BJCP National · Lesson 16 · Recipe (R0) · 7 days to exam
This is the debt open since 16 July, and Mock 1 charged you for it twice. It is also the biggest single band on the recipe question. The fix is not more arithmetic – you have done this for twelve years. The fix is knowing which four numbers to write down, and knowing that a number without a style reason next to it scores about half of what it could.
raw/study-guide/BJCP_Study_Guide.pdf (regenerated via pdftotext), everything else is Palmer or practice and is labelled as such. You should know which is which when you are writing under time pressure.
T14. Provide a complete ALL-GRAIN recipe and procedure for brewing a(n) <STYLE>.
15% Style Description · 15% target parameters (batch size, OG, FG, IBUs or HBUs, colour) · 40% ingredients: why they are appropriate, their quantities, and how the quantities were calculated · 30% the complete brewing procedure from mashing through packaging, with style-based reasoning to support each aspect of the process. [src: Study Guide, T14 Recipe and Procedure Question – verbatim rubric]
Read the last two bands again as instructions rather than as description. The 40% band does not ask for quantities, it asks for quantities plus the calculation. The 30% band does not ask for a procedure, it asks for a procedure plus a style reason per aspect. Together that is 70% of the recipe question, and both halves are mechanical once you have the skeleton – which is the good news, because mechanical is exactly what survives a 20-minute clock.
The one-line habit that fixes this band. Never write a process step as a bare instruction. Write it as step, number, because-style. "Mash at 66 °C for 60 minutes" earns part of the band; "mash at 66 °C for 60 minutes – mid-range saccharification, because Märzen needs a malty backbone with a dextrinous body rather than a dry finish" earns the band. Same knowledge, one clause longer.
Do the whole thing in kg and litres. Four equations, computed in this order:
| # | Line | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Preboil = batch size + boil-off + trub loss | What must be in the kettle at flame-on to leave the target volume in the fermenter. |
| 2 | Total water = preboil + (absorption × grain kg) | The grain keeps some water permanently; buy it back up front. |
| 3 | Mash water = ratio × grain kg | Set by mash thickness, which is itself a style lever. |
| 4 | Sparge water = total water − mash water | Falls out. Never calculate it independently. |
| Parameter | Value | Source tier |
|---|---|---|
| Boil-off | about one gallon (four litres) per hour, vigorous uncovered boil | BJCP-sourced. "Vigorously boiling wort uncovered will evaporate water from the wort at a rate of about one gallon (four liters) per hour, depending on the brewing setup. In order to create a beer with the appropriate target original gravity, changes in the wort volume must be taken into account." [src: Study Guide, Boiling] |
| Mash thickness | 2–4 L per kg (work with 3) | BJCP-sourced (Study Guide gives ~1–2 L per lb) – already carded in T13-mashing. |
| Grain absorption | ≈ 1 L per kg | Not BJCP. Palmer / standard practice. |
| Trub + chiller loss | ≈ 2 L on a 20 L system | Not BJCP. System-specific; state it as your system's figure and no grader can argue. |
New since your last recipe sheet: the boil-off number is BJCP-sourced. Your desk card carries Palmer's "10–15% per hour" with a [VERIFY] on it. The Study Guide states 4 L/hour outright, in the Boiling section, and even tells you why it matters ("changes in the wort volume must be taken into account"). On a 20 L batch with a 90-minute boil those two agree closely (4 L/h × 1.5 h = 6 L; 13%/h of ~23 L ≈ 3 L/h) – so the arithmetic barely moves, but the citation does. Quote the litres-per-hour form: it is the graders' own source, and it is a rate, which is what lets you defend a 90-minute boil.
5 kg grain, 20 L into the fermenter, 90-minute boil, mash ratio 3 L/kg:
| Line | Arithmetic | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Boil-off | 4 L/h × 1.5 h | 6 L |
| Preboil | 20 + 6 + 2 | 28 L |
| Total water | 28 + (1 × 5) | 33 L |
| Mash water | 3 × 5 | 15 L |
| Sparge water | 33 − 15 | 18 L |
Cross-check without redoing the sum: sparge should also equal preboil − (mash − absorption) = 28 − (15 − 5) = 18 L. If the two disagree you dropped a term. That check costs five seconds and it is worth doing on the exam, because this is arithmetic done with adrenaline.
Grain has roughly 0.4 the specific heat of water, so with mash thickness r in L/kg:
T_strike = T_mash + (0.4 / r) × (T_mash − T_grain)
At 66 °C target, 20 °C grain, r = 3: 66 + (0.4/3) × 46 = 66 + 6.1 ≈ 72 °C. A cold tun steals heat, so preheat it or add 1–2 °C.
[VERIFY] status: the Study Guide contains no strike-temperature formula. This is physics plus Palmer's constant. It is unlikely to be scored on its own – the 30% band wants procedure with style reasoning, not thermodynamics. Carry it because it makes the procedure read like a brewer wrote it, not because points hang on it. If the clock is tight, write "strike at ~72 °C to hit 66 °C" and move on; do not spend 90 seconds deriving it on the sheet.
Every number in this section is from the Study Guide. The right-hand column is the clause the 30% band is actually buying.
| Step | Sourced number / rule | The style-reason slot |
|---|---|---|
| Mash in | Thickness 2–4 L/kg. Thin = more fermentable, better enzyme mobility; thick = enzymes better protected from heat denaturation. | Thin for a dry, attenuated style; thicker where you want body and are decocting. |
| Saccharification rest | Gelatinization for barley malt at 130–150 °F (55–65 °C); higher for raw grains such as corn grits. [src: Study Guide, Mashing] | Lower in the range = more fermentable and drier; higher = more dextrins and fuller body. Name the style's finish and pick accordingly. |
| Vorlauf | Recirculate the initial runoff until it runs clear. It is critical to preventing astringency and haze in the finished beer. [src: Study Guide, Lautering] | Any style where clarity is scored – and it is one line, so there is no reason to omit it. |
| Lauter / sparge | Hold 160–170 °F (70–77 °C) throughout. Above 170 °F (77 °C) leaches tannins, lets undissolved starch balls explode past the filterbed, and releases gums and proteins. Sparge water at 170 °F (77 °C), added gently and slowly so the bed is not disturbed, at pH ≈ 5.7 to keep the mash pH from exceeding 6.0. [src: Study Guide, Lautering / Sparging] | Astringency control. This is the same tannin mechanism as the husk material in the malt lesson – one cause, two questions. |
| When to stop sparging | First runnings should read about twice the gravity you want in the finished beer. Stop when the gravity drops below about 1.010, or the runoff pH rises above 6.0. [src: Study Guide, Sparging] | The one number in this block most likely to be asked for directly. It is also the answer to "how do you avoid astringency" on a C0 question. |
| Boil | Minimum one hour; 90 minutes is normal for all-grain, with the bittering hops added for the last hour. Under an hour risks under-utilisation of hop acids, a poorer head (isohumulone extraction), worse clarity from an inadequate hot break, and reduced shelf life. Boil uncovered so volatiles do not condense back. [src: Study Guide, Boiling] | 90 minutes is also the Pilsner-malt DMS answer if the style is a pale lager. Say why you chose 60 vs 90. |
| Boil pH | Should be 5.2–5.5 at the conclusion of the boil for proper cold break and normal fermentation. [src: Study Guide, Boiling] | Clarity and fermentation health. |
| Kettle finings | Irish Moss or Whirlfloc near the end of the boil promotes the cold break (protein-protein and protein-polyphenol complexes). [src: Study Guide, Chilling / Fining] | Any clear style. Skip it explicitly for a deliberately hazy one and say so – that is a style-reason clause for free. |
| Chill | As rapidly as possible, immersion or counter-flow: minimises Lactobacillus / wort-spoilage contamination and produces an adequate cold break. [src: Study Guide, Chilling] | Universal, so it is cheap to include. |
| Pitch | Chill to a maximum of 75 °F (24 °C) for ales, 55 °F (13 °C) for lagers before pitching; aerate sufficiently but not excessively; keep a healthy FAN level. These are named as the controls that minimise esters and fusel alcohols. [src: Study Guide, fermentation by-products] | Clean lager vs expressive ale – this is where you say which one you want and why. |
| Diacetyl rest | During the deceleration / late-kräusen phase the beer may be allowed to rise to 68 °F (20 °C) to re-absorb and reduce diacetyl and related diketones. [src: Study Guide, fermentation] | Mandatory sentence in any lager recipe. |
| Lagering / conditioning | Ales: brief. Lagers: four to six weeks, up to six months for strong lagers. Cool by no more than 5 °F (3 °C) per day or you cold-shock the yeast and stall the clean-up. [src: Study Guide, fermentation stages] | The 3 °C/day rule is a genuine differentiator – almost nobody writes it. |
| Packaging | Two named methods. Bottle conditioning: fresh yeast starter plus corn sugar (glucose) – a 250 ml starter for a five-gallon (20 L) batch, as is commonly done for Trappist-style Belgian ales. Kräusening: add actively fermenting beer at high kräusen, typically 20% by volume of the beer being primed, as often practised with German lagers; it carbonates and helps clean up off-flavours from the previous fermentation. [src: Study Guide, packaging/priming] | Pick the one that matches the style's tradition and say that is why. A Belgian gets bottle conditioning; a German lager gets kräusening. |
Carbonation volumes are not BJCP-sourced. The group recipe bank writes "force carbonate to 2.5 vols CO2" and similar; those figures are community-tier, not from either sacred source, and the Study Guide gives methods rather than volumes. Safe play: state the method (bottle conditioning or kräusening, with the sourced quantities above), and describe carbonation in the Guidelines' own sensory words for the style – "high carbonation, as the style requires" – rather than betting the band on a number you cannot cite. If you do want a figure, give it as your system's target, not as a rule.
Cold, on paper, five minutes: 5.5 kg grain, 20 L batch, 90-minute boil, mash at 3 L/kg. Give preboil, total, mash and sparge water, plus the strike temperature for a 65 °C rest. Then write the sparge paragraph of the procedure with its style reason.
Do not look up the parameters – if you cannot recall absorption, boil-off, trub loss and thickness, that is the miss, and it is the miss that Mock 1 charged you for twice. Write the cross-check line too.
Boil-off 4 L/h × 1.5 h = 6 L · Preboil = 20 + 6 + 2 = 28 L · Total = 28 + (1 × 5.5) = 33.5 L · Mash = 3 × 5.5 = 16.5 L · Sparge = 33.5 − 16.5 = 17 L (cross-check: 28 − (16.5 − 5.5) = 17 ✓) · Strike = 65 + (0.4/3)(65 − 20) = 65 + 6 = 71 °C. Sparge paragraph: vorlauf until the runoff is clear, because recirculating the first runnings is what prevents astringency and haze; sparge slowly with water at 77 °C and pH ~5.7, holding the bed at 70–77 °C, because above 77 °C the husks give up tannins and starch is flushed past the filter bed; stop when the runoff falls below about 1.010 or its pH rises above 6.0.
If the numbers came out but the "because" clauses did not, you scored the 40% band and lost most of the 30% one. That is precisely the shape of the Mock 1 loss – the arithmetic was never the problem.
Two escapes, both legitimate, both better than a blank or a bluff.