barracudamagoo
Well-Known Member
I am reading Ray Daniels, "Designing Great Beers" and trying to understand the process of calculating the malt bill. For those of you who have the book and would like to follow along, I will include page numbers for reference. I am using the calculations he has listed on pages 29 and 30. Essentially: Gravity units/ (extract potential * percent efficiency). The question I have is which gravity do I use. On page 29: Step 1, it states, " This is equal to the final volume of beer multiplied by the gravity. For our weizen example, we'll shoot for a final gravity of 1.052, or 52 GUs. This is then multiplied by the 5.5 gallon volume......This total gravity tells you how much extract you need to get from all of the fermentable ingredients used in this brew. In addition, this number will serve as a means for monitoring and hitting the target gravity of the beer during the brewing process".
Initially, it sounds clear, as he states to use the final gravity; however, moving on to Chapter 6 (pgs: 34-39) when discussing the target gravity, he describes the gravity at the end of the boil, not the final gravity after fermentation. Further, looking at pg. 345 the OG for a Bavarian Weizen (the beer used in the calculation example) is 1.047-1.056, whose average happens to be 1.052 (from example) and is the "final gravity" from the example.
So....am I correct in presuming that although he is using the term "final gravity", he is referring to the gravity after the boil (what I would call the original gravity) and not the gravity after fermentation.
Even using an effciency of 68%, I am getting final weights significantly lower than those in his examples (almost half). I am certain that I have answered my own question; however, I wanted to get confirmation from the more experienced brewers out there. Thanks in advance!
Initially, it sounds clear, as he states to use the final gravity; however, moving on to Chapter 6 (pgs: 34-39) when discussing the target gravity, he describes the gravity at the end of the boil, not the final gravity after fermentation. Further, looking at pg. 345 the OG for a Bavarian Weizen (the beer used in the calculation example) is 1.047-1.056, whose average happens to be 1.052 (from example) and is the "final gravity" from the example.
So....am I correct in presuming that although he is using the term "final gravity", he is referring to the gravity after the boil (what I would call the original gravity) and not the gravity after fermentation.
Even using an effciency of 68%, I am getting final weights significantly lower than those in his examples (almost half). I am certain that I have answered my own question; however, I wanted to get confirmation from the more experienced brewers out there. Thanks in advance!
