Observation

I’ve done two batches of the red ale (which I wrote up one run-through of) and I’m pretty happy with the flavour, but one thing that has vexed me is the quantity. I ended up with about 17L of beer at the end of the last batch, where I was expecting something closer to 25L. 

Hypothesis

I think that if I play with the Brewer’s Friend website, I can increase the final yield without altering the flavour too much. 

Method

I entered the ingredients used in the last batch into Brewer’s Friend, as shown below.

HOME BREW RECIPE: Title: Niall’s Take on Ruabeoir v1 Author: Designing Great Beers

Brew Method: Extract Style Name: Irish Red Ale Boil Time: 60 min Batch Size: 21.25 liters (ending kettle volume) Boil Size: 25 liters Boil Gravity: 1.038 Efficiency: 35% (steeping grains only)

STATS: Original Gravity: 1.044 Final Gravity: 1.013 ABV (standard): 4.16% IBU (tinseth): 23.34 SRM (daniels): 14.02

FERMENTABLES: 3 kg - Liquid Malt Extract - Maris Otter (87.7%)

STEEPING GRAINS: 0.16 kg - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.7%) 0.16 kg - American - Caramel / Crystal 120L (4.7%) 0.1 kg - German - De-Husked Caraf I (2.9%)

HOPS: 35 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 5.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 23.34

YEAST: White Labs - Irish Ale Yeast WLP004 Starter: No Form: Liquid Attenuation (avg): 71.5% Flocculation: Med-High Optimum Temp: 18.33 - 20 C Fermentation Temp: 20 C Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

TARGET WATER PROFILE: Profile Name: Balanced Profile Ca2: 80 Mg2: 5 Na: 25 Cl: 75 SO4: 80 HCO3: 100 Water Notes:

Generated by Brewer’s Friend - https://www.brewersfriend.com/ Date: 2018-10-11 11:03 UTC  Recipe Last Updated: 2018-10-11 11:03 UTC

I then discovered the “scale” feature in Brewer’s Friend, as well as the ability to set the batch size to “fermenter” rather than “kettle”, i.e. the amount of wort that makes it to the fermenter rather than the volume left in the kettle, which would include any hops or other solids. I used the “scale” feature to increase the target batch size to 25L, which created the new ingredients list below.

HOME BREW RECIPE: Title: Niall’s Take on Ruabeoir v1.01 Author: Designing Great Beers

Brew Method: Extract Style Name: Irish Red Ale Boil Time: 60 min Batch Size: 25 liters (fermentor volume) Boil Size: 28.75 liters Boil Gravity: 1.039 Efficiency: 35% (steeping grains only)

STATS: Original Gravity: 1.044 Final Gravity: 1.013 ABV (standard): 4.16% IBU (tinseth): 23.16 SRM (daniels): 14.1

FERMENTABLES: 3.53 kg - Liquid Malt Extract - Maris Otter (87.6%)

STEEPING GRAINS: 0.19 kg - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (4.7%) 0.19 kg - American - Caramel / Crystal 120L (4.7%) 0.12 kg - German - De-Husked Caraf I (3%)

HOPS: 41.18 g - East Kent Goldings, Type: Leaf/Whole, AA: 5.5, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 23.16

YEAST: White Labs - Irish Ale Yeast WLP004 Starter: No Form: Liquid Attenuation (avg): 71.5% Flocculation: Med-High Optimum Temp: 18.33 - 20 C Fermentation Temp: 20 C Pitch Rate: 0.35 (M cells / ml / deg P)

TARGET WATER PROFILE: Profile Name: Balanced Profile Ca2: 80 Mg2: 5 Na: 25 Cl: 75 SO4: 80 HCO3: 100 Water Notes:

Generated by Brewer’s Friend - https://www.brewersfriend.com/ Date: 2018-10-11 11:15 UTC  Recipe Last Updated: 2018-10-11 11:15 UTC

Results

I have no results at present, as further steps must be taken before following the brew plan.

EDIT: I did not need to scale up the recipe, as it turned out that I was not measuring volume accurately. See my post on calibration.

Discussion

The main difference between these recipes is the volume. The boil size is 28.75L vs 25L. The oher changes are just scaling up the weight of ingredients used. 

Further Questions

Before continuing, I need to answer the following.

  • Can the kettle actually hold the increased volume safely? EDIT: Probably not - I experienced boilover from a 25L boil after calibration!
  • Am I measuring volume accurately on the kettle and fermenter? (This will require me to calibrate this equipment) EDIT: No! See my post on calibration.
  • Where did I get the relationship between batch and boil size? I need to record this next time I do a batch, as it has a huge impact on the recipe. EDIT: In the batch that I did after calibration, the volume in the kettle vs the Fermenter was 25L vs 22L, meaning a loss of 3L