Graham Wheeler Total Liquor Computation

[Foggo]

I thought i had this subject sussed...Grahams Beer Engine is coming up with a figure significantly lower than mine when I compute my total water required... eg To make 5 Gallons... 22.73 litres... 70g Hops (1.05 Litres)... dead space Bottom of Boiler (3.5 Litres) 90 Minute Boil -15% evaporation... (4.81 Litres)... amount required for boil 22.73+1.05+3.5+4.81 = 32.09 Litres.

Grain Bill (Pale Malt 5EBC) 4.99kg... (4.99 Litres) and Mash Tun dead volume (2.45 litres)... gives total water required of 39.53 Litres

Grahams Beer Engine is coming up with a Mash liquor Figure of 12.5 Litres... which I understand... His figure for Total Liquor is 34.4 Litres... which I presume is the total water required... His calculations assume dead space of 3 Litres for hops, trub etc... I have assumed that my hops will hold onto 1.5 Litres for every 100 grammes and then I have included the dead space at the bottom of the boiler as well... Grahams figures dont include a figure for dead space in the mash tun... again I would assume that grain soakage plus dead space need to be taken into account.

If I knew what Grahams Total Liquor Figure represents and maybe a reconciliation back down to the final volume on his Beer Engine of 23 Litres I could amend my computations if required.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Foggo

[Eric]

Dead spaces will be partially occupied by hops and trub or saturated grain such that not all those volumes should be accumulated.

[nobby]

I have found Grahams water volumes given in Beer Engine almost perfect for my brews

[Foggo]

Thanks for the repiles lads... I am going to take it that the total liquor figures is all the water i need to do the brew... ie It is the mash water and sparge water combined... I may have been getting hung up on dead space and double counting with what the grain and hops/trub will absorb and not release... Trial and error will help me determine the total water over a period of time.. and also checking the OG of runnings when I have reached my boil volume.

I still would like to reconcile Grahams Total Liquor back to the Final Volume if anyone could help


Thanks again

Ger

[nobby]

Dont worry if you are a little short on your planned finished volume. All you do is top it up with the Kettle.

[Foggo]

As you told me Grahams Beer Engine is spot on.... Being a newbie and having enforced home rest for the last three weeks with Cough Blackouts resulting from a Severe chest infection I couldn't keep idle.. I even managed to get a fridge sourced and with the help of my kind neighbours and all the equipment I bought over the last year manged to get a Fermentation Chamber rigged up... Therapy (apart from the Beer Engine review) was splitting a whitelab vial according to Horden Hillbilly instructions... nearly killed me when my pan of malt extract slightly boiled over and filled the kitchen with black smoke for a while...

I went back and measured the dead spaces again... The actual deadspace in the Mash Tun is 0.22 Litres... I filled the tun this time quite full and let it drain out... I read a thread somewhere about the vacuum effect... it pulls water from tun... when I first measured the dead space I only filled the mash tun just past the outlet mark and let it drain off.... in addition the dead space at the bottom of the boiler is 1.5 litres.. so I was vastly overestimating my dead spaces.

Just to prove it and not wishing to lead anyone astray ... To make 5 Gallons... 22.73 litres... 70g Hops (1.05 Litres)... dead space Bottom of Boiler (1.5 Litres) 90 Minute Boil -15% evaporation... (4.46 Litres)... amount required for boil 22.73+1.05+1.5+4.46 = 29.74 Litres.

Grain Bill (Pale Malt 5EBC) 4.99kg... (4.99 Litres) and Mash Tun dead volume (0.22 litres)... gives total water required of 34.95 Litres... Graham 34.4

Finally... Thanks to everyone contributing to this site... It really is a wonderful resource especially for someone like me in Ireland where all grain brewing is just starting to catch on... although I am previously from Wolverhampton but remembers those halycon days in the Bull and Bladder with a pint of Bathams Best.