BIAB-specific effiency calcs

JimFisher

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BF seems to be geared to the 3-teir conventional brewer. I'd like to see more BIAB-specific features. For example, why must I enter both a "mash complete" and "preboil gravity"? They are the same thing in BIAB. There are at 1 or 2 additional gravity calculations that are unnecessary/duplicates for us BIABers but I can't remember what those are at the moment.

The "Mash calculator" in the recipe builder is quite confusing for new-ish AG brewers. Since I BIAB, I do not need to see options for "mash thickness." I only need volume. There were a couple of occasions where I clicked "volume" instead of mash thickness and neglected to change the volume to full BIAB (7-ish gallons versus 3-ish) resulting in a strike water requirement of 168 which is way too high. Early on, I was ignorant enough to simply follow the calculation which resulted in a couple of stuck fermentations.

BF ought to have some sort of option to simply remove all non-BIAB options for those of us who BIAB.

Also, I'd love to have a way of permanently adding brew steps to all recipes, globally. For example, I can make an entry for individual recipes to "insert stir paddle" (I use a paint stirrer to chill wort faster) at the same time that I insert my immersion chiller to sterilize. I forget to do that every other brew.

Oh, and if you guys could get the brew sessions to synch between the Android app and website, that would be cool. That hasn't worked for me for months now.

Thanks!
 
For BIAB you can just enter the volume into FV and gravity and it'll still give you a brew house efficiency % .

For adding / deleting steps I'd like to see that as well but I seldom even use the feature , I just set a timer on my phone and do other things while mash does its thing
 
I use mash efficiency and brew house efficiency there jim fisher the rest are like pointers for me to see if I'm on track to acieve certain efficiency throughout the brew session. Once you've gone through a few brew sessions using the same equipment and volumes the Brewers friend step by step brew session prompts aren't as important. I don't use grain temp and strike temp calculator as much when mashing in Now. I know at this time of year with grain at ambient temperature the mash is only going to drop 1c after mash in so I just monitor strike temp like that.

The big ones are your volumes and dead spaces working all of them out is the quickest way to dial in your equipment profile take notes of everything and dont rely on your memory write it down or record it in Brewers friend note section. You can look back on these brew notes to help you perfect your craft:).

I Biab too by the way it's a simple straight forward brewing method that gives you satisfactory results without the big $ outlay that some systems can cost. Enjoy your brewing it sure is rewarding when you can taste your success :D.
 
Oh, I've got the hang of it now. About 30 brew sessions under my belt. But it took that long for me to really grasp everything. So, these kinds of tweaks for BIAB folks would decrease the learning curve.
 
I do BIAB exclusively. My only brew day entry is brew day complete. I only care about the efficiency and ABV calculations. I get both of those with that.
 
The only reason to check all values is if you're tracing where you're losing efficiency , like a pre boil gravity / volume will help you determine mash numbers and ensure you use correct grain absorption numbers
brew day complete is very useful but rest are mostly pointless for a BIABer unless you are having problems
 

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