Biab Beer Designer Spreadsheet

[tomdavis]

Sexcel?

Hi Ian,

Have only joined this forum over the last week or two. If you would like help in sexing this up I am pretty good at excel. Not as sex in excel but making it very easy to navigate etc.

 

[solipsist]

Hi Ian,

Have only joined this forum over the last week or two. If you would like help in sexing this up I am pretty good at excel. Not as sex in excel but making it very easy to navigate etc.

Sounds like some good intentions - but my experiences tell me that it can be very difficult to sex up a spreadsheet without losing key functionality or changing the way people have gotten used to using it, particularly if you are not the original designer with knowledge of how the spreadsheet evolved. Having said that, open sourcing and progress are also good!

 

[ianh]

Hi Glomp

Welcome to the forum. Feel free its not protected.

I am away for 2 weeks.

cheers

Ian

edit one thing I have been asked for is extra hop values.

 

[mattyg8]

After visiting grape and grain brew in a bag demo im looking forward to using this spread sheet...loved using you kit one.

Seen as I have a 40L crown urn concealed element its safe to say I should be able to leave everything in biab setup page the same as yours?

 

[ianh]

After visiting grape and grain brew in a bag demo im looking forward to using this spread sheet...loved using you kit one.

Seen as I have a 40L crown urn concealed element its safe to say I should be able to leave everything in biab setup page the same as yours?

Hi mattyg8

Yes you should be able to do initially, but you should look to working out values for your set up. I am still making slight adjustments to my values after 150 brews.

 

[spires]

Hi Ian
I am new to the forum and BIAB but have used your kits and bits spreadsheet many times. I have the same set up you use but no chill into some old 17 litre fresh wort cubes. My question is how do I account for 4 litres of top up water I add to my fermenter to give 21 litres. Can I calculate ingredient additions using 21 litre ferment volume and then change to 17 litre to get water volumes and temperatures.

 

[ianh]

Hi spires and welcome to the forum. I use a 40L crown urn, if you do then wondering why you are using 17 litre cubes rather than a 20 litre (which hold about 24litre), seems a lot of mucking about to me.

On the spreadsheet use 21 litres for the recipe then change to 17 litres for the volumes and temps. You will need to take an SG of the 17litres for efficiency calculation then another SG for your 21litres for the fermentation.
Should work, your IBU will be slightly lower because of the higher wort SG.

 

[spires]

Thanks Ian
I plan on getting some 20 litre cubes but had some old fresh wort cubes around and thought I could put them to use. Do you know which 20 litre cube is the best for hot wort storage?

 

[ianh]

I use the blue Willow ones http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online-store/products/Willow-Water-Carry-Can-Blue-20-Litre.aspx?pid=13453#Recommendations

There are a number of threads on AHB just search for no chill cubes.

 

[spires]

Thank you for your help - will pick one up on the weekend.
One final question (?) - what do you set your ferment volume at for these cubes and is it easy to expel air if the cube isnt full.

 

[ianh]

I have my volume to fermenter set at 23 litres and trub losses set at 3.0 litres (I take out 1.5 litres for a yeast starter) which gives me about 24.5 litres at end of boil to go into cube. Takes about 24litres to fill the cube. I then leave about a litre in the cube when I transfer to the fermenter, I have the cube on an angle and just drain it, leaves about a litre.

I rack to secondary and cold condition this gives me 22 litres of packaged beer (19 litre keg plus 2 x 1.5 litre bottles).

 

[stux]

Easy to expel all air from these cubes too, just put jerry against wall, put towel on knee, tilt cube back so cap is horizontal, lean into cube with knee and undo cap a bit. Redo cap when liquid comes out.

 

[ridge runner]

@ what point in the brew day do u take the 1.5L out for the starter? Pre boil ,mash ,post boil ?

 

[ianh]

@ what point in the brew day do u take the 1.5L out for the starter? Pre boil ,mash ,post boil ?

Post Boil, I put some of the wort into the cube then 500ml in a flask for the starter and another 1L into a container then continue to fill the cube. After the yeast starter has been fermenting for 24 hours the 1L has been added and fermented for a further 72 hours the starter is then stored at 1C till needed.

 

[ridge runner]

Cheers ianh

 

[Dae Tripper]

Ianh, have you thought about making a 3V version? The kit and biab ones have been super helpful but 3ving with the biab software is getting a bit difficult. I tried the Brewers Friend one and it can't comprehend a -5min nochill hop addition, super lame.

 

[Mat B]

Hi ianh. Great spreadsheet!

I'm using a 'keggle' made from a stainless steel keg as my brew vessel. Shout I be selecting 'pot' as my vessel on the BIAB tab, then adding my specific diameter?

Cheers,

Mat

 

[ianh]

Hi ianh. Great spreadsheet!

I'm using a 'keggle' made from a stainless steel keg as my brew vessel. Shout I be selecting 'pot' as my vessel on the BIAB tab, then adding my specific diameter?

Cheers,

Mat

Thanks Mat B. Because a keggle does not have straight sides you would have to work out the height for volume. But if you brew similar beers then could measure the diameter at that water level and use that as a pot diameter. Not sure how it will work but you give it a try.

 

[Mat B]

That's a good idea! I'll do just that. Cheers!

 

[Waratah67]

Hi Ian, My spreadsheet won't allow me to save new recipes. I get an error: "can't find project or library". appreciate any advice