Adjusting a recipe for ABV

[andyg55]

Hi all

I've been given the following recipe with no guidelines regarding the batch volume:

75% 2-row
20% wheat malt
5% acid malt

I know that the resulting beer was a 5.0% ABV beer.

How do I calculate how much water to mash in to give a final beer ABV of approximately 5%? I have just downloaded Beersmith but I'm not sure how to use it to calculate this kind of thing yet.

Thanks,
Andy

 

[Clint]

How big is the batch size you want to make?

 

[andyg55]

6.5 gallons (24.6 litres)

 

[prog99]

Hi all

I've been given the following recipe with no guidelines regarding the batch volume:

If thats all the recipe says then find a better one. Can you post the full one.

 

[andyg55]

the grain is 75% 2 row, 20% wheat malt, 5% acid malt. 60 min mash @ 64 degrees. 10 minute boil then we chill the wort and pitch out lacto culture. Let sour 12 hours then pitch yeast for that one we are using a blend of Kviek strains. use Voss if you can get it. We let it ferment out when it's done we drop the temp to 18ish add our first dry hop. 3 days later we add another. 2 days later it's ready to go. note there are no bittering hops added. Due to our lacto culture being very hop sensitive.

 

[Keruso]

Hi all

I've been given the following recipe with no guidelines regarding the batch volume:

75% 2-row
20% wheat malt
5% acid malt

I know that the resulting beer was a 5.0% ABV beer.

How do I calculate how much water to mash in to give a final beer ABV of approximately 5%? I have just downloaded Beersmith but I'm not sure how to use it to calculate this kind of thing yet.

Thanks,
Andy

So these are rough starting figures to get something near to 5% ABV. You will need to adjust once you input your grain bill. Without knowing if you’re doing all grain or BIAB or what equipment you are using it’s difficult to work out mash and sparge water.

4.5KG 2-row
1.2KG wheat malt
0.3KG acidulated malt

 

[andyg55]

Got it, sorry.

I'll be using an all-grain mash (not brew in a bag) with sparge. I am using the 10-gallon SS BrewTech mash tun.

Can you please help me figure out how you get to these numbers, or if there's a tutorial I can follow somewhere?

Thanks

 

[prog99]

IN that case if its your 1st ever AG i'd chose a simpler recipe than a sour. Theres plenty out there.

 

[MickDundee]

Download the Brewer’s Friend app, it’ll help with plugging in ingredients and getting the gravities, ABVs etc.

 

[Keruso]

Got it, sorry.

I'll be using an all-grain mash (not brew in a bag) with sparge. I am using the 10-gallon SS BrewTech mash tun.

Can you please help me figure out how you get to these numbers, or if there's a tutorial I can follow somewhere?

Thanks

I have a grainfather and use the grainfather recipe builder, that’s where I worked out the numbers. As Mick says there are others out there that do the same. From experience, if you are looking for 22 litres of bottled beer then you start with the amount of finished product or batch size expected, and a grain bill like I’ve suggested, adding boil time etc then the app will tell you amount of mash water and sparge needed, roughly 20 litres for mash and 12 litres sparge if using a grainfather. Fiddling with the amount of grain will affect the ABV, I just put in figures that matched your percentages, which you can use if you are brewing 22 litres or 20,000.