Absorption General

Introduction

How Do You Calculate Grain Absorption using absorption general?

This equation computes the absorption of 1 cm of a beer with "average spectral characteristics" (average meaning the average of the absorption spectra of the ensemble of 99 beers) at wavelength lambda.

Click Here To calculate absorption general

Background

Nowadays there are calculators for everything, so even the very best homebrewers don’t really understand the math behind calculations for things like grain absorption.

Of course, that’s perfectly fine and you can have a very happy career as a homebrewer without ever needing to understand this.

The general consensus among brewers is that the average grain absorption rate is 1 pint of water per pound of grain (1 liter/ kilogram). However, it’s important to be aware that many factors influence the rate of absorption & each brewer may experience a variation in their own home brewery. 

What is grain absorption exactly? Ok, first thing first, what do we mean by grain absorption and when does it happen?

In brewing, grain absorption is a term used to describe when the malt grains we are using during all-grain brewing takes on some of the water used during the mashing process.

The grain, because of its structure, can suck up a relatively large amount of water and so the bigger your grain bill the larger your grain absorption rate will be.

This is something you need to account for in your overall recipe and brewing calculations.

Equipment Needed

You don’t need a large set of fancy and expensive equipment to brew your first batch of beer. Many brewing supply stores sell starter kits for $75 or less. If you are interested in pursuing the hobby long term, a deluxe brewing kit can be found for less than $150. A number of online stores will even ship the equipment and ingredients directly to your door. It can cost even less if you borrow some or all the equipment from a friend. Here’s a quick summary of what is needed:

A Large Pot – at least 3 gallons in size, though a larger one will generally result in fewer spills

Tubing & Clamp – to siphon and bottle the beer- A 6 foot section of 3/8″ ID food grade plastic tubing will work. Clamps are available at your brew store

An Airtight Fermenting Bucket – a 5 gal plastic bucket with lid, or a glass carboy. If you can afford it, purchase a glass carboy as they are easier to keep sanitized and don’t leak. If you get a carboy you may need a large bottle brush to clean it

An Air Lock and Stopper – sized to fit your fermenter

A Bottle Filler – available from your homebrew supplier – should be sized to fit on the end of your siphon tubing

A Thermometer – A floating thermometer with a range of 0-100 C or up from 32-220 F

Bottles – You need just over 2 cases in 12 oz bottles to bottle 5 gallons of beer. Do not use twist-off bottles – use high quality bottles that require a bottle opener.

Bottle Brush – While not absolutely required, you usually need a small brush to get your bottles clean

A Bottle Capper – a hand driven device to cap your bottles also available from your homebrew store

Bottle Caps – New bottle caps sold at your brewing supplier – you need about 50 caps for a 5 gal batch

A Sanitizing solution – Beer is prone to infection, so everything must be sanitized before use. Household bleach can be used, but it must be thoroughly rinsed to prevent contamination. Your brew store may have alternatives such as iodophor and starsan.

Ingredients Needed

The list below assumes you want to brew 5 gallons of a simple ale. You can use BeerSmith to formulate your own recipe or download recipes from our recipe page if you are looking for a different style.

6 lbs of Unhopped Pale Malt Extract – Usually this comes in cans that are around 3 lbs each. Malt provides the sweet base that the yeast will feed on to make alcohol. Available from various manufacturers. Dry malt extract is an acceptable alternative.

2.25 Oz of East Kent Goldings Hops – Hops add bitterness to your beer. Pellets are most common and easy to store. Keep your unused hops in the freezer in airtight bags.

1 Package of Wyeast American Ale liquid Yeast (#1056) [ or White Labs California Ale #WLP001 ]. Liquid yeast gives very high quality beer.

2/3 cup Priming Sugar – such as corn sugar. Also available from your brew store or grocer.

An Overview of the Brewing Process

Brewing consists of five simple stages.

Brewing the Beer – Pale malt extract and hops are boiled together with water for about an hour to sterilize the extract and release the bittering qualities of the hops. Frequently grains are steeped in the mixture prior to the boil to add additional color and flavor complexity.

Cooling and Fermenting – The hot mixture (called wort) is cooled to room temperature and siphoned or transferred to a fermenter where it is combined with additional water to achieve the desired 5 gallon batch size. Once the mixture drops to room temperature, yeast is added to start the fermentation process. Cleanliness and sanitation are very important since the wort can be easily infected by bacteria in this state. An airlock is used to keep the fermenter sealed during fermentation. Your beer will ferment for 1-2 weeks.

Priming and Bottling – Once the beer is fully fermented, it is siphoned to another container to prepare for bottling. Here priming sugars such as corn sugar sugar are mixed with the beer. The beer is siphoned into bottles and each bottle is capped with a bottle capping device.

Aging – Once the beer has been bottled it needs to age for 2-6 weeks. During aging the yeast will ferment the remaining sugar you added and create carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide will naturally carbonate your beer so it is nice and bubbly. In addition, undesirable sediments such as excess yeast and proteins will drop out of the beer during aging and this will enhance the flavor of your beer. In may take several months to reach peak flavor, though homemade beer usually drinkable after a month.

Drinking – When the beer is properly aged – just put the bottles in the fridge and enjoy! There’s nothing quite like a great beer that you made yourself.

This is the five step process for making your own beer. The brewing portion takes a few hours, and bottling and transferring take another hour+ spread out over a few weeks.

Overall, brewing a batch of extract beer involves 3-4 hours of your time and about 4 weeks to ferment and age into a drinkable brew. This makes home brewing an attractive hobby for people who lead a busy lifestyle, but enjoy making things from scratch.

Reference

http://beersmith.com/blog/2009/01/10/how-to-brew-beer-5-steps-for-making-beer-at-home-part-1/

https://beercreation.com/calculate-grain-absorption/