Brewing software ?

[alawlor66430]

Hi I e just downloaded some brewing software on my laptop and I was having a play about putting in different quantities of the stuff I have to see what it would come up with. Here it is.


Dme light 82%
Chocolate malt 5%
Crystal malt 14%
Fuggles 1 oz 60 mins
Yeast wlp028

It's saying this is a balanced beer if I use a 5 gallon full boil, I don't really understand this as I've only done kits before but am I on the right track here

 

[bunkerbrewer]

Yep, that's a pretty good start. It's best to post the whole recipe if you can, as it's very hard to know if 1oz of Fuggles is way too much or not enough. Post the OG, volumes, and the IBU that the software is telling you.

If it's telling you it's balanced, it probably means the BU:GU ratio (bitterness units to gravity units), which is good, but tell us what style of beer you're hoping to end up with and you'll get some helpful hints.

14% crystal is perhaps a bit much though - I think most people reckon on 10% max. You're the brewer, and you're free to break all the rules, but you might want to reign it back for the first brew :)

 

[PD]

what softwear is it

 

[alawlor66430]

It's called brew target I think, when I get home ill put the lap top on and post all the readings, it came out quite low on the abv side 3.5% but I was quite happy with that, but if I used 10% crystal and another 5% dme that would push things up a bit

 

[alawlor66430]

Name - Adams extract
Style - ?
Equipment - 5 gal extract - full boil
Target batch size - 5 gal
Calculated batch size - 4.068 gal
Target boil size - 4.580 gal
Calculated boil size - 4.484 gal
Efficiency - 70%
OG - 1.050
Boil sg - 1.004
FG - 1.014
ABV - 4.7
Bitterness (ibu) - 24.0
Colour - 28.3
IBU/GU - 0.48
Calories/12oz - 165

Fermentables
DME(light) 85%
Crystal malt 11%
Chocolate malt 4%

Hops
Fuggles 1 oz 60 min

Yeast
Wlp028 (liquid)

Hope I've done this right, how does it look ?

 

[bunkerbrewer]

Recipe looks good to me! Not sure about those volumes though...

I'm not familiar with brew target, but it seems to be telling you you'll end up 1 gallon less beer than you're planning for?

If you're doing a full-volume extract brew, that'll be in a full-size boiler (30-40L), and you need to account for boil-off rates. So the amount of water going into the boiler needs to be more than 5 gallons if you want to end up with 5 gallons in your fermenter. Is that your plan?

 

[alawlor66430]

Well this is the thing, I can change all the info on this software apart from the volume of the brew, I'll explain. I want to end up with 5 gal in the fermenter but I only have a 19 ltr pot, well it's in the post, so how should I adjust this recipe to suit?

 

[bunkerbrewer]

A 19L pot is ideal for extract.

I guess you'd end up with something like this (I can't work in Imperial!)

19L brew length
OG 1.050
IBU 24
Colour 33 EBC (not 28...)

2.5KG DME
320g Crystal 60
120g Chocolate

Fuggles 28g (@ 5.7 AA)

Steep your crystal and chocolate @67°C in 10L of water for an hour and strain. Heat the water, adding the DME, and bring to the boil. Add the Fuggles, boil for an hour, cool and add to the FV. Top up to 19L with water and cool to pitching temp.

It's been a while since I brewed with extract, so I hope someone else will check my numbers...!

 

[alawlor66430]

That sound good, cheers for that, do you know of any software that would let me input a 19 litre pot into the equipment section cos this software gives you the choice of a few pots and kettles but nothing I own

 

[bunkerbrewer]

I use BrewMate - http://www.brewmate.net/

It doesn't really care about your pot size :)

Just stick in the amount of beer you want to end up with, plus your fermenter loss into the "batch size" box. Then add your DME, steeping grains and hops until you come up with the OG, IBUs and colour you're happy with.

What confuses new users most I think is the "switch grain mode" button. There are two modes - you can enter weights for each ingredient, and it'll tell you the OG, or you can enter percentages, change the OG and it'll scale your recipe weights for you.

Just make your recipe assuming you can fit the whole batch in your pot. Then on brewday just put however much water you're comfortable with into the pot (allow lots of space!), and the rest of the water just gets added to your FV before pitching. It's a good idea to calibrate your FV if you haven't already, then it's very easy to top up.

 

[alawlor66430]

Great advice cheers :-) I think ill give that software a shot