BIAB Do I Don’t I

[Agentgonzo]

I have induction but it has this weird thing where it only allow you to put the correct size pot on the correct ring, i have an expensive SS stew pot and my hob decides its bigger than the ring diameter and does the “Computer says No?” Thing

That's really strange. As far as I'm aware they don't work like that (saying no if the pot is too big). I can use a huge pot on the small ring and it works fine.

Are you sure it's not another reason the induction hob says no? We had what we thought was a large SS pan - magnets stuck to it fine. But it turned out it was a thin SS inner, with a fat aluminium base, then a very thin layer of SS on the very bottom. The steel would let a magnet stick to it, but it wasn't thick enough for the hob to be happy inducting it. Could yours be the same? Is it definitely suitable for induction?

 

[matt.]

In reality , we all use calculator. There are ones built into apps like brewfather. There are also online calculators like here.

They just use a formula. Each type of grain has a certain amount of starch, which can theoretically be turned into sugar. This is measured in PPG - points per pound per gallon. ie, if you put one pound of that grain into your brewpot, magically turn all of its starch into sugar and then dissolve all of that sugar in 1 gallon (hmmm, UK or US? ) it'll give you that many SG points. eg, say your pale malt has 37PPG. Mashing 1 pound, extracting 100% of its potential sugar and dissolving it in 1 gallon of water will give you wort at 1.037 SG.

The calculator will multiply up your weights of your grain bill by each individual grain's PPG, then compare this to the total amount of sugar you ended up with (your SG x your final volume), then compare the two and tell you your efficiency.

Thanks. I think I understand that. Very helpful. Always something to learn here.
Cheers

 

[JeffDragon7]

That's really strange. As far as I'm aware they don't work like that (saying no if the pot is too big). I can use a huge pot on the small ring and it works fine.

Are you sure it's not another reason the induction hob says no? We had what we thought was a large SS pan - magnets stuck to it fine. But it turned out it was a thin SS inner, with a fat aluminium base, then a very thin layer of SS on the very bottom. The steel would let a magnet stick to it, but it wasn't thick enough for the hob to be happy inducting it. Could yours be the same? Is it definitely suitable for induction?

That’s interesting, I just assumed that it was a SS base same as you thought.

 

[JeffDragon7]

That's really strange. As far as I'm aware they don't work like that (saying no if the pot is too big). I can use a huge pot on the small ring and it works fine.

Are you sure it's not another reason the induction hob says no? We had what we thought was a large SS pan - magnets stuck to it fine. But it turned out it was a thin SS inner, with a fat aluminium base, then a very thin layer of SS on the very bottom. The steel would let a magnet stick to it, but it wasn't thick enough for the hob to be happy inducting it. Could yours be the same? Is it definitely suitable for induction?

Just did a little Experiment my big stew pan made by Finnish company called Hackman is 18/10 stainless had a google and found that 18/10 stainless is no good on induction unless it has a ferrous base.
My SS maslin pan works on all rings
My smal fry pan only works on the small ring. Possibly a safety feature. As on the bigger rings you would have heated area open to injury at least i now know

 

[Agentgonzo]

My smal fry pan only works on the small ring. Possibly a safety feature. As on the bigger rings you would have heated area open to injury at least i now know

This is a result of the way induction works, not specifically a safety feature. Induction hobs heat the pan directly, not the hob - so there is no "heated area".

The "rings" are made up of circles/rings of wire in the hub itself. An alternating current is passed through the coil, which induces (hence the name - induction) an alternating current in the base of the pan. The path of the current is a circle of the same diameter as the rings in the hob.

What happens when you put a small pan on a big ring is that the pan sits inside the rings of wire. The hob can only induce current in the pan around the same circle as the rings of wire in the hob - but the pan isn't big enough for this so the induction won't work. The hob detects this and turns the ring off to let you know.

 

[JeffDragon7]

This is a result of the way induction works, not specifically a safety feature. Induction hobs heat the pan directly, not the hob - so there is no "heated area".

The "rings" are made up of circles/rings of wire in the hub itself. An alternating current is passed through the coil, which induces (hence the name - induction) an alternating current in the base of the pan. The path of the current is a circle of the same diameter as the rings in the hob.

What happens when you put a small pan on a big ring is that the pan sits inside the rings of wire. The hob can only induce current in the pan around the same circle as the rings of wire in the hob - but the pan isn't big enough for this so the induction won't work. The hob detects this and turns the ring off to let you know.

Wow I didn’t know any of this but you’ve explained it clearly and solved the reason a long standing problem

 

[Paulus]

It doesn't take time really, as you don't have to watch it.
Whilst my water is heating, I measure out my ingredients (Inc hops). 5 mins
Go back out after a while and Mash in and wrap the boiler up, 5 mins
Give it a stir after 30 mins and have a tidy up, 5 mins
Pull the grain and sit the bag in a large colander to drain over the boiler whilst the temp gets whacked up to boil power. Slowly dribble several litres of water over the grain as a psudo sparge, and then use a pan lid to squeeze the grain bag in to the colander. Ditch the grain and clean the bag and another quick tidy and sanitiser the fermenting bucket. By the time that's all done the wort is boiling. Add first hops, 20 mins
Go out at the right time to add second hops and drop my chill coil in the boiling wort to sanitiser is for the remainder of the boil, 1 min
Go at at end of boil timer and turn everything off and turn the tap on for the chiller, 1 min
Go back out when my little Bluetooth temp sender says it's at 20c and drop the wort in to the bucket and then clean everything, 10 mins

Job jobbed
I reckon out of a 4 hour 'brew window' I spend about 40 minutes actually doing STUFF, rest of the time I'm in my office working

Hi Nick's 90,

"little Bluetooth temp sender says it's at 20c and drop the wort"
What device do you use? I've been looking for a high temp wireless sensor, where did you get it?

Thanks.

 

[MashBag]

Not wanting to eliminate contact with the process, but A i am retired and cannot justify £600 to £1500 for the full system. B spending 6 to 8 hours brewing 40 pints is not really my thing, the process is enjoyable but there are limits

Well said that man.

There are different folks in this hobby, some enjoy drinking, some enjoy making, some chemistry, some shiney, some washing up... Ok maybe not the last one.

 

[Twopan]

Thanks. I'll not be bothering; as you say, it's not so important for small home brewers like me. But out of interest; how is it calculated?

Calculating efficiency can be done with a recipe calculator as @Agentgonzo says. I use the recipe templates in Brewer's Friend. It is useful as you know how much ABV your brew will produce. There is quite a difference between 60% and 75% efficiency. If you have undershot you can add some extra fermentables e.g. DME or dextrose. If over, you could add water. My Begian recipes usually include some candi sugar (or golden syrup as a good substitute) added at the end of the boil. I take the gravity of the wort at the end of the mash and compare that to the target pre-boil gravity which the Brewer's Friend template will give you. Because the wort will be hot you have to adjust the gravity reading using the hydrometer temperature calculator on the same site. I then know if I need to add say 250ml or 500ml of syrup to the boil. It just avoids disappointingly weak beer, or conversely, a head banger!

 

[The Baron]

I agree with Twopan it is useful info for the estimated final ABV of your beer

 

[jof]

Also the reason most homebrew recipes are for 20-25l is once it's in a plastic fermenting bin, thats about as much as you can lift.

If your up at stove top height, and more likely to be moving stuff about, then a 10-12l batch size makes more sense. You don't want to do your back in.

I always thought one of the big pasta cooking pots with the lift to drain inner part would make a good approximation of a malt pipe for stovetop brewers.

something like this, but further investigation says they also get really expensive if you want more than 5l capacity

 

[Sadfield]

Not wanting to eliminate contact with the process, but A i am retired and cannot justify £600 to £1500 for the full system. B spending 6 to 8 hours brewing 40 pints is not really my thing, the process is enjoyable but there are limits

The post I was referring to was.

As I said previously, you don't need to spend £600+ or 6-8 hours brewing. However, there's plenty of ways for a novice to make a less than perfect brew. Without paying good attention to the process, learning how to navigate and correct issues is impossible. You could end up wasting more time than you save. A big improvement of AG beer over kit beer, isn't a given, it's the reward for care and attention.

 

[Sandimas]

For homebrewers it's not very important at all.

It does make a difference to your beer e.g. many recipes are worked out for 75% efficiency whilst many of us get less than that, I'm currently getting 67% and it seems to depend on grain batch/supplier (have had 73% from another supplier). So if I tried to brew a 4.5% beer from a 75% recipe, but only got 67%, my brew would be 4.2%.

You can work it out by plugging the results from one of your brews into some brewing software and adjusting the efficiency figure until you get the OG you ended up with. Then use that figure when working out future brews, to enable you to hit your target OG. If you don't do this, chances are your future OGs will be lower than intended.

 

[JeffDragon7]

Well said that man.

There are different folks in this hobby, some enjoy drinking, some enjoy making, some chemistry, some shiney, some washing up... Ok maybe not the last one.

Horses for courses as with anything

 

[JeffDragon7]

The post I was referring to was.

As I said previously, you don't need to spend £600+ or 6-8 hours brewing. However, there's plenty of ways for a novice to make a less than perfect brew. Without paying good attention to the process, learning how to navigate and correct issues is impossible. You could end up wasting more time than you save. A big improvement of AG beer over kit beer, isn't a given, it's the reward for care and attention.

I’m very big on researching anything i do, i expect i will have failures, i agree with your comment about paying attention to the process and learning as much as possible. Most successes in life come from failure but only if you know why you failed. I’m a big user of YouTube and im currently devouring videos on the subject. Strangely most seem to be American but the process is the same.

 

[JeffDragon7]

Dead post

 

[The Baron]

I think you can bypass the thermal cut out, I will let somebody with more electrical knowledge confirm this

 

[MashBag]

What happens when you put a small pan on a big ring is that the pan sits inside the rings of wire. The hob can only induce current in the pan around the same circle as the rings of wire in the hob - but the pan isn't big enough for this so the induction won't work. The hob detects this and turns the ring off to let you know.

Not on mine it doesn't. This is puzzling indeed.

I have a mocha pot that works every morning on about ¼ on a ring.

Very strange.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Not on mine it doesn't. This is puzzling indeed.

I have a mocha pot that works every morning on about ¼ on a ring.

Very strange.

This is probably where my knowledge of electromagnetism starts to run out.
But I've noticed that you have put your pot off-centre. Maybe that's the key in that the coils are overlapping your moka pot a bit, whereas if you put it centred on the ring there is no overlap, so no heat? Maybe if @JeffDragon7 puts his small frying pan off-centred on a large ring it'll work?

 

[JeffDragon7]

Not on mine it doesn't. This is puzzling indeed.

I have a mocha pot that works every morning on about ¼ on a ring.

Very strange.

Strange