Help!!! -- who is right, Beersmith or Hopville?

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MDB

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I was going to brew this recipe for a porter but I'm getting concerned, my LHB mentioned he thought this would be a real big beer (I originally had 9 lbs LME), which didn't jive with my Beersmith calculations. I went into Beersmith and got all profiles accurate, and I'm still coming out low compared to LHB estimates, so I ran the same recipe in Hopville. Recipe is below but here is the discrepancy:

OG -- BS =1.047 / Hopville = 1.068
FG -- BS =1.015 / Hopville = 1.022
ABV - BS =4.2% / Hopville = 6.1%

this is a wide discrepancy and I want to figure it out before I go an brew it. If BS is right, I want to push up the OG, if Hopville is right I'm good. PLEASE HELP!!

1 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.5 %
1 lbs 3.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.5 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.7 %
6.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.7 %
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
9 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 58.2 %

Note the yeast (brings down the FG from if you use US-05)
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml]
 
Hopville automatically is set to calculate your efficiency at 75% unless you change it beersmith looks like it is calculating at a different efficiency Hopville is also a much simpler program. I use both but like beersmith more and feel that it is more accurate once you got it set up to your specs. Hope this helps.
 
MDB said:
I was going to brew this recipe for a porter but I'm getting concerned, my LHB mentioned he thought this would be a real big beer (I originally had 9 lbs LME), which didn't jive with my Beersmith calculations. I went into Beersmith and got all profiles accurate, and I'm still coming out low compared to LHB estimates, so I ran the same recipe in Hopville. Recipe is below but here is the discrepancy:

OG -- BS =1.047 / Hopville = 1.068
FG -- BS =1.015 / Hopville = 1.022
ABV - BS =4.2% / Hopville = 6.1%

this is a wide discrepancy and I want to figure it out before I go an brew it. If BS is right, I want to push up the OG, if Hopville is right I'm good. PLEASE HELP!!

1 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) UK (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 14.5 %
1 lbs 3.0 oz Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM) Grain 2 11.5 %
1 lbs Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3 9.7 %
6.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.7 %
4.0 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 5 2.4 %
9 lbs Pale Liquid Extract (8.0 SRM) Extract 6 58.2 %

Note the yeast (brings down the FG from if you use US-05)
1.0 pkg English Ale (White Labs #WLP002) [35.49 ml]

I am showing 1.064 with 70% efficiency for 5 gallons straight up. That's not adding in for kettle trub loss and assuming you meant 6lbs of PLE not 9.
 
9 lbs of LME, all those spec malts, and WLP002 starting at 1.047 OG seems completely ridiculous to me.

Hopville is definitely more right here. Beersmith would be right too, but your settings are off.

By the way, you don't need carapils. It's already inherent in Extract. No need for the insignificant amount of pale malt either unless you're mashing it with the carapils.
 
Remember that you aren't mashing your specialty grains, so you won't get much in the way of SG points out of them.

Even using Beersmith, 9 pounds of LME should equal 1.065. That's what I get when I put 9 pounds of LME in to the program. Efficiency doesn't matter- so make sure you have "extract" as the type of brew in Beersmith.
 
THis is why I'm head scratching, I have 5 other recipes loaded into beersmith THAT I'VE ALREADY BREWED and the numbers are roughly matching the MEASURED gravity readings that I recorded from those batches, so while I can't say I'm a pro with all the settings, it can't be that far off. Maybe I'm going to have to just brew it and see what happens but my concern is the yeast, if my OG is much over 1.070 yeast will be stressed. Maybe I should make a starter just in case?
 
Check the top up water field, that can throw it way off. A setting has to be off somewhere with that much extract.
 
IMHO, you should learn how to do the calculations manually before you start relying on software. The math is really pretty simple. Palmer's book explains it very well.
 
Yooper really? (I mean, I believe you, just surprised a little the package says it's good to 1.070)
 
Yooper really? (I mean, I believe you, just surprised a little the package says it's good to 1.070)

Yes, really!

I know the package says good up to 1.060 but that quite frankly is not exactly correct. They have up to a hundred billion cells, they claim. And that is if the package is superfresh, and handled well. Shipping and laying around lower the viabiltiy, so you're actually lucky to have 75% viability once you get the package. And even that is barely enough for a 1.045 wort. For a typical 5 gallon batch of 1.060 wort, you should have about 200 billion yeast cells. So that is underpitching by about 1/2, even if the yeast is fresh.

When using a liquid strain, it's ALWAYS good to make a starter.
 
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