What does this mean?

[Robsbrew]

I know I am very new to brewing and have a few dumb or well maybe rookie questions. But when I see recipes, I see a list of description of the beer. But what does it all mean?

Size: 6.0 gal
Efficiency: 70%
Attenuation: 90%
Calories: 329.61 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.100 (1.026 - 1.120)
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Terminal Gravity: 1.010 (0.995 - 1.035)
|==============#=================|
Color: 6.91 (1.0 - 50.0)
|=========#======================|
Alcohol: 11.97% (2.5% - 14.5%)
|====================#===========|
Bitterness: 51.8 (0.0 - 100.0)
|================#===============|

I took this off of a recipe on this site. I know somewhat what the gravity of the beer is but what is the rest? biterness and color? what kind of measure is this and how do you get it?

 

[BrewRI]

Color is just the color of the beer, no significance to the method you brew it (That I know of). Bitterness is measured on the International Bitterness Unit scale, the higher the number the more bitter the beer is and often this is a reflection of more hops being used. You can look up both of them on google rather easily. The gravity is the concentration of sugars in the water. OG is the measure you take after the boil, the Terminal, aka Final Gravity is the same thing. Your final gravity will be lower because the yeast eats the sugars and produces alcohol. Once you get into more advanced brewing OG plays a big role in how you brew but you're probably just using extract kits to begin with and you can't really screw up the OG. Measure your beer out of the fermenter after 10-12 days and once its at the target FG let it stay for another couple of days then bottle.

 

[Yooper]

Color is just the color of the beer, no significance to the method you brew it (That I know of). Bitterness is measured on the International Bitterness Unit scale, the higher the number the more bitter the beer is and often this is a reflection of more hops being used. You can look up both of them on google rather easily. The gravity is the concentration of sugars in the water. OG is the measure you take after the boil, the Terminal, aka Final Gravity is the same thing. Your final gravity will be lower because the yeast eats the sugars and produces alcohol. Once you get into more advanced brewing OG plays a big role in how you brew but you're probably just using extract kits to begin with and you can't really screw up the OG. Measure your beer out of the fermenter after 10-12 days and once its at the target FG let it stay for another couple of days then bottle.

Yep. And the numbers that show you the ranges of each are the style guidelines for that kind of beer, according to the BJCP guidelines.

Many of us want to know the probable alcohol content and the color of the beer before we brew, and that's sort of the "prescription" for the recipe if that makes sense.

 

[Robsbrew]

Now what is the attenuation and efficiancy?

And by the way Yooper, your set up is quite impresive. Dont know what most of it is, but impresive!

 

[scinerd3000]

attenuation reffers to how much sugar is used by the yeast during fermentation. For example, Whitelabs American Ale yeast will attenuate to 73-80%, meaning that it will eat that percentage of the sugars. If your doing a beer with a starting gravity reading of 1.100 and the yeast your using attenuates to around 75%, you would end up with a final gravity around 1.023. You can use this to figure out how much residual sugar you will have. Whitelabs website outlines some info which is worth reading.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_terms.html

Efficiency refers to how much sugar is extracted from grain. Think about making tea, theres always some residual "stuff" left in the tea bag and it works the same with grain. Some people can extract more or less depending on their process. If i get 75% efficiency and you get only 70%, you will need to add more grain to compensate. Read through Bobby_M's allgrain primer. It will answer some of your questions
http://www.suebob.com/brew/allgrain.htm

 

[Yooper]

Now what is the attenuation and efficiancy?

And by the way Yooper, your set up is quite impresive. Dont know what most of it is, but impresive!

Thanks! I just bought it from The Pol, and I love it! I picked it up from him in Indianapolis and only brewed on it once so far. I'm brewing again on Thursday, though!

Attenuation is the degree of conversion from sugars to alcohol. This is a function of the yeast, but ingredients also play a large part. So, if your beer starts with an OG of 1.050, and finished at 1.010, the apparent attenuation is 79%.

Efficiency is the amount of available sugars actually extracted in the mash, and this is expressed as a percentage. All grains in a beer recipe have a potential ideal yield, usually expressed as the fine grain dry yield or potential. The fine grain dry yield is typically measured in laboratory conditions by powdering the grain and measuring the maximum possible extract. In the real world, only a fraction of the ideal yield is achieved due to mash inefficiencies, sparging limitations, deadspace and trub losses.

For example, in my old system, my efficiency was 72%. That means that the amount of sugars I extracted and had available for my yeast to use was 72% of the theoretical maximum.