Converting my BIAB recipes to Grainfather

[Jomay]

Hello again

I have a load of BIAB recipes, most if not all designed in BIABacus. I want to convert them to recipes for the Grainfather. Anyone had this problem and got a simple solution?
I would guess that I could convert with commercial progs, and it may be possible within BIABacus but I thought I would ask here first before putting the time effort and money into anything

Thanks for any replies - John

[aamcle]

The GF website has a calculator that should meet your needs.


Aamcle

[Jomay]

Thanks for the reply aamcle

I have looked at the GF website. The recipes section seemed to me just to allow you to enter a recipe, not to actually calculate anything. The calculations section is just simple calculations of a few things, it seems to me that changing amounts of water will change ABVs and bitterness etc and there are no calculations that take this into consideration, or am I missing a section or something?

Best Wishes - Jn

[aamcle]

Are you planning to change the size of the batch? I suppose you must be of there would not be an issue, BeerSmith has a profile for a GF and should be able to compensate for changes to ABV and IBUs.

The GF calculator is basic just sparge and mash volumes, Oh and I should point out that it's wrong it miscalculates the volume retained but the grain but that's easy enough to allow for.


Last time I used BS it was displaying warnings about the temperature of the water added to the mash to raise the mash temperature, it doesn't seem to realise that the GF heats the mash it's self. However I believe it works!


Atb. Aamcle

[Secla]

I found my grainfather got around 80% efficiency so I'd just adjust grainbill for whatever efficiency you got from your biab

[Jomay]

Thanks for the replys

I dont have beersmith so am not familiar with it. On another thread Daves has indicated the formula for sparge water that is better than the GF one. I think I did not exactly explain my problem. I have a load of recipes than were calculated with BIABacus, this prog calcs all the brewing quantities for BIAB ers I suspect just like Beersmith does, but kettle size, dead spaces efficiencies etc etc are different for the GF, as well as the sparging (non in BIAB). I guess I was hoping for too much, I need to recalculate them all for GF specific parameters, was just hoping someone had had the same problem and could either give a simple conversion or perhaps point me in the right direction. I expect I will just have to recalculate them all

Best Wishes - Jn

[Dave S]

I would advise downloading BS 3, you can use it for 21 days free then if you like it you can buy a licence. As aamcle said BS has a built in profile for the GF, though I had to tweak it a bit to suit.

[Jomay]

Hello Dave S

Yes it looks as if I will have to put my hand in my pocket and get the BS. Apart from the parting with the money I would expect the BS to be a fairly complex prog and need a load of effort (both in time and mental effort) to manipulate it. Was hoping to avoid that. Are you willing to mention what tweaks you have made ?
V Best Wishes - Jn

[alexlark]

When I had my BS key it was cheaper to get it via brewadelaide.com. Might be worth a look

[Dave S]

Hello Dave S

Yes it looks as if I will have to put my hand in my pocket and get the BS. Apart from the parting with the money I would expect the BS to be a fairly complex prog and need a load of effort (both in time and mental effort) to manipulate it. Was hoping to avoid that. Are you willing to mention what tweaks you have made ?
V Best Wishes - Jn

From memory I think I just changed the amount lost to trub and hops from 2L to 2.5L and set the boil-off of 3L to an hourly rate. I think everything else was left as is, aprt from brew length, my default is 27L, not 23. In terms of complexity, the application is quite complex but only if you use all of its features. I tend to use the recipe builder, (obviously) the inventory and the notes field. They are pretty easy to get your head around. Cost-wise, compared to many applications it is pretty cheap IMO if you are getting good value out of it.