After about 3 brews and adjusting losses in water profile I can almost dead set know I'm going to get within 500ml my desired pre boil if not meh add some water or just package less and take notes and adjust next brew.
This'll prove me wrong lol

 

[Craigerrr]

I am pretty sure that the developers are working on automating water volumes more. Currently as I see it, you have to do some manual entries to suit your system, and process. One thing the software could never take into account though is if you squeeze your bag, how hard you squeeze it, and what the resulting effect is on volume.

I think that there have to be some manual work arounds to keep your brain working.

Just my 0.02 worth

 

[thunderwagn]

So I have been brewing for many years, the last 7 mostly on my 3 kettle system, but, I do sometimes brew a batch BIAB and have tried several times to setup a equipment profile for BIAB but have never had any luck. How do I add a equipment profile for BIAB so that it will show me my total water requirement for my full volume mash? I always end up calculating my water requirement outside of Brewer's Friend. I can't believe Brewer's Friend doesn't just have a flag you set for BIAB and it then just adds the fields to the recipe for water requirements. Such a simple thing but I can't seem to find it.

There are work arounds, but I agree with you 100% BF is seriously lacking in the BIAB department. I've always reverted back to @Pricelessbrewing and his software when I've done BIAB. I think it's to bad with everything bf offers, how largely overlooked the BIAB piece is.

 

[Mark Farrall]

After a bit of testing and posts on related threads I see this as one of those tricky areas that looks relatively simple, but spills out into a whole series of why don't you just add... questions. I'm just using the quick water requrements to get the strike water for the full volume and don't mind it too much.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

The BIB setting only accounts for full water no sparging, so if you want to sparge just pick all grain

 

[GFHomebrew]

After a bit of testing and posts on related threads I see this as one of those tricky areas that looks relatively simple, but spills out into a whole series of why don't you just add... questions. I'm just using the quick water requrements to get the strike water for the full volume and don't mind it too much.

Yep this is what I do every brew and it's in the money.

 

[Craigerrr]

When I did BIAB I reserved some water for a pour over sparge, I just added the sparge to the recipe, and edited the volumes manually. I mainly did this due to the size of my kettle at the time.

 

[Pricelessbrewing]

I am pretty sure that the developers are working on automating water volumes more. Currently as I see it, you have to do some manual entries to suit your system, and process. One thing the software could never take into account though is if you squeeze your bag, how hard you squeeze it, and what the resulting effect is on volume.

I think that there have to be some manual work arounds to keep your brain working.

Just my 0.02 worth

Grain absorption rate is a variable that can be set in the system, I think having two suggest starting values . The most typical values are 0.125 gal/lb for mashtuns, and 0.08 gal/lb for BIAB with a decent squeeze. Some may go lower down to 0.065 with a super hard squeeze, or a squeezing mechanical advantage system, or higher if you just hang it and don't let it drain all the way maybe 0.09 gal/lb.

At the moment, like @thunderwagn said I have software that will calculate all your water volumes, temperatures, and do some efficiency predictions based on simulations on wort dilution that line up with Braukaisers findings. If you want to override my predictions and let it calculate based on a static Brewhouse efficiency (like brewersfriend, beersmith and all the other software does) that's an option too.

I do believe the devs are working on updating the water volumes in the beta version right now, which is great to see. IMO it's the #1 thing missing basic feature in brewersfriend.

 

[BilltheBrewer]

New member here. I've entered my most recent recipe, now bottled, but am coming up with much higher OG/SG than I'm supposed to have. I'm thinking it's because I can't figure out if there's a way to enter my two 12-oz BIAG steeping grains in a way that differentiates them from my main fermentables, and the software thinks I'm boiling them for 60 minutes instead of steeping for 15. Is there a way to do this? Thanks.

 

[GFHomebrew]

Only thing I can think of is select it as a late addition.

 

[Pricelessbrewing]

@Virwill

It's hard to say why your gravity is not where you intended without your full recipe, and the set of measurements you've taken (gravity, volume, and temperature).

The gravity could be higher because of any combination of the below
You had more efficiency than the software set to (for all grain recipes)
More grains were used than the recipe
The grains had more yield/potential than the recipe
You had less volume than the recipe intended

Boiling vs steeping shouldn't make much of a difference in real life, but will definitely make a difference for steeping vs mashing. At least for most grains. A brief look at how late additions of grains are treated makes it seem that a late addition is just as efficient as a mash addition which is definitely not the case for any grains that are not pre-converted during the malting process, ie many crystal or roasted malts can be safely steeped to get most of the sugar extracted without mashing.

 

[BilltheBrewer]

Thanks for the suggestion/thoughts. Selected both steeping grains as late additions, but no change in OG/SG. FWIW, here's the link to the full recipe, in numbers and notes: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/edit/918231

 

[Yooper]

I don't understand the issue- when you add ingredients that have sugars in them, the OG does increase. Of course you don't boil grains, but steeping them does give you fermentable sugars and those are accounted for in the software. What was the actual OG and the actual volume?

If your actual OG is higher than you think it should be, maybe the extract and water isn't mixed up as well as it should be (did you top up with water?), you have less water volume than you planned (did you measure it accurately?), etc. Please let us know the answers to those questions so we can help.

The reason we know your reading is inaccurate (or the volumes are) is because your preboil volume is 5.5 gallons- and your batch volume in the fermenter is 5.5 gallons. That's not possible. So either you added water, or started with more volume, or ended with much less than 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. Once we know which it is, we can give you more precise information.

 

[BilltheBrewer]

I don't understand the issue- when you add ingredients that have sugars in them, the OG does increase. Of course you don't boil grains, but steeping them does give you fermentable sugars and those are accounted for in the software. What was the actual OG and the actual volume?

If your actual OG is higher than you think it should be, maybe the extract and water isn't mixed up as well as it should be (did you top up with water?), you have less water volume than you planned (did you measure it accurately?), etc. Please let us know the answers to those questions so we can help.

The reason we know your reading is inaccurate (or the volumes are) is because your preboil volume is 5.5 gallons- and your batch volume in the fermenter is 5.5 gallons. That's not possible. So either you added water, or started with more volume, or ended with much less than 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. Once we know which it is, we can give you more precise information.

Yooper, thanks. My issue may simply be unfamiliarity with the BF software + still learning the ropes. The recipe, which I fiddled with a bit, is a black IPA w/a calculated OG of 1.066, a final of 1.014. It called for me to start w/5.5 gallons, steep my milled specialty grains for 15 minutes, let the bag drip while going to boil (didn't squeeze) and using a rolling (not full tilt) boil for 60 minutes, whirlpool and let stand for 20 minutes and then start cooling. I had a couple gallons of cooled sanitized water standing by. Aerated between buckets, strained out a lot of trub/hops, then poured the cooled wort into my Catalyst fermenter. Came up to 3.2 gallons, so I added 2.3 gallons of the set-aside water. OG was 1.061, and it tasted pretty good. Eleven days later, hydrometer read 1.012. Bottled on day 19. I think it's gonna be ok.

However, after signing up with Brewer's Friend, I entered my recipe into the software to see how it stacked up. Here's where I got confused. I chose BIAB. Upon entering my steeping grains (CaraMunich II and Carafa Special III) there was no option for 15 minutes of steeping, so it appears the software thinks I boiled another 24 oz of steeping grains for 60 minutes - unless it's smarter than I think. I entered them as Custom fermentables since those names didn't pop up, and added the manufacturer's PPG/Lovibond. The software OG rose to 1.076, with FG calculated at 1.021. Did I choose the wrong brew method? Should I have chosen extract? A water issue? I know that's a lot to unpack so I greatly appreciate your help.

 

[Pricelessbrewing]

My initial thought is that mixing wort with water isn't very consistent. It's usually best to take the gravity reading after the boil, and use the dilution calculator to dilute to a specific OG rather than a specific volume.

 

[BilltheBrewer]

I don't understand the issue- when you add ingredients that have sugars in them, the OG does increase. Of course you don't boil grains, but steeping them does give you fermentable sugars and those are accounted for in the software. What was the actual OG and the actual volume?

If your actual OG is higher than you think it should be, maybe the extract and water isn't mixed up as well as it should be (did you top up with water?), you have less water volume than you planned (did you measure it accurately?), etc. Please let us know the answers to those questions so we can help.

The reason we know your reading is inaccurate (or the volumes are) is because your preboil volume is 5.5 gallons- and your batch volume in the fermenter is 5.5 gallons. That's not possible. So either you added water, or started with more volume, or ended with much less than 5.5 gallons in the fermenter. Once we know which it is, we can give you more precise information.

Hi. Thought you might have missed my reply - it's in the thread. Thanks.

 

[Yooper]

Hi. Thought you might have missed my reply - it's in the thread. Thanks.

No, I got it. I think you misunderstand what BIAB is- it’s not using steeping grains. With BIAB, it’s a traditional mash but using a bag instead of a traditional mash/lauter tun.

Grains are never boiled in either type of brewing.

You did an extract batch. It should be entered as an extract batch.