jeremydgreat
Well-Known Member
Hey all. Tonight I'm trying to make sense of a couple beer recipe calculators, Beersmith2 and Brewer's Friend (website). I know both are pretty widely used.
Recipe: Hoppiness Is An IPA
(Standard IPA recipe from the book Brewing Classic Styles)
It's a straightforward 5 gallon extract recipe and here's what Jamil says the results should be:
OG:1.065
IBU: 64
Color: 7 SRM
ABV: 7%
I popped the recipe into both calculators and some pretty crazy stuff came up.
BeerSmith2:
Here's what my equipment list reads like for this batch:
Brewer's Friend:
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So, my goal isn't to debug everyone's calculators... it's to learn. I'd like to start doing all grain soon and I feel like I'm confused on how the recipe software works.
Recipe: Hoppiness Is An IPA
(Standard IPA recipe from the book Brewing Classic Styles)
It's a straightforward 5 gallon extract recipe and here's what Jamil says the results should be:
OG:1.065
IBU: 64
Color: 7 SRM
ABV: 7%
I popped the recipe into both calculators and some pretty crazy stuff came up.
BeerSmith2:
![beersmith2_88f5.png](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/30c/30ce21150b91f8aa1b70e4fbb4a8278d.png)
Here's what my equipment list reads like for this batch:
![equipment_262c.png](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/a3f/a3f29cc0386c535d39deaac9cfb80a1b.png)
- Why are the IBU's from each hop so low? In the end, BS2 says the beer will be 38.9 IBU's. I double checked the boil time, the volume of water, the amounts of hops, the AA%, etc and still couldn't figure this out,
- Equipment profile. Do I have this right? Basically I'm trying to match what the book prescribes here... 7 gallon boil with a 5 gallon yield.
- The SRM says 11.6. Jamil says it should yield a 7 SRM beer.
- The OG is .015 different! Not sure why. I have the same amount of fermentables. And this is extract brewing and I'm using the extract defaults in BS2.
- Overall I find BeerSmith's menus, descriptions, and layout pretty darn confusing. I guess that's not a questions- more of a complaint.
Brewer's Friend:
![brewers_friend_5435.png](https://proxy.imagearchive.com/84f/84f91a384650acd0f7b709555619bd25.png)
- OG reads what BS2 reads, so at least it's consistant. Maybe Jamil is just off on this?
- IBU's are closer to the book, but still higher. The book reads: 1oz 13% AA = 49.7 IBU. 1oz 9% AA = 6.9 IBU. 1oz 12% AA = 7.6
--
So, my goal isn't to debug everyone's calculators... it's to learn. I'd like to start doing all grain soon and I feel like I'm confused on how the recipe software works.