Malt Specs - Thomas Fawcett and Weyermann

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Gear Bod
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Hi all,

See attached, specs for all of the Thomas Fawcett malts:
View attachment Thomas Fawcett Malt Specs.pdf

And Weyermann:
http://www.weyermann.de/eng/produkte.asp?idkat=15&umenue=yes&idmenue=0&sprache=2
(click bottom right text, Specifications as PDF (zipped)

There are a number of important bits of info in these, with one being Extract percentage. This is info that should be entered into Beersmith/etc. to figure out your actual expected original gravity, and also your conversion efficiency. Although a lot may be 79-82%, if a malt is 65-75% this will make a significant difference to your OG/conversion measurement.

I picked this up recently as a conversion measurement was off - I measured SG of 1.042 for my first runnings, when I was expecting 1.051. It turns out my CaraBelge and Roast Barley were set far too high in Beersmith. After adjusting these to 73.9% and 68.5% my target SG was actually 1.042-1.043, so essentially 100% conversion as it should have been. :)

To work out what your target SG should be for your first runnings (useful to know if you are having efficiency problems or want to know conversion eff) go:
1. kg grain x 46 (potential of 100% sugar solution) x extract % (e.g. 68-82%) x 2.2 (to get to pounds)
2. Add these all up (should end up somehwere from 200-400 for a 19-23L batch size, obviously higher for bigger batches). This ends up being 'total points per pound'.
3. Divide this by your total added mash water in L x 3.8 (to get gallons), then divide by 1000 and add to 1. This is what your SG should be (temperature corrected) for your first runnings, i.e. before adding any sparge water. This is your total points per pound per gallon, i.e. the 1.037 that you see a lot.

This is obviously not essential to know for every brew, but is useful for troubleshooting efficiency problems - you should be getting 95-100% for each batch. It is also essential to put the correct extract into Beersmith/etc. to make sure your target original gravity is actually correct.
 
There is a single integrated equation that puts everything into one calculation (for each malt) and is in metric...

Required Grain Weight = {(Volume of Cool Wort) x S.G. X oP} / { (%Potential cg.db) (1-% Moisture) x (Brewhouse Efficiency) }

Volume of Cool Wort - The total volume at end of boil (at 20oC) (so boil volume times 96%)
%Potential cg.db - If we looked at the table for TF malts and were using the first malt Maris Otter, it would be the second column (80%)
1-% Moisture - ~3.5%, so yield is 93.5%
Brewhouse Efficiency - Well you need to do a couple of brews to know yours but lets say its 78%

If you wanted to make a SMASH Maris beer with an OG of 1.050, you want 23 L in the fermenter and your kettle loss is 2L
Mass Required would be = (25*1.050*12.5%) / (80%*93.5%*78%)

Just make sure you understand how to multiply %'s same as (number/100) so to expand the equation a bit, 12.5 oP is 12.5/100 or 0.125
Similarly for the bottom line of the equation (80%*93.5%*78%) the same as (80/100*93.5/100*78/100) or (0.8*0.935*0.78) = 0.58344
Mass Required = 25*1.050*0.125 / 0.58344 = 5.62 Kg

Piece of cake if you set it up in a spread sheet
Mark
 
I like. The irony is that these basic "first principles" calculations are probably more accurate than Beersmith - and just because the brackets are in the correct place.

Thanks, I like!
 
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