Beersmith Recipe Question

I am looking to brew Jamil's Dunkelweizen from BYO's Jan-Feb issue. I am new to Beersmith and am trying to add two items I don't see on the pre-loaded list:

8.8 oz. of CaraMunich malt (60L) or similar
3.12 AAU Hallertau pellet hops (0.78 oz/22 at 4% alpha acids)

I chose the Hallertauer Mittelfrueh as it has the same AA (though I am unsure of what 0.78 oz/22 means). I left my recipe at 1 oz as if I change to 0.78, the results are WAY off.

I chose the Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L.

My results aren't matching up with Jamil's though.

His expected results:
OG = 1.051
FG = 1.013
IBU = 15
SRM = 15
ABV = 5.1%

Beersmith results:
OG =1.048
FG = 1.012
IBU = 13.9
SRM = 16.3
ABV = 4.75%

Now they are close but not quite there, I am wondering if my substitutions are poor choices? Perhaps whatever program he used was slightly different? Can anyone help explain this foolish question, please?

Here is my recipe:
4.4 lbs Wheat LME
2.2 Amber LME
0.55 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L
0.16 lb Carafa II
1 oz. Hallertauer Mittelfrueh (60 min)
Wyeast 3068 Weihnstephan Weizen

Any comments, suggestions, hints, or anything would be greatly appreciated!

Crystal 60 is a reasonable substitution for Caramunich. (There's a good chart here: http://homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart )
I would use Caramunich if it's available.

Your hops choice is fine. The different varieties of Hallertauer are similar. However, the actual hops you get may well have a slightly different AA%, so you may have to change the AA% in BeerSmith for the hops in the recipe to match what they actually are, and then tweak the amount up or down to get the desired IBUs.

Do you have the efficiency in BeerSmith set to what the magazine uses? I don't remember specifically, but I think it's 65%....don't quote me on that...It should be near the front of the magazine somewhere.

Most brew calculators have some variance in them, and the difference in the two you posted is almost negligible. The one i use came up with a third set of numbers, if you care to see.

http://www.clubhomebrew.com/index.php?page=recipeDetail&filter=VTBrewer&id=266

Rick500 said:

Crystal 60 is a reasonable substitution for Caramunich. (There's a good chart here: http://homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malts_Chart )
I would use Caramunich if it's available.

Your hops choice is fine. The different varieties of Hallertauer are similar. However, the actual hops you get may well have a slightly different AA%, so you may have to change the AA% in BeerSmith for the hops in the recipe to match what they actually are, and then tweak the amount up or down to get the desired IBUs.

Do you have the efficiency in BeerSmith set to what the magazine uses? I don't remember specifically, but I think it's 65%....don't quote me on that...It should be near the front of the magazine somewhere.

Click to expand...

Yes:

Efficiency: 65%
Hops: We calculate IBUs based on 25% hop utilization for a one hour boil of hop pellets at SG less than 1.050

Thanks for the link, very helpful!

Oh, should I adjust both the hop utilization and efficiency in Beersmith...lol, d'oh!

VTBrewer said:

Most brew calculators have some variance in them, and the difference in the two you posted is almost negligible. The one i use came up with a third set of numbers, if you care to see.

http://www.clubhomebrew.com/index.php?page=recipeDetail&filter=VTBrewer&id=266

Click to expand...

That's a pretty cool site!

Thanks for sharing

It's powered by www.brewblogger.net, which is provided by a guy on this board. It's free. Feel free to grab your own copy if you have a server for it or sign up on my version.

When doing an extract brew and going to calculate, you'll want to change the default 75% to something around 95 or 100. I set it to 100, assuming you lose a few points in your steep...the 1.054 if cam up with will be Jamil's 1051.