Questions from learning session

General Homebrew Discussion
1

I am trying to learn BeerSmith by using to plan out my next brew - a fairly simple extract with grains from ‘Methods of Modern Homebrewing’ - “Hennepin Avenue”, an American Extra Pale Ale. I have entered the process steps according to the recipe. Hitting a few questions that I am wondering if someone can help me with.

  1. I have loaded the Add-On styles, not seeing an Extra Pale Ale. I have set it up as an American Pale Ale, comes in on the lower end of the range, but in ‘the green’. Is there another source for styles?

  2. I caught the pellet/leaf point for the hops, but even adjusting to pellet, BS is showing 38.5 IBUs versus 43 IBUs in the book.

  3. Similarly, the OG is low 1.045 instead of 1.051, so ABV comes in at 4.5% instead of 4.9%

  4. I assume I include the Dextrose used to bottle-carbonate in as an ‘after boil’ ingredient? That is where it is now, without it the ABV is lower.

  5. The recipe calls for a top up to 5 gallons, so for equipment I am specing the default Pot 4 gallon Playing around with other options, it appears I can either increase OG or IBU, but not both by changing the equipment spec. The IBUs I understand, the more the hopped wort is diluted the lower the IBUs, but I must be missing something about the OG.

Anyway, I would be grateful for pointers as to where to look - I’d like to get as close as possible.

2

Welcome! BeerSmith is awesome software (I’ve been using it for ~15 years now)…although as you are finding out, any software has a learning curve. Some thoughts are below.

Would you be able to post the recipe as written in the book, with volumes, etc.? This might help troubleshoot. (I don’t have a copy of this book, although I have another by the author - he has great recipes)

As a preface, I almost always have to adjust recipes from books for my system and/or different assumptions in BeerSmith versus whatever the author had as assumptions. So, as I have gotten more familiar with the software and my brewing system and process, I’m a lot more comfortable with adjusting ingredients as needed to get the desired result.

  1. I have loaded the Add-On styles, not seeing an Extra Pale Ale. I have set it up as an American Pale Ale, comes in on the lower end of the range, but in ‘the green’. Is there another source for styles?

I’ve never seen Extra Pale Ale as a formal style, either in BJCP or GABF. I would probably just treat it as an American pale ale.

  1. I caught the pellet/leaf point for the hops, but even adjusting to pellet, BS is showing 38.5 IBUs versus 43 IBUs in the book.

This might be a software assumption that’s built in - for instance, if you are doing a partial volume boil, BeerSmith might be assuming lower hop utilization due to the stronger wort gravity.

  1. Similarly, the OG is low 1.045 instead of 1.051, so ABV comes in at 4.5% instead of 4.9%

This could be resulting from a few things - boil-off rate assumptions in BeerSmith, how much you are topping off with if it is a partial-volume boil, etc. Does the grain bill assume that you’re adding some significant fermentables? Perhaps mash/steep efficiency is set at a lower number in your software versus what the original recipe assumed?

  1. I assume I include the Dextrose used to bottle-carbonate in as an ‘after boil’ ingredient? That is where it is now, without it the ABV is lower.

Hmm…usually dextrose used for bottle carbonation doesn’t factor much for abv adjustment. What is the difference?

  1. The recipe calls for a top up to 5 gallons, so for equipment I am specing the default Pot 4 gallon Playing around with other options, it appears I can either increase OG or IBU, but not both by changing the equipment spec. The IBUs I understand, the more the hopped wort is diluted the lower the IBUs, but I must be missing something about the OG.

Not sure if this is a factor, but hop utilization will also go down as you get higher gravity wort. Maybe that’s a factor? “Heavy” wort which results in lower hop utilization, and then it’s further diluted when you add water.

I guess in the end it is probably a mismatch in assumptions between recipe and software (as you have basically stated); in this case, I would just adjust the recipe until you hit the target parameters. There will probably be some trial & error as you figure out your system and the software settings.