Beersmith, The Lack of....

I grabbed a copy of Beersmith on sale this past weekend and have been playing around with it since then. It's a pretty neat app in a lot of respects but...

I wonder why the program won't do a simple recipe conversion from LME to DME or even list Muntons brand LME in the ingredients list?

You can add whatever brand of LME you want to in the list. They have the specs on the manufacturer's website.

You want to convert a recipe using LME to DME? I'm not sure I understand that.

Yooper_Brew said:

You can add whatever brand of LME you want to in the list. They have the specs on the manufacturer's website.

Click to expand...

Ahhh, that's the reason for having brewing software- so you don't have to. I specifically mentioned Munton's since it's so popular. I'm amazed it wasn't included on the list. It's not even listed on the BeerSmith grain extensions page.

I noticed someone asked the same question on the BeerSmith forum way back in 2005 and Brad indicated he would get around to adding it. I still can't find it!

You want to convert a recipe using LME to DME? I'm not sure I understand that.

Click to expand...

i.e., the recipe call for 4 lbs LME, so how much DME would be an appropriate substitute. Of course the calculations should be based on the gravity (og) calculations depending on the malts used in the particular recipe instead of using the rule of thumb 1.25 multiplier.

Click/Highlight the ingredient (ie. LME) and then click on the "Replace with" button...it'll then give you the ingredient pull-down menu and select the item you want to replace it with.

Tada.

Naked_Eskimo said:

Click/Highlight the ingredient (ie. LME) and then click on the "Replace with" button...it'll then give you the ingredient pull-down menu and select the item you want to replace it with.

Tada.

Click to expand...

Yep, it'll "replace" equal amounts all day long....

What it won't do is convert LME in a recipe to the appropriate quantity of DME.

Strange...could swear it worked for me. Alternative workaround, is look at your OG with the LME. Convert to DME, and you'll see the OG will change to reflect accordingly. Then using the "adjust gravity" tool, change the OG back to the original OG and the amount of DME will be adjusted accordingly.

I think normally you would have an OG in mind and then adjust the extract amount appropriately to hit that number. So if you had a recipe in there with LME you simply note the OG and adjust the amount of substituted DME to hit that same number. The difference shouldn't be that much so a couple of clicks of the INCREASE or DECREASE buttons should do the trick.


EDIT: Dam Eskimo beat me to it!

No more calls please! We have a winner!!!

Thanks to Naked_Eskimo and Homercidal for finding the solution. Adjusting the OG in the recipe made the conversion from LME to DME possible.

YEEHAW!!!

http://home.roadrunner.com/~brewbeer/extract/pres.pdf

If you read this presentation "For the question of converting grain to extract, there is a short and a long answer. The short answer, based on typical all-grain processes and extract characte ristics, is to use 3/4 (0.75) lb of liquid extract for each pound of grain being substituted, or 2/3 (0.67) lb dry extract. Now technically that means that it takes more liquid extract to equal dry extract, but in practice, you can use one conversio n
factor or the other, even if you plan to mix dry and liquid extracts. My suggestion is to convert the entire amount of grain to liquid extract, subtract off “whole canfuls” (3.3 lb / 1.5 kg increments), and convert the remainder to dry extract. You can convert liquid extract to dry by multiplying by 0.89, or dry to liquid by multiplying by 1.1."

It's so easy you don't need beer smith!

They said there would be no math involved

My sentiments exactly LandofOZ...............