amount of water needed

[ipa-drinker]

hi folks
just started doing biab kits about four months now
done three brew so far
how do you workout the amount of water needed.as I was short on two brews and way over on the other brew
thanks for any help on this

[darren996]

I use a calculator such as
Biabcalculator.com or beersmith

To get accurate gravity readings and the amount of water you need know the weight of your grain, the batch size you want to transfer to the fermenter. You need to work out the losses that occur  in your process.

Losses include

Grain absorption
Boil off per hour
Hop absorption
Kettle trub left in your kettle after cooling and transfer to fv.

Have a look at the calculator and mess around with the variables

[DEMPSEY]

Most of us on here are using Beersmith as it is the mutt's nutt's but you could use http://biabcalculator.com/. What I would suggest is take lots of notes for each brew time and N.B. any fook ups so that later you can review and eventually hone in your own brew process.

[ipa-drinker]

Many thanks for the help
im ding a brew on friday so will see if I can get it right
from where I was short to where I was way over
so will get it inbetween them if I am lucky
but thanks one again guys

[ipa-drinker]

well just finished my brew and I was 4ltr over so was not to bad this time

[SprocketFuel]

I'll be doing my first biab this weekend,  am I right in thinking it would be better to be under than over with water.  Better to top up than have waste? 

[Shanna]

I'll be doing my first biab this weekend,  am I right in thinking it would be better to be under than over with water.  Better to top up than have waste?

If your over you can increase the boil time to further concentrate the wort by boiling off water. If your going to lengthen your boil time I would advise you adjust the times you add your hops accordingly as it will increase the bitterness and or reduce the aroma from aroma hops. A longer boil time takes longer but its not going to run the risk of introducing something by topping it up with cold water unless that cold water is preboiled and chilled in a sanitary fashion.

Shanna