Urgent help required!!

[Scotty]

Hi,

I am literally at the end of my first BIAB. I have took a sample at the end of the boil but is saying 1010!

Am I taking the reading at the wrong time? Should I wait until its cooled down to pitching temperature? Or Have I basically buggered up my first bew!

I look forward to hearing from someone soon! Ive justgot my aroma hops soaking then ready to cool down.

Scott

 

[fizz head1982]

What happened?

calculators.php

6th one down is hydrometer temperature correction calculator.

 

[Scotty]

Cheers mate!

I got 1037. Closeish for a first go isnt it?

Using the caalculation is that the best time to take the OG after boil? Next time if it is similar do I just boil a little longer?

Cheers!

Scott

 

[NickW]

Boiling should evaporate more water so that's one way of upping the OG but youd end up with less beer obviously. Other option is to use more grain, as far as I'm aware BIAB is a little less efficient than a full AG setup

 

[graysalchemy]

Take your og when it is cooled and ready to go in the Fv. It will probably still need correcting a little. you need to read on the hydrometer what temp it is corrected to, usually they are 15 or 20c.

 

[Crastney]

roughly speaking, how far out, per gravity point are they per Degree Celcius?

 

[fizz head1982]

How strong % do you want you beer is the question. :hmm: You could add sugar to up the gravity, you would need to boil again to avoid infection(?)... Im not sure how to calculate that.

 

[Scotty]

Thanks everyone!

Its in the FV and is reading 1032 which based on a 1010 finish is just under 3% To be honest I cant do anymore with it today so just going to have to leave it as it is.

As long as it tastes good at the end Ill be happy with that. Its my first go so will hopefully do better next time with the ABV. I think the recipe said t was meant to be about 4.2.

Scott

 

[Duxuk]

roughly speaking, how far out, per gravity point are they per Degree Celcius?

My hydrometer is calibrated at 20C. The calculator will confirm that each 3 degrees above that will reduce the measured gravity by .001
So if I get a reading of 1040 at 35C then I should get 1045 at 20C.
I find it more accurate if you are closer to 20C, though. I won't measure the gravity at 50C and think that the corrected figure is gospel. I will use it as an idea of where I am and do a final reading when it's cooler.

BIAB efficiencies for me are usually above 75%. I usually brew at around 1050. In general the lower the gravity, the higher the efficiency.
Having read and digested another thread I'm going to try dunking the drained grain bag into some warm water to try to get a bit more sugar out of it. I'll post my results if it makes any difference.

 

[pittsy]

Scotty what amount of grain did you use and what was your final volume ment to be (23 L ? ) usually 4 kg gives you approx 4% and 5kg , 5% and so on .

 

[Scotty]

Hi Pitsy,

I followed the recipe from a book called "Home brewing self sufficiency" by John Parkes. It was meant to be 25 litres at approx 4.3%. The full ammount of grain was 3.4 kg. So if we are basing it on 1% per kilo of grain I dont know he go to 4.3% for 25 litres. I started with about 40 litres probably (the max line on a 40 litre buffalo) but managed to get it down to 25.

Scott

 

[fizz head1982]

Bomb a kilo of sugar in it : :drink: :drunk:

But seriously, wait for someones else's instruction!

 

[pittsy]

Hi Pitsy,

I followed the recipe from a book called "Home brewing self sufficiency" by John Parkes. It was meant to be 25 litres at approx 4.3%. The full ammount of grain was 3.4 kg. So if we are basing it on 1% per kilo of grain I dont know he go to 4.3% for 25 litres. I started with about 40 litres probably (the max line on a 40 litre buffalo) but managed to get it down to 25.

Scott

Hi , i would just leave your brew as is , it'll be ready quicker and will be (hopefully ) an easy drinker :thumb: , without using software i would of thought around 5 kg of grain with an efficiency of approx 75% (which is good , you most likely would get around 65% from BIAB so you did well ) to get 4.3% at 25 L.
If you ain't got any software for next brew day just post your next recipe and ask for folk to check it for you mate .

 

[Fil]

fyi to take a gravity reading when the beer is boiling i take a sample and stand it in a saucepan with cold water and some broken off ice from the still needing a defrost freezer in a placky trial jar its down to about 20C in no time, a slosh n stir helps

 

[rpt]

Get the BIABacus from biabrewer.info. It's a spreadsheet (for Excel or LibreOffice/OpenOffice) that's specifically for BIAB. Enter your recipe and it will tell you how much grain to actually use - it does a good job of automatically estimating your efficiency. I find I am slightly more efficient than it suggests. I also use a 40L Buffalo boiler. My last brew had "Efficiency of ambient wort" of 93% and "Efficiency into Fermenter" of 80%. Not sure how they relate to "Efficiency" that everyone quotes, but they sound good to me.

 

[fizz head1982]

Hi Pitsy,

I followed the recipe from a book called "Home brewing self sufficiency" by John Parkes. It was meant to be 25 litres at approx 4.3%. The full ammount of grain was 3.4 kg. So if we are basing it on 1% per kilo of grain I dont know he go to 4.3% for 25 litres. I started with about 40 litres probably (the max line on a 40 litre buffalo) but managed to get it down to 25.

Scott

Hi , i would just leave your brew as is , it'll be ready quicker and will be (hopefully ) an easy drinker :thumb: , without using software i would of thought around 5 kg of grain with an efficiency of approx 75% (which is good , you most likely would get around 65% from BIAB so you did well ) to get 4.3% at 25 L.
If you ain't got any software for next brew day just post your next recipe and ask for folk to check it for you mate .

No, he got much less!

Thanks everyone!

Its in the FV and is reading 1032 which based on a 1010 finish is just under 3% To be honest I cant do anymore with it today so just going to have to leave it as it is.

As long as it tastes good at the end Ill be happy with that. Its my first go so will hopefully do better next time with the ABV. I think the recipe said t was meant to be about 4.2.

Scott

 

[the-erl]

Get the BIABacus from biabrewer.info.

I second that, it's a great tool to use for BIAB and if you have any issues with it ther are some great guys on that forum that'll help you!
http://www.biabrewer.info

Erl :drink:

 

[Aleman]

Always worth having a bag of DME to hand for these little :thumb:

As others have said your hydrometer was reading low for two reasons . . .

1) They are calibrated to a set temperature ( either STP - 15.6 or 60F or RTP 20C or 68F ), if your liquid is warmer than this they will read lower (ie the density of the liquid is less as temperature increases), if your liquid is colder than this they will read more (ie the liquid is more dense as temperature falls).

You have three options
A) cool the wort to the calibration temperature or
B) use temperature correction factors.

If I am completely honest I think B coupled with a standard LHBS hydrometer is piling error upon error, and given my lab background have to say that instruments should always be used in the conditions they were designed and calibrated for.

C) get a refractometer these use a drop of wort and take a 30 seconds to cool down to a stable reading . . .You can either get used to using Brix as a scale (1 Brix is ~ 4Gravity points), or use a formula/brewing program to convert it.

For raw wort gravity you can't beat option C)

2) Your mash was less efficient than the recipe expected . . . many reasons for this, but for some reason some sugar was left behind in your grains OR the recipe was wrong . . . I always sanity check any recipe I am given just to see what changes I need to make to brew it on my little / big / Huge system . . . and they all need different changes . . . Lucky for me Beersmith holds defaults for multiple equipment configurations.

 

[anthonyUK]

For a 40l urn BIAB I usually have between 4-5kg of grain for a standard recipe.
I think your efficiency is OK given the amount of grain used.

I bet your relieved the first one's over :thumb:

C) get a hydrometer these use a drop of wort and take a 30 seconds to cool down to a stable reading . . .You can either get used to using Brix as a scale (1 Brix is ~ 4Gravity points), or use a formula/brewing program to convert it.

I expect you meant refractometer?

 

[Duxuk]

Calculating the efficiency in the classical way gives an interesting result.

X=295*3.4/25=40.12

3700/X=92.22% efficiency.