Designer

Design Your Own Beer!

This page provides a design worksheet, which, as you vary the amount of each grain and hop that you have chosen, will allow you to predict your finished beer’s colour, strength, how much water you will need, and bitterness. Any additional design notes may be entered in the Notes area. When you are happy with your design, the worksheet may be printed. Also, a link is provided to feed your design into a brewday log sheet. There is also a Save/Load button, which takes you to another page where you can save your recipe to your computer, or reload a previously saved recipe. Read on ….

Colour

In the table below, enter the name, weight (in kilograms) and SRM value for each grain type to be used in the mash. (When grain is purchased, the SRM value is usually provided. If the EBC value is given instead, the SRM value is half of the EBC value). The Beersmith website provides a useful table of SRM values for most grains and sugars. Alternatively, add a grain type from the drop-down menu, which will enter the SRM value automatically. Also enter the target final batch size (in litres). This will produce the SRM, EBC and Lovibond values, together with a handy indication of the expected colour!

Strength

This worksheet may also be used to predict the Original Gravity (OG) of your beer, and the resulting Final Gravity (FG) and Alcohol By Volume (ABV). If any additional sugar is to be used to raise the OG further, enter its name and weight in the “S” row (note, the sugar does not contribute to EBC colour). Enter the Points per Pound per Gallon (PPG) rating for each grain type below. There are several sources online for the PPG figure for each grain (and sugar) type, such as the Brewers Friend database. Enter the PPG figure in each case as a whole number. If you select the grain type from the drop-down menu, the PPG value will be entered automatically. Another contributory factor is the Brew House Efficiency percentage, which includes all of the losses of the system preceding the fermenter, including mashing, lautering, boiling, trub loss and transferring the finished wort to the fermenter. Typical Brew House Efficiency for a home system is in the range 70 to 75%. Enter the size of the batch (in litres) of wort that is expected to be transferred from the boiler into the fermenter. The difference between this figure and the target batch size is the amount that you expect to be lost during racking from primary to secondary, and during transfer to keg/bottles. The FG and ABV are dependent on the attenuation rate of the yeast to be used (usually between 65 and 80%), which should also be entered, along with the name of the yeast.

Water

For the purposes of calculating the amount of water (aka liquor) that will be required for both the mash and sparge stages, enter the desired mash thickness ie. the ratio of mash liquor (in litres) to the total grain bill (grist weight). This is usually between 2.5 and 3; the lower the ratio, the thicker the mash. Also enter the mash temperature and duration. In calculating the total amount of water (mash + sparge) required, the various ‘losses’ must be taken into account. These include the loss due to evaporation during the boil (in my experience this is about 4 litres for a 23 litre target batch size) and equipment loss (an estimate of how much wort is left in the boiler, plus how much beer is left in the fermenter, in my experience about 2 or 3 litres). Enter your estimate for the total of these losses.

Bitterness

The main bittering agent in a hop is its ‘alpha acid’. There are several sources online for the alpha acid figure for each hop type, such as the Brewers Friend database. The contribution to a beer’s bitterness of each hop added is a function of its weight (in grams), its alpha acid percentage value, and the amount of time it is present in the boil. Enter the relevant figures below, for each hop. Alternatively, ad a hop type from the drop-down menu, which will enter the alpha acid value automatically. For hops added at the flameout stage, enter FO for Boil Time. For hops added to the fermenter (ie. dry hops), enter DH for Boil Time. (Hops added at either of these 2 post-boil stages have little or no effect on bitterness). For hops added at the whirlpool stage, enter WP for Boil Time (to indicate a 20 minute whirlpool) and select the whirlpool temperature. Also enter the expected volume of the wort before the boil, and the duration of the boil. The overall predicted IBU value will then be shown.

Notes

Provide a description of the beer and notes about the recipe such as other ingredients, fermentation duration and temperature, and any special methods used. Avoid the use of apostrophes and new lines in the Notes section.

Add a grain to the worksheet:

Add a hop to the worksheet: