Help with Q-Brew

[mrbill]

Hi Guys !
Sorry been very busy working and brewing beer.
Have brewed 5, bottled 4, and drinking 3.
Sorry but this might be a long ass post. (whats new if ya remember me from Mr. Beer Fans )

Using Q-Brew. My question is what do you set the batch size at ? Pre Boil volume, or the amount of wort you put into the fermenter ?
I ask because this last beer I made after 2 weeks still had decent krausen and bubbles coming up .
I have never had a beer ferment like this after 2 weeks. It did go Phucking crazy for 10 days, had to put a blow off tube on it .
Just seems like my numbers are way off with what my senses are telling me about the beer.
I bottled #4 right before I attempted to bottle this one. My gravity readings have been almost spot on with what Q-Brew tells me they should be,
But I suspect my batch size is not correct. As all my beers to date since getting back into this have "seemed" much stronger ABV than Q-Brew is
telling me.

Here is the recipie since I know someone will ask.
Pale #5
-------
Brewer: Bill and Cort
Style: Blonde Ale
Batch: 4.60 galAll Grain

Characteristics
---------------
Recipe Gravity: 1.055 OG
Recipe Bitterness: 9 IBU
Recipe Color: 5° SRM
Estimated FG: 1.014
Alcohol by Volume: 5.3%
Alcohol by Weight: 4.2%

Ingredients
-----------
American two-row 8.00 lb, Grain, Mashed
Crystal 10L 1.00 lb, Grain, Mashed

Hallertauer 0.25 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes
nelson saviougn 4gr 0.14 oz, Pellet, 60 minutes

safe ale #05 1.00 unit, Other,

Notes
-----
Recipe Notes:
OG=1.053 ???
153 mash 1 hour
4/5/2016
yeast pitched @66*


Batch Notes:

----------------------------

To date the first 3 beers have been most wonderful, actually the 3 best I have made ever.
All have been AG. All very tasty !

Thanks for any help.

[HerbMeowing]

Most apps set batch size to the amount you expect to package.

ScrewyBrewer should know.
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3663
http://www.thescrewybrewer.com/2014/11/ ... assic.html

[RickBeer]

Right. And if you match OG and FG, batch is set right.

[MrBandGuy]

They have you covered. But I will throw in that if you want to double check things, I've been using Brewtoad for quite a while. I've been pretty happy with it, and it's all online. And free.

[mashani]

They told you right. I'll just say that if your OG and FG are right on, then your ABV is what it says... If your FG is lower then expected and/or OG is higher then expected, then that changes things... actual batch size is irrelevant in that way if your OG/FG numbers are spot on (except that you got lucky to hit them and you made more or less beer).

What batch size will affect regardless of OG/FG, is IBUs, perceived bitterness, flavor, aroma, etc. Volume and those things have a correlation that is partially independent of the OG/FG.

[ScrewyBrewer]

When setting my batch size it is higher than my packaged beer volume, let me explain. With my brewing system there is always some wort loss, mostly because of the way I choose to clear my beer. About three quarters of a gallon of cold break trub is left in my kettle after transferring the wort to the fermentors. Another half gallon of wort is left behind in the pump, chiller, tubing and lost to spillage. In the end I rack 10.50 gallons to the fermentors, I use two so each gets 5.25 gallons of wort, and that gives me enough beer to fill two 5 gallon kegs.

00.75 gallons - Kettle Trub Loss
00.50 gallons - Tubing/Pump Loss
10.50 gallons - Fermentor Volume
---------------------------------
11.75 gallons - Post Boil Volume

With qBrew I set the batch size to 11.75 gallons and then add in the grain and hop amounts to hit my target gravity and BU:GU ratio for the recipe. Using a mash efficiency of 70% in qBrew, and measuring the post boil volume accurately, produces wort that is a few points higher than qBrew calculated. If I were to adjust the mash efficiency setting to 74% or so the calculated and actual original gravity numbers would be the same, as long as the grain crush and mash times remained the same too.

Using Q-Brew. My question is what do you set the batch size at ? Pre Boil volume, or the amount of wort you put into the fermenter ?

My answer would be neither, I set my batch size to my post boil volume. I hope this helps.

[MadBrewer]

Using Q-Brew. My question is what do you set the batch size at ? Pre Boil volume, or the amount of wort you put into the fermenter ?

My answer would be neither, I set my batch size to my post boil volume. I hope this helps.

I have always done the same, with the software I use I prefer to set the batch size to the volume I will have at the end of the boil. I do not really understand the other ways. I figure regardless of what goes into my fermenter, I still have X amount with a certain SRM, IBU and OG at the end of the boil. To me, that is my batch size. It just seems to make more sense for me. I'm not saying this is how Qbrew is based, I no longer use the program...just my thinking.

[mashani]

QBrew is very simple and calculates the IBUs based on the batch size (volume) you enter. So that means the number you enter should represent the FINAL volume.

QBrew has no concept of your boil off rate - it can't tell you what your original volume should be like more sophisticated software. It's a very simple program.

[mrbill]

Thank You all.

[MadBrewer]

QBrew is very simple and calculates the IBUs based on the batch size (volume) you enter. So that means the number you enter should represent the FINAL volume.

QBrew has no concept of your boil off rate - it can't tell you what your original volume should be like more sophisticated software. It's a very simple program.

Thats why unless you can input that info, I figured the basic programs would use your post boil volume as batch size. Im not arguing here just something I have never wrapped my head around.

[ScrewyBrewer]

Without first enlisting the help of a BIAB calculator, before entering a recipe into qBrew, the odds of successfully hitting your OG and your volume are staked against you. Although I prefer to use ezBIAB Calculator there are other free calculators available that make brewing on any sized BIAB system a piece of cake. Once your system has been dialed in for a particular sized batch of beer you never have to run the calculations again, unless for instance you decide to use a different size kettle.

When you know the total combined volume of trub loss, hop and grain absorption, boil off, fermentor loss and spillage it's also possible to accurately predict the total brewing water volume needed on brewday. As noted previously predicting post boil volume is essential, but equally important is knowing how your system performs under typical brewing conditions. Things like boil off rate and kettle tub loss and dead space should remain consistent based on the length of the boil.

Recipes do tend to vary by hop and grain weight, which then changes their wort absorption rate a bit, but calculating the absorption rate is easy to do. Mash thickness is important too, especially when attempting to coax the most efficiency from your grain, as most BIAB brewers will tell you. Anyhow I'm planning to brew on Saturday and currently daydreaming online about how much fun it will be. First choice is a Belgian Witbier, if not then an IPA, depending on which yeast the LHBS has in stock. Either way, I'm looking forward to spending the entire day in the brewroom, it's a great way to decompress after a long week.

[bpgreen]

QBrew is very simple and calculates the IBUs based on the batch size (volume) you enter. So that means the number you enter should represent the FINAL volume.

QBrew has no concept of your boil off rate - it can't tell you what your original volume should be like more sophisticated software. It's a very simple program.

My biggest complaint about qbrew is that it only knows one way to calculate IBUs. And it just doesn't work if you do stovetop late extract addition brewing (like me). It assumes you always do a full volume boil with all of your malt for the full boil.

[mashani]

RE: IBUs: QBrew does know Tinseth. You have to go to Options/Configure/Calculations, and there is a check box for it. You can also configure your efficiency there.

RE: Late addition: What I do to guess IBUs, is put in any true bittering hops (anything over say T-20) with the boil gravity (not ultimate gravity after the late addition), write that down, then add the rest of the malt, and figure/write down the difference in the two numbers. Then add the rest of the hops. And then add back in the difference to figure about what I'll really get.

But I don't stress about it too much since I figure the AAUs of our hops lie anyways (they number on the package is only really accurate when the hops were freshly packaged, unless they were in deep freeze the entire time before you got them, and you put them back into deep freeze as soon as you got them).

Hop Union and other places list degradation amounts at certain temps for various hop strains, so you can try to guess, but we really don't know how our hops were stored for the most part before we got them.

You might be an exception since you grow your own if you have them tested and then freeze them. I don't know if you do that or not.

[bpgreen]

I don't test my home grown hops.

I just use the default that's in Beersmith. If my beer is too sweet, I'll increase the next batch. If it's too bitter, I'll decrease.