Noob - how do I figured out how much grain

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Jq1n

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Hey,
I'm a noob thinking about brewing my second batch of all grain. I've never done any brewing before first batch, except for Mr Beer in college (which tasted a lot like vinegar but we drank it anyway).
I found a recipe I want to try but the grain bill is just in percentages. How do I figure out how much of each to use? Is there some formula I don't know about?
I've attached a pic.
Even if someone points me toward the reading that I need to do to learn what the hell this is that would be great
Thanks eh

Screenshot_2015-07-30-07-59-19.jpg
 
Try some brewing software. I believe Beersmith has a free trial to download, and there's others online and some on the apple App Store to play around with. As you adjust the quantity of grains, it tells you the percentage, so you'd just play around until you match the recipe's %'s.
 
There are several variables that go into figuring it.

Get a program like Beersmith and you can plug in various amounts of ingredients to get to these percentages. Keeping an eye on the OG, you should be able to recreate those percentages.
 
I would suggest, for your first few brews at least, I would keep it simple and choose a recipe that already has the grain bill volumes defined for you.

Check out the Recipe Database. Lots and lots of great recipes to choose from. And you can get help and advice on the very recipe you choose as well.


Cheers!
 
it's given in percentages to better scale the batch size up or down to arrive at the given OG, taking into account your extraction efficiency (which, after one batch, you would only have a rough estimate what your system will produce)

so, for the example you provided, for a 4.75 gallon batch to arrive at 1.055 OG with a 70% efficiency:

grain percentages.JPG
 
So cool. I didn't get that, though I should have, it all depended on how much beer I wanted to make. I was thinking 69% of what? Haha
I've been thinking about getting beersmith. Maybe I'll try the free calcs first.
I really should stick to recipes that tell exact amounts but I'm impatient and want to try everything. I'll learn from my huge blunders I'm sure.
 
When a recipe is given as percentages it is great as it will scale to any abtch size you want to do. 1,5,10, gallons . I scale recipes to my batch size of 5.5 gallons as I lose 0.5 gallons in the fermentor to trub.

To scale a recipe to your planned batch size you need to know the brewhouse efficiency of your setup.

Brewhouse (BH) efficiency is something you have to learn on your system so without knowing it it is impossible to use the percentages with any predicted accuracy. Until you do a few batches and tweak and refine your process you simply cannot know what the BH efficiency will be.

If you are just starting out just pick a tried and true recipe that is setup for about 70-75% BH efficiency.

You need to know the grain bill and the theoretical sugar content which would give 100% BH efficiency if it all made it to the fermentor.

Take accurate measures of your pre-boil volume and gravity at the correct temperature. Don't guestimate. Measure. This gives you mash efficiency. Very useful to know

Take accurate measures of the volume you put in the FV and the gravity (at the correct temperature) of the wort. This is used to tell you the brewhouse efficiency.

100*(Sugars that made it to the FV/theoretical maximum sugars available)=brewhouse efficiency.

Good brewing software will do all the calculations for you if you prefer. The onus is on you, the brewer to feed the software accurate data. You will learn the system and then be able to use recipes, like the one you show, with ease.
 
I too say you need to look into one of the recipe calculators. There are too many variables to say X%=Y pounds.

You might even want to start with a kit. or 2 or 5.

One thing you need to determine when doing all grain is what level of efficiency you can get with your system. It might take a few batches to find this out. Then you use that efficiency to refine your recipes.

Most kits assume about 70% efficiency. If your system gives you 90% your beers are going to be stronger. If you only get 60% your beers will be weaker.

I use Beersmith and when I use a recipe that I find I input the ingredients with my expected efficiency and adjust until I get the gravity I desire.
 
Ok. Thank you kimosabi. This brewing thing is much more scienctific than I thought. When I watched brewing videos on YouTube it all seemed so simple. I think I want to know the How and Why of everything so I'm gonna get as scientific any brain will allow.
 
Besides the online calculators that do much of the work for you. You might get a copy of How to Brew by John Palmer or The Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papizan. In their all grain chapters, they explain not how to fit recipes to your system, taking into account your brewhouse efficiency and system quirks.
 
The screenshots shown earlier in the thread are from a software called Beersmith. It is a great tool and available as a free trial. There is alot of options in it but just like with a complicated TV remote, you wont use all the features.

I would get the free trial, read the sections on recipes in How to brew an start with brewing with some good recipe kits.

Use the trial period to plug in the numbers you get with the kits and play with the settings and setup in the software.

Soon enough you will see that the doing is alot more straightforward than it sounds when described in writing. All these terms can be daunting and confusing to say the least.

I have a couple of walkthroughs of my all-grain process (BIAB) in my signature below. It might be of some use and illustrate more clearly what we are talking about.

Get brewing is the key. Measure things as accurately as you can. That is not hard. Volumes, gravities, weights of grains and temperatures can all be nailed down to ulimately give your brewing consistency from a numerical standpoint. Just like anything, consistent results are not obtained overnight.

Best of luck with your brewing. It's a ton of fun.
 
Do you have the numbers from your first batch (recipe, post boil volume, and OG?). If so we can help you figure out your efficiency so you know what to plug in. If not like some of the others said use a number in the 70-75% range for your efficiency, plug in your batch size, and go from there. Besides Beersmith, I find Brewer's Friend pretty good and you can access online for free.
 
Do you have the numbers from your first batch (recipe, post boil volume, and OG?). If so we can help you figure out your efficiency so you know what to plug in. If not like some of the others said use a number in the 70-75% range for your efficiency, plug in your batch size, and go from there. Besides Beersmith, I find Brewer's Friend pretty good and you can access online for free.
I wish I had all of that! I got into this the most reckless way possible. I read up on what I needed, watched YouTube videos on how to do it. I bought a starter kit, bought Grolsch flip top bottles, made a mash tun and wort chiller and got to it. I googled "basic pale ale recipe" or something like that. That lead me to beerdude dot com and I followed the basic instructions. It didn't mention anything about gravity readings or anything.
We brewed it up according to instructions, got as much wort from fly sparring to get about 7.5 gallons of wort and never measured the liquid again. I tried to take an og reading but didn't know really how to read my hydrometer. I took a fg reading when appropriate and estimated what my og reading was from where I was looking at the hydrometer when I thought I was taking my og. Everything turned up roses as far a s the style. My estimated og and fg were within range so it turned out well. I may have gotten lucky.
All the while I was reading up on what I was doing and even added some gelatin to clear the final product up.
We bottled and the beer is delicious but it hasn't carbed evenly. Some bottles are perfect, some over carbed and some flat. I've since learned a lot more and know what I did wrong. my 2nd batch will be waaaaaay more precise, measured and tracked.
I wish I knew to document all of this stuff the first time but I'm happy I started the way I did. All of the reading and things to learn can be overwhelming so I jumped right in.
Next batch I will be tracking efficiency for sure.
 
I didn't have a hydrometer till about my 3rd batch. Broke it right out of the box. Didn't realize how fragile they were. Just crunched it in my hand. What a dumba$$. Sounds like a fun 1st brew
 
Well you were lucky with the first batch. You apparently learned enough to pull off the brew but didn't really understand what was happening. Most brewers take a more deliberate approach. I started with 4 extract kits. (though the last one I bought the ingredients, but used the recipe of a kit). I then did 2 partial mash kits and 2 from recipes. Then on to all grain, 2 kits then a couple of recipes (unaltered) before starting to make my own recipes. When I started to make recipes I would start from a known recipe and make a small change or two. Each brew I have done I have learned something new or reinforced what I have already known. In 4 years and 77 batches I still feel I have a lot to learn.

All through the process I was reading and learning.

You don't need to know all the math and chemistry involved but you do need to learn the processes and how any changes will affect the product. I used some YouTube videos to learn, but that was in addition to all other sources of information. This site being very helpful.

BTW there is a lot of bad info in YouTube videos. Watch a lot of them and see what is common among most of them, you can probably disregard something that you see in only one or two videos.

One of the most important things to learn is to be able to filter out the bad advice from the good that is in all forms of online and written information. Kit instructions for one are often very bad. They seem to be written to get you through a brew with just enough information to give you a drinkable beer quickly and get you to buy another kit.

Keep at it!! This is a great hobby.
 
...
I wish I knew to document all of this stuff the first time but I'm happy I started the way I did. All of the reading and things to learn can be overwhelming so I jumped right in.
Next batch I will be tracking efficiency for sure.

Good for you! And seems you already picked up on a very big key to your HB growth. Taking notes! Record everything; Brew date, Volumes (strike water, sparge water, top off water), Temps (ambient, strike water, mash water, infusions), Fermentation (OG, pitch temp, FG).

You'll be able to look back at your notes and make adjustments for future brews to dial in your equipment, process and even make recipe adjustments.

Here are a few checklists/forms/templates to help.

Many have mentioned brewing SW like BeerSmith (which I also have and use). But I think it's better to start out without the SW so you have to try and think through and calculate the volumes and temp adjustments yourself. Then after you get some batches under your belt and buy the SW, you'll know better what's behind the numbers.

Welcome to the obsession!

:mug:
 
We bottled and the beer is delicious

Well this is the most important thing, good for you for just going for it! If you're brewing great beer there's really no reason you have to change anything. Personally I find obsessing about the numbers kind of fun, and it's nice to have reproducibility. Sounds like your well on your way.
:mug:
 
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