Creating An Equipment Profile

Creating an Equipment Profile

If the brewing equipment you use is not in the RAPT database, it is quite easy to add a suitable Equipment Profile from scratch.

To add an Equipment Profile, select the Add button in the top left.

The select the BLANK PROFILE option.

This will open the Equipment Profile editing screen. This is arranged in different sections. To create a profile, work through section by section to fill out all the relevant profile information.

Details

Name: The name of the Equipment Profile

Boil Time (mins): Enter the typical boil time. This can be changed directly in the recipe builder as well, irrespective of equipment profile. This would normally be 60 minutes

Description: A brief description of the equipment (optional)

Volumes

Batch Volume (Fermenter): Choose the final Batch Volume in the fermenter. This is the post boil volume after kettle losses, not the packaging volume (which is fermenter volume less trub losses etc)

Boil Off (16.4% - L/hour): This is the volume loss during the boil. Accurately entering this figure allows the system to better calculate volumes and gravity

Trub/Chiller Loss: This is the loss of wort in the kettle, before transferring to the fermenter (or No Chill cube). This allows for loss due to trub or hop absorbtion (for example)

Mash Tun Deadspace: This is recoverable deadspace. That is, wort in the kettler that is below the malt pipe (in a single vessel system such as a BrewZilla). This is important to correctly calculate water volumes.

Mash Tun Loss: This is unrecoverable loss in the kettler or single vessel brewing system. For example, this figure allows for wort that cannot be transferred from the kettle to the femrnter. This should be 0 in most well designed brewing systems

HLT Deadspace: This allows for deadspace or non transferrable volume in your HLT (Hot Liquor Tank). If any sparge water is left behind in your HLT account for that here

Fermenter Top-Up: If you peform partial mashes or top up the fermenter volume for any reason (for example, a high gravity beer that will not otherwise fit in the breweing system). This would normally be left blank or set to 0

Fermenter Loss: Loss due to trub, hops etc in the fermenter before packaging. This is used to calculate final packaging volume

Pre-Boil Volume: XX L Post-Boil Volume: XX L Packaging Volume: XX L

These figures are derived from the Equipment Profile. The Post-Boil Volume is the kettle volume allowing for expansion due to temperature (see Boil Temperature)

Efficiency

Brewhouse Efficiency (%): Brewhouse efficiency is the effieciency of the whole system, allowing for mashh efficiency, sugar conversion, losss etc. This is derived from the Equipment Profile and the Mash Efficiency.

Mash Efficiency (%): This is the efficiency of the mash conversion - the percentage of sugars converted during the mash process. Pre-Boil gravity will be calculated from this. NOTE: Mash efficiency can change from brew to brew as it is affected by factors such as grain bill size, grain milling, wheat or oats etc in the grist. A well setup system should have mash effieiciency in the 70-80% range. Higher or lower than this is not abnormal however.

Advanced

Hop Utilisation Multiplier (%): This will generally be 100% to calculate the IBUs of bittering hops correctly.

Calculate Aroma Hop Utilisation: This affects the IBU calculations for Aroma (whirlpool) hops. Hop utilisation drops as the temeprature drops, therefore less bitterness is acheived at lower temperatures. When is this active, the entered Hopstand Temperature will be used to calculate Whirlpool Hop ustilisation.

Aroma Hop Utilisation (%): This number is only used if Calculate Aroma Hop Utilisation is Off

Hopstand Temperature (°C): Enter the temperature you perform a Hop Stand/Whirlpool at - this allows for better calulation of IBUs from whirlpool hops

Whirlpool/No-Chill Time (mins): (Optional) Enter the time you normally whirlpool for. If left blank this can be set in the recipe.

Boil Temperature

Boil Temperature (°C): This would normally be 100°C unless you brew at an altitude significantly above sea level. Or in a submarine.

Cooling Shrinkage / Boil Expansion (%): Default 4%. This allows for expansion of wort/liquid when hot. If this is set, the Post-Boil volume will allow for expansion, making it easier to see if you have hit your target. This is best left at default.

Mash / Sparge Water

Grain Absorption Rate (L/kg): This is the volume of wort absorbed by the grain during the mash. This can change depending on brewing system and grain bill. A starting value of 0.8-1.2L/kg is typical for most single vessel breweries

Water / Grain Ratio (L/kg): This is the water to grain ratio for the mash. It will determine the volume of strike water for the mash (adjusted by Mash Volume Limits). Typically a water/grain ratio of between 3 - 3.5 L/kg is normal.

Mash Volume Limits

Setting Mash Volume Limits will force the system to recalculate mash and sparge volumes based on the limits. This is useful if the volume of grain and mash water for a particular recipe would exceed the volume of your brewery. Seting limts will automatically adjust for this.

Include Grain Volume in Mash Limits: This should generally be left active. When active, the Mash limits include both water and grain which is typical for most brewing systems. The minimum and maximum mash volumes then allow for grain as well.

Mash Volume Min: The minimum volume you can brew with in your system. If your brew is less than this, then this will be calculated by decreasing sparge volume to increase kettle volume

Mash Volume Max: The maximum volume you can brew with in your system. If your brew is greater than this, then this will be calculated by increasing sparge volume to decrease kettle volume

Sparge Volume Limits

This will normally be left blank. If you have limited volume in your HLT then these limits can set such that more water will be used for the mash and less for the sparge (where possible)

Sparge Volume Min: Minimum volume in HLT (to safely cover the heating element, for example)

Sparge Volume Max: Maximum volume in HLT

Overflow Target: This can be set to transfer excess (overflow) sparge volumes to either Top Up (Boil) (post boil top up water ) or the Mash (only applies if total volume is less than the Mash Volume Max)

HLT Volume Limits

HLT Volume Min: Minimum volume in HLT (to safely cover the heating element, for example) - optional

HLT Volume Max: Set this if the maximum HLT volume is different to the Sparge Volume Max for any reason - optional

Strike Water Temperature

This will calculate Strike Water Temperature when toggled on

Sparge Temperature (°C)

Enter the desired Sparge Water Temperature (typically 75-80°C)

We recommend that all brewers measure several brews when using the RAPT Portal recipe brewer. You can then use the actual numbers to 'tweak' the profile used based on real world data.

This will acheive a number of positives.

1. You will get a more accurate and up to date profile that better represents your brewing style. For example, if you tend to brew stronger than average beers we would expect brewhouse efficiency to drop a bit.

2. You can identify and track actual losses and potentially uncover ways to improve or streamline your brew day.

3. You may identify issues that need to be rectified - for example, if you consistently get lower than expected efficiency your grain crush or thermostat may need to be dialled in, or it may drive you to experiment with Water Chemistry (which can have a very positive effect when all grain brewing!)