help with LME,flour and grain bill

[Thumpa]

okay fellas i have a couple of questions to ask and any help will be greatly appreciated as i am only new to this.i have made a mac whiskey and a bourboun whiskey from the harvest to moonshine book and both have turned out great. it never ceases to amaze me the time and effort you all take to help each other on this site and my sucess so far has been all thanks to you guys a big thankyou again :clap: ^:)^ so here are my questions i have just not been able to find any information relating to these so a quick run down,a link or any advice would really really make my day thanks heaps in advance. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

1. How much flour would be eqaul to 1kg of grain? ( i was thinking which is dangerous :laughing-rolling: that flour would be more concentrate than grain therfore you would need less flour than grain eg... .5kg flour = 1kg of grain)

2. Same question but how much LME would be eqaul to 1kg of malted grain?

3. I am also having trouble getting my head around grain bill percentages and how they work them out :angry-banghead: eg. when they say 60% rye 20%barley 20% corn how would i work that out for a 60l wash and how much malt would be needed.?

sorry i no the 3rd question is very broad but i have the mashing process down but just not being able to work out the amount. Just verry keen to experiment. thanks for taking the time and effort to read this and :text-thankyoublue: once again in advance.

[bayshine]

mate i can't give to much advice except to have a look at brendons all grain bourbon thred and you will get a good idea of how to calculate sugars from grains :-B
my guess on the flour is that with out the bran(husks), it would be slightly more than whole grains,maybe 10 to 20% more :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Brendan]

HELP ME

1. The only difference between flour and grain is that the grain takes up more volume because it's filled with air...guess what a cup of air weighs? Nothing! Therefore, 1kg grain = 1kg flour (maybe a few grams less because you always lose a bit of flour through milling and transferring. There's nothing more in the flour than the grain in tiny particles, so where would the extra weight come from? :think:

edit: I see what bayshine means, if your flour was just the grain kernel without the husks compared to whole grain with husks. But the point I was getting to, was if you take 1kg of grain and run it through a mill, you'd get 1kg of flour. If you're talking about a purchased flour, I can't see husks being removed...unless it's a DME which isn't flour, but a dried wort.

2. Tough one, you have to look at the sugars. Check the sugar content of the LME and the sugar content of your grain, and you should be able to work out a ball park estimation.

3. Again have to look at the sugars...each grain has a different amount of sugars it can provide by weight. So you need to work out how much sugar is needed for your 60L wash, and then how much of your different grains to achieve this. You're working backwards to get to the start :D

As a 'rough' guide (and I mean very rough, because every type of grain can be different) I say about 5kg sugar per 30L, or about 8kg of grain per 30L.

[Beerfridge]

when i make a beer in my brauneister i use 4.5 - 5 kg malt and that gives me a rough 1.045 / 1.048 OG i can get the same with roughtly the same in DME .

LME has more water so will need more

just my 2c worth

:handgestures-thumbupleft:

[OzKev]

1. How much flour would be eqaul to 1kg of grain? ( i was thinking which is dangerous :laughing-rolling: that flour would be more concentrate than grain therfore you would need less flour than grain eg... .5kg flour = 1kg of grain)

Depends on specifically which grain, and are we talking white flour of whole flour? We would need to be specific on both sides.
Something like corn has minimal fiber coating and you could virtually got 1:1, whilst husks in malted barley are a bit more substantial.


2. Same question but how much LME would be eqaul to 1kg of malted grain?

This still varies between manufactures and specific grains and extracts, and how efficient you are at brewing all grain. But this is pretty close across the board.
For example
Barret Burstons Pale Malt has a yield of 82.5%, I use 85% for my brewhouse efficiency. So 5kg in a 23L batch would be 1.059.
Using a Light Dry Extract, you would need 3.7kg to get 1.059
So in this example 0.74kg extract = 1kg malted grain.


3. I am also having trouble getting my head around grain bill percentages and how they work them out :angry-banghead: eg. when they say 60% rye 20%barley 20% corn how would i work that out for a 60l wash and how much malt would be needed.?

I use BeerSmith, it has the sugar potential for most grains.
Brendan has a thread on a corn whiskey, you could follow his and scale to your volumes.

[Thumpa]

Thanks guys I no they may seem like stupid questions to use but the advice from all you guys and the info that use give me to chase up and read are awesome and help me learn and understand this awesome hobby thanks again and hopefully soon I won't be so newby and I can help others out soon. :think:

[bayshine]

no such thing as stupid questions mate ...only stupid answers :handgestures-thumbupleft: