A simple way to infer a ballpark initial grist weight via known mash efficiency, volume, and OG

[Silver_Is_Money]

The first 3 data entry cells of the spreadsheet anchor (hone, or dial in) its logic to your specific system and process. Choose your "knowns" (the first 3 data entry cells) wisely from direct measured past brewing experience on a given system, then venture into unknown brewing OG territory with data entry cell #4. All of the cells to the right of data entry cell 4 will reflect a projection of how your system should respond when you actually brew a beer of the desired (unknown, data entry cell #4) pre-boil OG, and the last data output cell provides a prediction of the grist weight you should target.

NOTE: You can do a double check on your first 3 data entry values (your anchors) validity simply via duplicating the cell #2 OG entry in cell #4. If the predicted grist weight matches that of the actual grist weight that generated your anchor data, the anchor data is to be considered valid. If not, the anchor data in the first 3 data entry cells must be tweaked until you get a grist weight match.

NOTE 2: If pretty close to everything that you boil winds up in your fermenter you can enter post boil and cooling values (I.E., initial fermenter conditions, pre fermentation) across the board instead of pre-boil values and get respectfully decent output thereby.

 

[VikeMan]

Here is the link to the spreadsheet I built using post #1, post #19, 1 lb table sugar in one gallon water = 1.046173, and the 3.35 factor.

Cool. This doesn't actually affect your spreadsheet the way you have set it up, but one of the points @doug293cz was making is that it's not a pound of sugar in a gallon of water, but rather a pound of sugar in enough water to make a gallon of solution. I'm sure you get that. I mention it only for future readers.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

The aging chemist in me is well aware of making up solutions to volumes, but I tend to get sloppy with the terminology.

 

[doug293cz]

The aging chemist in me is well aware of making up solutions to volumes, but I tend to get sloppy with the terminology.

You, and so many others. It is just so much easier to say/write it incorrectly.

Brew on

 

[SFC Rudy]

I put John Palmers calculations into a spreadsheet. You can enter your OG, Pre-boil volume, mash efficency and base grain type and it will tell you how much grain you need.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Since there has been some confusion as to how to make this "Grist Weight as tuned to your system and process" predicting calculator/spreadsheet function properly, I've neatened it up some and provided instructions within. Link is as seen below.

Download at the 'Google Drive' link seen below (by pressing the "down arrow" seen next to the printer icon in the upper right hand corner) and then launch the downloaded spreadsheet file and run in Excel or LibreOffice Calc.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BpffiG0RSrsItmZ34mW77XCf_q-E7wwN/view?usp=sharing