New Grain Bill Estimator

[Uncle Jesse]

A work in progress. Looking for comments and suggestions.

https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... pe_Builder

[PalCabral]

A work in progress. Looking for comments and suggestions.

https://homedistiller.org/wiki/index.ph ... pe_Builder

This is excellent, UJ. I just cross-checked it against one of my own mashes I've done, and it matches on the spot! Your PPG values are seems to be correct and the rest of the caalculation perfect.

[PalCabral]

If I was to add anything here it is just to add cracked corn as a selectable grain from the list, as it has significantly lower PPG than cornmeal, flaked corn and milled corn?

Edit: Maybe also add unmalted barley and unmalted wheat to the list grains? The unmalted rye is there, would be good to have it for barley and wheat as well.

[Uncle Jesse]

OK, added a couple types of corn. Also now you can select between a cooked mash or a sugarhead.

Also now gives some notes for each ingredient.

[subbrew]

If final volume could be a calculated value it would help. I really don't know my final volume as it is in an unmarked barrel. I know the grain weight I put in and the volume of water but any entry of final volume by me is a guess.

[PalCabral]

If final volume could be a calculated value it would help. I really don't know my final volume as it is in an unmarked barrel. I know the grain weight I put in and the volume of water but any entry of final volume by me is a guess.

You could just measure the barrel out and put little scratches for different gallon level Oh sorry, you didn't actually ask for a solution did you? My wife keeps telling me to keep my solutions to myself... Maybe I should listen more to her?

[subbrew]

You could just measure the barrel out and put little scratches for different gallon level Oh sorry, you didn't actually ask for a solution did you? My wife keeps telling me to keep my solutions to myself... Maybe I should listen more to her?

That I could if I really cared that much. The real reason for the comment was for people that might be pushing the limit of the fermenter. It would be nice to have an idea ahead of time if that 20 lb or grain and 7.5 gal of water is going to fit in my 10 gallon fermenter. It is a calculation that beersmith makes that I have found handy when trying for a big beer and pushing the limit if my mash tun.

[PalCabral]

You could just measure the barrel out and put little scratches for different gallon level Oh sorry, you didn't actually ask for a solution did you? My wife keeps telling me to keep my solutions to myself... Maybe I should listen more to her?

That I could if I really cared that much. The real reason for the comment was for people that might be pushing the limit of the fermenter. It would be nice to have an idea ahead of time if that 20 lb or grain and 7.5 gal of water is going to fit in my 10 gallon fermenter. It is a calculation that beersmith makes that I have found handy when trying for a big beer and pushing the limit if my mash tun.

[scubatech]

Maybe the option to use percentages instead of pounds of grains.

And I use quite a bit of different specialty malts like crystal 120 or special B.

[Uncle Jesse]

If final volume could be a calculated value it would help. I really don't know my final volume as it is in an unmarked barrel. I know the grain weight I put in and the volume of water but any entry of final volume by me is a guess.

this is tough because absorption % isn't hard and fast, so i did my best using .12 gallons/pound.

[Uncle Jesse]

Maybe the option to use percentages instead of pounds of grains.

And I use quite a bit of different specialty malts like crystal 120 or special B.

Grain bill by % is a great idea.

In the mean time, I added your specialty malts.

Keep the ideas coming guys. Trying to build the best, most practical grain bill calc I can.

[subbrew]

Perhaps I was using it wrong as I didn't get anything for final gravity or final volume when I didn't add a total volume - uPDATE - never mind, I see the tool has been updated. Thank you.

[Uncle Jesse]

Updated again. Have at it.

[subbrew]

Really nice. Part of above was my misunderstanding. I read final volume as final mash volume going into the fermenter, not the beer volume, post fermentation.

I put a couple of my recipes through it and using the mop bucket squeeze I ended up with changing grain absorption to 6% to make the volume I see match. I also had to use the conservative mash efficiency value to match my numbers. part of that is I usually use 35 points as the potential gravity on most of my grain calculations. I suspect feed grain (which I used for corn) might be a bit lower in potential as well.

[Yonder]

Really great calc, UJ. Spot on by my figurin’.
Thankyou

[Uncle Jesse]

For every ingredient option, I've tried to be as accurate as possible. This includes taking published data from Briess, Weyermann etc. and using their data to calculate PPG. Issue was that for many ingredients, PPG is a range, not a completely predictable number. The Grain Bill Estimator now has the upper and lower PPG values for each ingredient, and shows in the Estimated Results which ranges you should expect.

I'm not saying it's perfect. I need folks to check these values against real-world experiences, but it should be pretty close.

estimated_results.png

[Username]

Nice work UJ, I'm in awe of the work you put in!
Any chance of adding a Single malt or all malt whiskey option?

[Uncle Jesse]

Nice work UJ, I'm in awe of the work you put in!
Any chance of adding a Single malt or all malt whiskey option?

added a scotch-style entry as well as a couple rum entries just for folks wanting to start with sane default values.

[PalCabral]

Awesome, UJ. Really great.

[PalCabral]

UJ, would it be possible to add the expected DP to the results of the mash bill? I think this would be really useful for everyone using corn and other non-malted grains.

[amh71]

Used it today, really useful. Thanks UJ.

Not sure if possible for the various types of grain etc but an estimate of final volume for on grain ferments as well as strained/squeezed would be fantastic.

I often end up playing fermenter roulette.

[Uncle Jesse]

UJ, would it be possible to add the expected DP to the results of the mash bill? I think this would be really useful for everyone using corn and other non-malted grains.

Give it a try.

dp.png

[Uncle Jesse]

Used it today, really useful. Thanks UJ.

Not sure if possible for the various types of grain etc but an estimate of final volume for on grain ferments as well as strained/squeezed would be fantastic.

I often end up playing fermenter roulette.

This is difficult because I try to stick to variables which can be verified. Does anyone know where I can find verified grain absorption values? I'm sure each type has a different value, but I'm not immediately aware of any published figures.

[amh71]

I've googled previously but all I could find related to beer so mainly talking about malt rather than grains in general and I guess they will all vary.

For beer brewers the rule of thumb seems to be 1lb of malt added to 1qt of water will need 1.32qt of volume.

[PalCabral]

Looks good with the DP, UJ, but I found a bug. When you add a 4th ingredient, it doesnt add the 4th ingredient's weight to the total in the result list.

[Uncle Jesse]

Looks good with the DP, UJ, but I found a bug. When you add a 4th ingredient, it doesnt add the 4th ingredient's weight to the total in the result list.

Try it now.

[PalCabral]

Looks good with the DP, UJ, but I found a bug. When you add a 4th ingredient, it doesnt add the 4th ingredient's weight to the total in the result list.

Try it now.

Work! Honestly, I think it may have been user error from my part!

[Uncle Jesse]

Looks good with the DP, UJ, but I found a bug. When you add a 4th ingredient, it doesnt add the 4th ingredient's weight to the total in the result list.

Try it now.

Work! Honestly, I think it may have been user error from my part!

nope, using the wrong variables on my end.

[Uncle Jesse]

Updates:

This estimator is now a mostly-functional recipe builder and has been renamed:

Grain Bill Estimator & Recipe Builder

Why? It now allows you to save/load/delete recipes. You must be logged into the forum to do this, to prevent spammers from abusing it.

It also has a notes section so if you use it to develop recipes, you can enter your notes and save the recipe and they will be preserved over time.

Next step, in the near future, will be allowing users who have a certain number of posts to publish their recipe, which will add it to the wiki and make the recipe public.

Please try it out and let me know what you think, especially if you have suggestions for improvement.

[zach]

Thanks Jesse!

I tried it on a bourbon I recently fermented.

It took me a few minutes to figure out if fermenting and distilling on grain that I enter 0 water absorption, since I am not losing any water to squeezing. I never know how much water I add to batch, just the total volume once the fermenter is at the targeted volume.