Brewfather water needed for batch

[Wolffie]

Cheers @Wolffie and best wishes.

Knowing a bit of brewing math won't produce good beer. But it's enjoyable to understand what's going on, and that helps us aim for a particular end product.

I think for me, understanding leads to consistency which gradually dials out the "oops" factor, leading to predictability and confidence. I definitely make a few sub-par beers among the really good ones, but it's due to poorly constructed recipes rather than process/technique. And that's how it should be, I think.

I agree with what you say (Knowing a bit of brewing math won't produce a good beer)!! I would still bet on all of you guys brews a greater % of times and all knowledge and help you all offer members. With out the math and and willingness to share where would one start?
Credit given where credit due is a motto I share. Thanks again

 

[storunner13]

FWIW, BrewCipher asks the user for mash efficiency for a given recipe. Using that, in conjunction with the user's brewhouse parameters (e.g. mash tun dead space, xfer losses, boil off rate, etc.), its mash efficiency predictor tool calculates an expected mash efficiency for any size grain bill and/or a change from batch sparge to no-sparge or vice versa.

I agree that conversion efficiency is definitely key. But, as you mentioned, most users don't know their conversion efficiency (or often, even what that means). The math can derive the conversion efficiency behind the scenes, given grain bill size, mash efficiency, and brewhouse parameters.

That said, for educational purposes, I would take Doug's stuff before all others.

Reviving this briefly, to agree with @VikeMan and add my $.02 regarding mash efficiency calculators and conversion efficiency. I'm a little frustrated that none of the popular calculators have conversion efficiency as a variable, and resulting First Wort gravity estimate. With so many people moving to BIAB and no sparge systems, this seems like a big miss in the calculators. Having to adjust my mash efficiency up for low gravity beers and down for high gravity beers is a PITA. In my perfect world, I could set conversion efficiency to 97%, and then target the right first wort gravity for my boil off. Grain absorbtion, dead space, and other mashtun losses are basically fixed, so no-sparge systems should have mash efficiency calculated from conversion efficiency.

I see that Brewfather has added "conversion efficiency" as a an "Experimental Feature". Does anyone know if this affects anything? As far as I can see, it doesn't impact any values in recipe creation, and the description which says it "allows you to ... track first wort gravity" also doesn't seem to be implemented. Is there any plan to get this added? At the very least, if there's a calculator for "first wort gravity" on the recipe creation page, I can adjust my mash efficiency to get to the right first wort gravity for full volume mashes.

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

Agreeing with @VikeMan, entering mash efficiency and thickness as variables is enough information to calculate lauter, conversion, and brewhouse efficiencies. The frustrating part is what one calculator calls brewhouse efficiency is called conversion efficiency in another calculator and efficiency in some others.

 

[jdudek]

Reviving this briefly, to agree with @VikeMan and add my $.02 regarding mash efficiency calculators and conversion efficiency. I'm a little frustrated that none of the popular calculators have conversion efficiency as a variable, and resulting First Wort gravity estimate. With so many people moving to BIAB and no sparge systems, this seems like a big miss in the calculators. Having to adjust my mash efficiency up for low gravity beers and down for high gravity beers is a PITA. In my perfect world, I could set conversion efficiency to 97%, and then target the right first wort gravity for my boil off. Grain absorbtion, dead space, and other mashtun losses are basically fixed, so no-sparge systems should have mash efficiency calculated from conversion efficiency.

I see that Brewfather has added "conversion efficiency" as a an "Experimental Feature". Does anyone know if this affects anything? As far as I can see, it doesn't impact any values in recipe creation, and the description which says it "allows you to ... track first wort gravity" also doesn't seem to be implemented. Is there any plan to get this added? At the very least, if there's a calculator for "first wort gravity" on the recipe creation page, I can adjust my mash efficiency to get to the right first wort gravity for full volume mashes.

I've not managed to get the conversion efficiency do anything in brew father. Looks like a field that does nothing right now, similar to the grain moisture field. I'm in the same boat as far as frustration with calculators. In the end I use my own calculator to figure out what the efficiency will be and then plug that into brew father.