Beersmith software.????

[Adamsale]

I have just downloaded a free trial and now i know my first 3 home made recipes are a bit strange with no or little IBU, oh well...wait and see.

any way, is there an Australian version or an option somewhere as most things are american/uk.

[drsmurto]

There is only 1 version of beersmith.

You can set it to use metric settings.

What are you brewing - kits, extract, partials or AG?

Give us an example of your recipe and we can see whats going on.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[Adamsale]

the recipe is in the recipes forum, coriander and lime wheat beer. also i have been playing with beersmith and trying to get the ibu level right. but why for example, 13L brew boil 5L a certain amount of hops for 60 mins gives a IBU but when you alter the boil liquid to 4 say the IBU of the final brew is different, surely it would be more concentrated in a smaller brew then same when made up to final size.?? I was trying to work out with an IBU and a 50g pack of hops pellets for the 3 additions,

[gregb]

This one?

In 2 Litres of boiling water added 500g dried wheat malt, 500g of light dry malt, 400g raw sugar, 8g crushed coriander seeds and 1 tablespoon of lime rind. Simmered and after 5 minutes added 10g of Tettanger hops pellets. kept simmering for another 15 minutes then flame out and rested for 15 minutes. Cooled in cold water then added to fermenter and topped upto 13L. Pitch premium packet yeast 7g that comes with kits.

Thoughts.????

[drsmurto]

The problem you have is that its a way too concentrated boil.

You really need to be aiming for your OG.

In this case it near enough to 1.040. So you can do make a rough guesstimate that we use for making starters and thats 100g of dried malt extract per 1L of water. So if you are doing a 4L boil you need 400g of the malt extract, the rest can be added after.

Doing this will allow you to get better hop utilisation (more efficient extraction) and give you a higher final IBU.

If you are doing full extract then you really need to boil the hops for longer to get enough IBU, 60 mins is the standard bittering time. Less than that and you need buckets more hops.

The rule of thumb is 60 mins for bittering, 20 mins for flavour and 0 mins for aroma.

And if i wanted pick any other holes in your recipe i would suggest you have way too much sugar. Stick to extract.

Cheers
DrSmurto

[Adamsale]

Thanks for that, my next question is after preparing my next recipe i am using your ideas and at 700g malt to 7 L of water SG = 1.040 then use 50g hops (packet size) and IBU 17 perfect. Made recipe in beersmith but noticed with 1kg LDME and 1kg Wheat % alcohol low so upped the amounts to 1.25 each......nothing else changed except the IBU.... it went down to 13...the boil amount was the same...i could not find anywhere in the recipe to state the boil SG...???? aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh.......

[drsmurto]

You need to tell beersmith that you are adding some of the malt after the boil. otherwise it assumes its boiling everything and hence your IBU drops. If you have done this then i am out of ideas.

There are quite a few issues with beersmith and less than full volume boiling. Easiest way around it is to buy a bigger pot

[Adamsale]

That now works fine thank you, but....sorry for being a pain......the IBU has now doubled. I originally worked out my boil volume to use a full bag of hops for convenience and accuracy so a 7 L boil with 700g of LDME SG 1040 50g of hops = 17 IBU. when i add this amount to the recipe now IBU goes to 31.????? i have to reduce the amount to 25g.?????? which is a big difference..... which do you use.???

[warra48]

That's correct, as your isomerisation is much better with a less concentrated boil. It's why BeerSmith is so handy when designing your own recipes, it takes most of the guesswork out of it.

I start with my malt bill, until I get my desired gravity, usually about 4 to 5 kg of grain for anything from 1.040 up to 1.060 , as I want it, for a 23 litre batch.
Then I add my aroma and flavour hops to what I want.
Finally I add my 60 minutes bittering hops to get the IBU and the IBU/SG Bitterness Ratio to where I want it.
It's very easy to increase or decrease the quantity of bittering hops to what you wish.
I have my Brewhouse Efficiency set to 80%, because my systems delivers that for me. I suggest you start at 75% and see how you go.

After you've done a few recipes, you tend to work out your own efficiencies and preferences, and it makes future recipes rather easy to design.

[Adamsale]

Thanks Warra, so i should not use the hops bitterness calculator then and just see what the recipe part has to say to add.? ie put in 50g and adjust the boil amount until the IBU is what i want

[warra48]

Thanks Warra, so i should not use the hops bitterness calculator then and just see what the recipe part has to say to add.? ie put in 50g and adjust the boil amount until the IBU is what i want

They should produce the same result. Each of the Hops Bitterness and Recipe parts of the BeerSmith software use the same logic.
I personally don't use the Hops Bitterness tool. I just input my malts first, and then play around with the quantities of hops in the recipe itself until I get my desired IBU and IBU/SG level. It gives me the same result.

Whatever works for you personally is fine.