Grain Absorption?

[swiggingpig]

You will find it in 'Tools/Options/Advanced'

[Fritzkellerbrau]

Hi Paul

If I remember correctly it's on the equipment set up input sheets - can't remember which one exactly. Use the equipment set up wizard.

[paulg]

thanks guys I assume the absorption rate is likely to be similar for the 50 litre model,anyway I will see when I get the machine in about 3 weeks time(waiting transportation form uk)

[JPSussex]

You can change grain absorption in 'Preferences/Advanced'. This doesn't get saved with the recipe so when you reload a past recipe it will have the current figure applied to it, unfortunately. Unless anyone else knows any better.

I always weigh the water into the BM and weigh the water that comes out with the grain and adjust the software and water volumes if necessary before the boils starts, can't see the point in progressing on the basis of a guess.

I lift out the malt pipe and sparge through it and generally get a grain absorption figure of between 0.2 and 0.3 fl oz/oz, so around 1 litre. This figure seems low compared to what others report, not sure why that is.

John

[JPSussex]

I'm with Whitegoose, around a litre is the norm for me. Set the figure in Beersmith under 'preferences/advanced'.

I set the figure to 0.25fl oz/oz as a starting point. Weigh in 23l of water, mash, sparge through the raised malt pipe with 6.5 litres and then weigh the malt after the malt pipe has drained. Calculate the water content of the malt and feed the exact figure back into BS to keep the numbers right.

[bierfest]

I tend to agree with you Andy.

I found that 0.9600 was way out for my system and it wasn't until I selected "BIAB in the BS software that I achieved anywhere near accurate figures.
I think this anomaly goes a long way in peoples claims that the BM loses efficiency as the grain bill gets bigger. Simple fact is, people are using too much water to allow for grain absorption.

I have made adjustments on my software in this area over 40 odd brews and I have found that 0.6600 is pretty close to what I achieve.
Allowing the malt pipe to drain exactly the same each time is paramount in gaining the same result each brew.
Some sparge the grains, others don't. It will all go to giving you a different set of figures.
I know that some people just remove the pipe from the system without draining while some allow the malt pipe to drain right up until the boil is about to start.

I allow my malt pipe to drain after sparging until the boil is about to commence and I start the brew with 25 litre in the BM and sparge the balance of the volume as indicated by the BS software.
This is my method to achieve my set of figures in the software.

Cheers

Guys - what is the difference between the 'Grain absorption' and 'BIAB grain absorb' figures in the attachment here

@Dikco when you say "until I selected "BIAB in the BS software that I achieved anywhere near accurate figures" are you talking about setting the mash profile in your recipe to BIAB?
If you do this which of the two values above does it read grain absorption from and which of these values have you set to 0.6600 ?

[Dicko]

Hi Bierfest,

When I selected the BIAB option my results were close to the BS predictions so what I did was went to your screen above in advanced setting and changed both grain absorption figure to .6600.
By setting both of them it now doesn't matter what I have selected the results are the same.
In BS the biab setting I believe, allows for a brewer to squeeze the bag, so with a BM this grain absorption figure will vary from brewer to brewer just by someone pushing down on the top plate of the malt pipe.

There are other variables as well including the grain crush size and probably even the type and brand of mill that cracked the grain, so each individual brewer will have to set his / her software as per their own recorded results.

What I am saying is that my software is set at .6600 because that is what I achieve for my method of brewing and including all other perameters which will affect grain absorption.

I guess that no two brewers may have the same results, however when saying this I brew and talk with Dan from this forum, we both have 20 l breweries and we get fairly close results although with slight differences.

I hope this helps

[bierfest]

This helps a lot. I have a 50l but brew mostly with the short malt pipe and sometimes with the long malt pipe. I will use your figures now as a starting point and start to pay more attention to my own measurements in more brews.

Right now i am trying to fine tune my beersmith settings to get it more accurate.

[Lylo]

Hey Dicko, could you save me a lot of measuring an weighing? I have always used 1cm/liter as my measurement. Is that close?

[Sladek789]

Digging up that post as it is exactly the explanation why Beersmith was always giving me too much sparge water for my BM50. I have spent my 10 last brews playing with all Beersmith volume parameters to understand where the error was coming from.... it was a total failure until I looked at the grain absorption!

Not using the BIAB mashing check box (as I sparge), the standard grain absortpion was too high, changing it to 0.70 instead of 0.96 made it right.... sad that I could not find that post earlier.

Now it is back to the top for others to see too!