Priceless BiabCalc

[browder]

Your calculator works the greatest--used it four times now and been toppin off the buckets perfectly--Thanks for a great brew tool------

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Np. Thank for using it, and letting me know. Please give me any feedback you have ad I'll see if it's something I can do.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Just a little bragging to do, it's now the fourth result when you google biab calculator!

 

[browder]

I use it every boil anymore last couple years I got to where I'd just ballpark my water volume and was pretty happy as long a my bucket topped off at 5 Gal. or more--I hit my mark every time since I started using your calculator it's the greatest I've never used beersmith it made my computer run slow so didn't bother buying it--you did good-Thanks again

 

[doug293cz]

@pricelessbrewing: What do you assume for the displacement/lb for grain, and where did you find that information? Thanks.

Brew on

 

[pricelessbrewing]

@pricelessbrewing: What do you assume for the displacement/lb for grain, and where did you find that information? Thanks.

Brew on

Hey Doug, the grain displacement should be 0.08 gal/lb. I don't have the references in front of me, but I believe that is the same volume used in green bay rackers "will it fit?", beersmith, and the biabacus if memory serves.

 

[doug293cz]

Hey Doug, the grain displacement should be 0.08 gal/lb. I don't have the references in front of me, but I believe that is the same volume used in green bay rackers "will it fit?", beersmith, and the biabacus if memory serves.

Thanks. That's the number I have seen in several places, but none of them give a reference.

Brew on

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Thanks. That's the number I have seen in several places, but none of them give a reference.

Brew on

Not much better, but here's an article on BYO that uses the same displacement.
http://byo.com/hops/item/410-calculating-water-usage-advanced-brewing
Search for "0.32 quarts" to find the sentence, which is equal to 0.08 gal.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Another small update: realized I never changed the minimum sparge volume to check if it's negative or not. Got that fixed now in the default calculator.

 

[MaxStout]

Just did an "in hindsight" check of your calculator. A couple weeks ago I brewed an 11 gallon batch of Vienna lager, with a 21lb grain bill. No sparge, 3oz hops, 60 min boil, 20g BK (18" dia.). No kettle trub--I pour it all in. I had 1 gallon of fermenter trub. I used 1.625 g/hr. boiloff that I had previously determined empirically. I shot for 11g in the fermenters and 10g packaged. I hit it. Your calc results called for 14.4 gallons water at 68F. I had used 14.25.

Pretty damn close!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Just did an "in hindsight" check of your calculator. A couple weeks ago I brewed an 11 gallon batch of Vienna lager, with a 21lb grain bill. No sparge, 3oz hops, 60 min boil, 20g BK (18" dia.). No kettle trub--I pour it all in. I had 1 gallon of fermenter trub. I used 1.625 g/hr. boiloff that I had previously determined empirically. I shot for 11g in the fermenters and 10g packaged. I hit it. Your calc results called for 14.4 gallons water at 68F. I had used 14.25.

Pretty damn close!

Sounds good. In my experience, fermentation trub is roughly 9.1% of the volume into the fermenter, so 11G would end up as 10 packaged. How do you handle the wort absorption by the grains? Squeeze it vs let it drain naturally?

 

[MaxStout]

Sounds good. In my experience, fermentation trub is roughly 9.1% of the volume into the fermenter, so 11G would end up as 10 packaged. How do you handle the wort absorption by the grains? Squeeze it vs let it drain naturally?

I hoisted it up after the mash and let it "drip-dry" while I brought the kettle to a boil. I squeezed it gently, but not very aggressively. I've found the by the time the boil starts, squeezing only yields a few more ounces, so I don't bother with it much.

 

[Homercidal]

Downloaded as ODS so it will be compatible with some of my home computers that don't have M$ office. I tried running it on Excel at work as an ODS file and it doesn't work.

I downloaded an Excel version to try and it was fine. I'm sure the ODS version will work fine on Open Office, but I just wanted to warn that Excel doesn't handle this kind of ODS file properly.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Guess I need to update the original post.

I've moved away from the excel file, the latest versions are up on my blog at pricelessbrewing.Github.io/BiabCalc

 

[Homercidal]

Guess I need to update the original post.

I've moved away from the excel file, the latest versions are up on my blog at pricelessbrewing.Github.io/BiabCalc

That would be nice.

I'd still like a downloadable version to take on my laptop when I don't' have internet. This will probably work most of the time though.

I'm checking it out and I'll let you know what I think soon!

 

[Homercidal]

Works nice. I'd prefer to have a print button that outputs a report page to print that is more condensed. I think everything should fit nicely on a single sheet. The web page printout does get it done though, albeit on two pages (3 if I don't suppress the first page when printing.)

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Yeah that's on the to do list. Let me know if you have any other feedback Homer.

Currently its: us some check boxes to combine the different calculators us/metric, full volume/mash thickness, biab/mashtun,
reorganize
Make an android app
Add a print feature
Add user saved settings via saved cookies. This will make your defaults the equipment defaults so you should just have to change the grain/hop/mash temp

In the meanwhile you could screens hot then print the cropped image that contains just the info you want.

 

[Homercidal]

I do like both screens. The Input screen is just spaced out too much for printing. It works well for on the screen though. And I like the info on the General area and the Volumes and Height. Good stuff.

Cookies would be a really nice feature to have. I have a variety of kettles, though, so unless it saved all of them and I had a drop-down to pick from, I'd just have to remember my kettle dimensions. No big deal.

Mash Thickness is a nice option. I simply added/subtracted sparge water to get the mash thickness I wanted, but it would be nice to have that automated.

An android app would probably allow me to not even care about an Excel spreadsheet. I highly doubt I'd ever be figuring up a brew and not have cell coverage. I guess I could also set up a hotspot on my phone to get my laptop online too, I only need to get that set up.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

It works pretty well on your phone too. I usually use it on my phone, just have to scroll a bit. Sometimes I'll take a screen shot of the results page so if my browser app crashes I don't have to enter it again.

Probably won't be able to do a drop down menu for kettles but maybe generate a userid that you could save and enter to fill in the info automatically.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Another tiny update, guess I never changed the # of figures for the gallon heights.

Switched from the js method toprecision, to toFixed, which is a little easier to deal with when you're switching from 1x.xx to x.xx as toprecision would handle these differently (which was why if your volume was above 10 gallons, it had 2 decimals but below 10 gallons it had 3 decimals).

tl;dr Now everything should have 2 deicmal places in the results section. Hopefully next weekend I'll be able to finally merge all the different types, 1 calculator for Imperial vs Metric, and incorporate a "mash tun" loss, as well as an infusion calculator for those people that want to do a step mash.

@Wilserbrewer

 

[browder]

Gonna try BIAB in a keggle will this calculator work ? I used this calculator all through the winter with my 12.5 gallon and got to really rely on it---

 

[pricelessbrewing]

You'll have to determine your numbers, and I know a lot of veggies parent straight walled cylinders so the height numbers might be off slightly. Otherwise I don't see why not.

 

[browder]

Ya I was just running some #'s through the calculator I'll miss being able to just take a measurement--I'm gonna try using a keg this season it'll take a few boils to get use to--I cut the top off one the other day and waiting on a new valve--plan on Thursday or Friday boil--it'll be my first batch since back the first of May--

 

[doug293cz]

You'll have to determine your numbers, and I know a lot of veggies parent straight walled cylinders so the height numbers might be off slightly. Otherwise I don't see why not.

"keggles aren't" => "veggies parent"? I like your calculator Priceless, but I think I'll pass on your autocorrect.

Brew on

 

[pricelessbrewing]

"keggles aren't" => "veggies parent"? I like your calculator Priceless, but I think I'll pass on your autocorrect.

Brew on

correct. Dang phone.

 

[mgr_stl]

Has anyone used the Priceless BIAB Calculator with this pot:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FTLY1K/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

I got this recently, and was going to try using the basket (along with a BIAB bag) but am not sure how to subtract the volume of the basket from the total volume of the pot when entering the info into the calculator. Any ideas?

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Just enter the volume of the pot, however your effeciency will suffer from using the basket as the grains will not have as much room to spread out which will clump them up more and slow down the conversion rate.

Obviously if you use the basket, the mash volume height would not be accurate anymore unless you figured out the height between the bottom of the pot and the bottom of the basket.

 

[DU99]

Nice bit of work had added it to my collection of tools.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Long time update finally completed, formatting aside, still working on it...

Implimented u/Doug293cz wonderful batch sparge simulations that he sent me.

He did a great job! The calculator can know estimate your lauter and mash efficiencies based on the grain bill, your water volumes, and the sparge volume.

Currently uses an average grain potential of 36 points/lb/gal which is typical for most brews in my experience, however grain bills with significant adjuncts, or non-barley or a high percentage of specialty malts will vary. I've connected with Olan at brewunited.com and I'll be using his grain database to create a recipe formulation tool that hopefully will still be EASY to use, and as ACCURATE as possible.

IBU calculations will be coming, based on a modification of Tinseth that will account for some discrepencies that arrise due to large variances in wort gravity throughout the boil. This is particularly common in extended boil times (high abv brews), or large percentage boil off rates (small batches). :rockin:

The numbers listed for the lauter efficiency is what can be expected by a well done batch sparge, being sure to stir thoroughly to mix the sugars throughout the second runnings. If you're fly sparging, your numbers are likely going to be different, and if they're lower you're probably getting significant channeling and I would recommend saving yourself the time and doing a much quicker batch sparge.

 

[bcltoys]

Why does just moving kettle losses up and down effect brew house number's so much?