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Author Topic: Help with Grain Bill Calculations  (Read 1202 times)

Offline Dr_Viking

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Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« on: February 23, 2022, 02:19:13 am »
Hello! I have recently started all grain brewing and I am trying to practice calculating efficiency of established recipes to see how close I am getting and hopes of creating my own recipes soon. Using info from HOW TO BREW, i did my first set of calculations, but I am getting results that seem far too good to be true. I will attach the excel sheet, but my calculations show a 96% efficiency with 34 PPG. That would be GREAT if I actually had that, but from what i read that does not seem feasible... I am using an anvil foundry 10 gallon system. Any feedback would be appreciated!

Type            Amount (lbs)      "Max Yield %
                                                  (from ref            "PPG
                                                                      (MY x 46)" Gallons   Gravity Points   
Pale 2 Row             10                81%              37.26   5.5            67.75   
Oats                              2                70%              32.20   5.5           11.71   
Chocolate Malt              1                60%              27.60   5.5       5.02   
Carmel/Crystal Malt     0.75             74%              34.04   5.5           4.64   
Black Barley           0.75             55%              25.30   5.5           3.45   
Chocolate Rye         0.5                   65%              29.90   5.5           2.72   
Black Patent           0.25                55%              25.30   5.5           1.15   
D160 Syrup             1                 100%              46.00   5.5            8.36   
Dextrose                     1                 100%              46.00   5.5            8.36   
Total                         17.25               
                                   Total GP   113.16   
                                    SpGr Max   1.1132   
Measured OG   1.074         Efficiency   96.48%   
                                    PPG   0.34   

Offline Richard

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #1 on: February 23, 2022, 09:35:50 am »
You did OK until the very last step. When calculating the efficiency you divided the actual OG by the maximum OG, but you should have divided the actual gravity points by the maximum gravity points:

1.074/1.1132 = 0.9648 = 96.5%  WRONG
74/111.32 = .6648 = 66.5% RIGHT
Original Gravity - that would be Newton's

Offline Dr_Viking

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2022, 10:13:56 am »
Wow! Thank so much man! That is much more consistent with what I was expecting. I'm glad it was just a smile miscalculation. I appreciate your help!

Offline redrocker652002

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2022, 10:48:47 am »
I'm going to be watching this.  I want to start getting myself into making my own recipes.  My only question thus far is, you seem to have a lot of different grains there.  I was thinking of starting with just one or two.  Is there a reason you have all that in the recipe?  What style beer you going for?  If my questions are out of line, please disregard.  I am still learning  LOL

Offline Dr_Viking

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2022, 11:04:46 am »
This was my first time trying to calculate efficiency. This was an established recipe for the Black is Beautiful Stout. I wanted to do the calculations myself to see how close I came to the creators. This seems to be a WHOLE new level of control to create new recipes from so i'm excited about it! It's also a lot more places to get confused! The biggest issue I am having now is finding reference material for specialty malts. As you might be able to see from the calculations, the specialty malts don't add a terrible amount of Gravity Points to the final total, but for accuracy's sake I would try to include them. If you want more, I learned all of this from John Palmers book How To Brew. These particular segments are free online and Chapter 12 was what I used. It has a nice big table on common Maximum Extractions.

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/table-of-typical-malt-yields

Does anyone else know of references to find out Max Yields of specialty malts beyond John Palmer's book? It seems like that would be something that is included from the supplier/manufacturer, but for example I can not find any info on "Honey Malt" for an upcoming brew I have.

Offline Bob357

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2022, 12:40:59 pm »
Go to the maltsters' sites for specific information on their products. You can sometimes find this information on brewing supply web sites as well.
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Offline denny

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2022, 01:04:23 pm »
This was my first time trying to calculate efficiency. This was an established recipe for the Black is Beautiful Stout. I wanted to do the calculations myself to see how close I came to the creators. This seems to be a WHOLE new level of control to create new recipes from so i'm excited about it! It's also a lot more places to get confused! The biggest issue I am having now is finding reference material for specialty malts. As you might be able to see from the calculations, the specialty malts don't add a terrible amount of Gravity Points to the final total, but for accuracy's sake I would try to include them. If you want more, I learned all of this from John Palmers book How To Brew. These particular segments are free online and Chapter 12 was what I used. It has a nice big table on common Maximum Extractions.

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-2/what-is-malted-grain/table-of-typical-malt-yields

Does anyone else know of references to find out Max Yields of specialty malts beyond John Palmer's book? It seems like that would be something that is included from the supplier/manufacturer, but for example I can not find any info on "Honey Malt" for an upcoming brew I have.

The maltsters have the info.  Here's honey malt, for example....https://www.brewingwithbriess.com/products/kilned-malts/#american-honey-malt?gclid=Cj0KCQiA09eQBhCxARIsAAYRiym4r_sEo1mTwQQMF8q7fWp0sAEHFytri6bUr0hUsAI23AS26tpjbRYaAukfEALw_wcB
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Offline Richard

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2022, 02:00:27 pm »
Many brewing calculators have built-in lists with the information on lots of grains. I use BeerSmith (http://beersmith.com/), which has a good database that you can expand with your own entries if you run across one that isn't there. Brewer's Friend has a free online recipe calculator (https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator) that has an extensive list of grains, too.
Original Gravity - that would be Newton's

Offline chinaski

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #8 on: February 24, 2022, 04:42:03 pm »
I'm going to be watching this.  I want to start getting myself into making my own recipes.  My only question thus far is, you seem to have a lot of different grains there.  I was thinking of starting with just one or two.  Is there a reason you have all that in the recipe?  What style beer you going for?  If my questions are out of line, please disregard.  I am still learning  LOL
I recommend calculating your efficiency for several brews to see how consistent it is.  The more consistent it is, the easier it is to design a recipe and get the OG you expect when you brew it.  Too many brewers chase high efficiencies with constant tweaks to how they brew when consistency will get you to a point where you know what you'll get when you brew.

Offline MNWayne

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Re: Help with Grain Bill Calculations
« Reply #9 on: February 26, 2022, 08:38:41 am »
I'm going to be watching this.  I want to start getting myself into making my own recipes.  My only question thus far is, you seem to have a lot of different grains there.  I was thinking of starting with just one or two.  Is there a reason you have all that in the recipe?  What style beer you going for?  If my questions are out of line, please disregard.  I am still learning  LOL
I took a simplified approach when I decided to create my own recipes. Target was a crisp refreshing beer that tasted good to me, my flavors, not someone else's idea of what a certain style should be. SMASH to minimize variables.  I liked Northern Brewer hops, so I started there with a 2-row malt and clean yeast.  Worked on my systems until everything was dialed in.  This gave me a solid foundation upon which various styles could be built. Then began experimenting with more/different ingredients.  I don't really design anything "new" (does anyone?) I read other recipes and adapt them to my system and flavor preference.
Far better to dare mighty things....