How to calculate starting water?

[forgetaboudit]

I just picked up my new keggle, and plan on doing my first biab within a couple weeks.
How on earth do i even start to figure out how much water I need to get started? Ive read you need to calculate for grain absorption (but how do i know hoe much itll absorb?), how much will evaporate (no idea?), trub loss, among other things.
I dont know where to begin.

 

[afro_lou]

There are a bunch of awesome brewing programs/calculators out there that will tell you exactly what you need to know. I like BeerSmith ( http://beersmith.com ), but there are a ton of other ones. http://www.biabcalculator.com is another good one, and free!

 

[forgetaboudit]

Ive got beersmith... Didnt know it was able to do that... Ill look into it now

 

[jtratcliff]

The calculators will get you in the ball park, but the fine tuning still needs to be done by you for your system through taking measurements... Boil-off rate, other kettle losses, etc. can vary from system to system. Grain absorption can vary depending if you're a bag squeezer...

So use the calculators for your 1st batch then check how your final results differ from the predictions... You can then tweak boil off rate, absorption factor, other loss amounts, etc. in your equipment profile...

The default assumptions might be fine, or you might need to adjust. You won't know for sure until you brew a few batches and get your system dialed in...

 

[forgetaboudit]

Right on. Thanks!

 

[kevin58]

If you have Beersmith you will not get accurate results unless you first create an accurate equipment profile. As a general rule of thumb however you can figure 1/2 quart of water absorbed for each pound of grain.

Here are a couple of tutorials for setting up your equipment profile in Beersmith:



And it would be a good idea to set up some custom mash profiles as well. Here is one for BIAB:

 

[forgetaboudit]

So.... The last video, im a bit confused. How do I know which mash profile to select? I made the 5 with temp increments of 2 degrees.

 

[jtratcliff]

What kind of beer are you planning to make? Higher mash temps usually result in a maltier, fuller bodied brew. You'll choose different temps for Stout vs a Pilsner vs an IPA, for example. If you're using an existing recipe, it should recommend a mash temp.

 

[SteveH aka shetc]

Nm

 

[forgetaboudit]

Im not planning a brew just yet, just getting everything lined up and figured out.

 

[Ninoid]

I use batch size (23L) as starting water and top-up with cold water all that evaporated on the end of boil.