BIAB, brewsmith, and trub...

[etoews]

so i've been brewing biab for some time now and have pretty much figured out how to nail my mash temps and volume (boil volume too) while doing full volume boils in my converted keg (on a killer bayou burner).

so my quandry lies in trying to figure out how much i might expect to lose to trub. beersmith, to the best of my knowledge, doesn't allow you to put in a percentage for loss to this but only a fixed number. and this is problematic because with a light hef i won't lose that much, but with something like a sculpin clone i'll be losing a ton.

i've been eyeballing this for quite a while and usually have a pretty good idea of how i need to adjust the recipe but was wondering if anybody knew of any adjustments in the software that would account for this on a percentage basis?

thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Pappers_]

To compensate for trub, I adjust the total batch volume. I usually set it at 5.5 gallons, know that with some trub, it will be a little more than 5 gallons that ends up in the bottling bucket.

 

[etoews]

thanks, that's what i've been doing. my issue is consistency; my big ipa's that need 7oz of hops or so are going to be very different than the lighter ones that need just 2. and again, as of yet i've just been winging it through experience but would like a more concrete method of figuring this out...

 

[Mysticmead]

I take an average of the beers I brew. I also use a hop sack to help reduce the amount trub. That along with whirlpooling to form a trub cone and siphoning from the side of the kettle/keggle drops my total trub amount down to about .25 gallons..

 

[etoews]

thanks. not into the hop sack method so i made my own, very cool 'hop retention' device (it's basically a really big hop sack that lets the hops float around the entire keg and yet i can still remove it. had to do this as i use a plate chiller and can't be having that stuff flow through. will post pics). and yet... i somehow still seemed to end up losing around .5 gal on my last batch which was a big ipa in the carboid.

and yes, i'm thinking that taking an average or maybe just figuring for worst case scenario might give me at least reliable results. .75 gal of loss will account for the bigger beers and just give me more on the maltier ones...