BeerSmith 2.0

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Strange, when I clicked on the Pilsner malt this morning it showed 9lbs in the popup box, when I hit ok, it changed it to 9 on the recipe. I can't get it to duplicate what it did, I tried changing it to 8.99lbs and it read 8lbs 15.8oz.

Now I just re-opened the program and it went back to the 8lbs 16oz. This is the only recipe it's doing this on. It's showing I have 37lbs 16oz of Pilsner malt in inventory, I changed it and that change stayed, but every time you reopen the program it goes back to 8lbs 16oz on that one recipe.:)


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This exact thing happened to me when I used the scale feature. Did you happen to scale that recipe?
 
Try changing the units just to pounds to see if it's a weird number, then fix it to 9.0 lbs even (be sure to use the decimal point and zero), then change it back to lbs/oz for units.
 
I've been using Beersmith for a bit now and trying to get used to it, I think I'm going to go back to BeerAlchemy. I am admittedly a mac guy and was excited when BS 2.0 came out with Mac support, bought it immediately. That said, the UI is just horrific, it's beyond being not user friendly, it's truly terrible. I like the capabilities of the software but creating recipes really causes me pain.

I also don't get why if I want to make a "batch" of a recipe I have to copy it and rename it, it's really nice to store batches under a recipe so you can go back and compare the minor differences from batch to batch and see what worked out best.
 
I've been using Beersmith for a bit now and trying to get used to it, I think I'm going to go back to BeerAlchemy. I am admittedly a mac guy and was excited when BS 2.0 came out with Mac support, bought it immediately. That said, the UI is just horrific, it's beyond being not user friendly, it's truly terrible. I like the capabilities of the software but creating recipes really causes me pain.

I also don't get why if I want to make a "batch" of a recipe I have to copy it and rename it, it's really nice to store batches under a recipe so you can go back and compare the minor differences from batch to batch and see what worked out best.

Ill continue using it but I tend to agree with you on most points. I hate that when I'm at the bottom of the recipe I have to scroll to the top to see the tabs containing mash, ferment, notes etc. They should ditch the redundant bars and include that on top. I believe the answer to your "batch" issue is to highlight a recipe and click copy to brewlog. It will allow you to mark what version it is, change date etc and not effect the original.
 
It'd be nice to see two finger scrolling enabled properly as well. I like the features but agree the UI is rough. I left BeerTools for this and wish BeerTools would give the same detailed recipe builds as this, but BeerTools was REALLY user-friendly.
 
I bought it about 3 months ago and I'd have to say it continues to impress. Definitely worth the money I paid.

I'd love to see a smart phone app and a hardware interface for real-time measurements/control over my PID.
 
I bought it about 3 months ago and I'd have to say it continues to impress. Definitely worth the money I paid.

I'd love to see a smart phone app and a hardware interface for real-time measurements/control over my PID.

There is/was an iOS app for controlling a BCS in the app store. I am also pretty sure I saw one for Android floating around. Of course I think for a BCS you can use any web browser to control it anyway.
 
Is there a spot for ongoing gravity readings? I see the few major steps, but it'd be nice if you could record over time. Also, it'd be nice if you could push your shopping list to a selection of online sites, I'd do that, even if it costs more for whatever stores there are, the convenience would cover it.
 
weird glitch I noticed last night when playing with my mash temp

when i changed the mash temp from 147 to 146 my est FG went from 1.008 to 1.011
 
when i changed the mash temp from 147 to 146 my est FG went from 1.008 to 1.011

I think the calculation for adjusting the fermentability for mash temperature turns off between 147 and 146. I tried changing it for a beer that had 1.010 est FG at 148. It dropped to 1.009 at 147, and then jumped to 1.013 at 146. Dropping it as low as 140 brought on no further changes.
 
There is/was an iOS app for controlling a BCS in the app store. I am also pretty sure I saw one for Android floating around. Of course I think for a BCS you can use any web browser to control it anyway.

Great, you can explain to my wife where that money went.....
 
I just bought Beersmith yesterday, and I'm experiencing a bit of a learning curve. :eek:

A couple questions about the Brewer's Best English Brown Ale I brewed today. Here's a link to my recipe:

http://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/109611/brewers-best-english-brown-ale

#1 - Not sure I set up my equipment right. I have a 9 gallon pot, and I used a paint strainer bag for the first time today to steep my grains. Does this mean I should set my "Mash Tun Volume" to 9 gallons? Anything else I need to change?

#2 - I cut back my bittering hops to 0.75 ounces from 1.0 ounces due to doing a full boil. According to Beersmith, this results in 52.3 IBUs (recipe claims to have 21-25 IBUs). Even following the recipe exactly (as far as I can tell), doing a 2.5 gallon partial boil and using all 1.0 ounces of Brewer's Gold hops Brewsmith says I'll end up with 58.2 IBUs. I must be doing something wrong.

So far, I'm feeling more confused than informed using this software. Based on all the positive posts regarding this software, I'm looking forward to when it all "clicks" for me. :)
 
#1 If you are doing an extract recipe, you don't really need to worry so much about mash tun type or volume. The only thing that you really might have to worry about is making sure you can fit the steeping grains in the pot along with your preboil volume.

#2 The IBUs are highly dependent on the alpha acid % of the hops, and when you do the addition. Did the instructions say to boil the hops for 60 minutes?
 
I steeped in about 2 gallons of water (didn't see where to enter the steeping water volume in beersmith) and then added a bit over 4 gallons and brought to a boil.

I put in 0.75 oz of brewers gold for 60, then 1 oz of UK Golding for 15 minutes and 0.5 oz of UK Golding for the last 5 minutes.
 
I didn't ask what you did, I asked what the instructions said. If you bought a kit then it came with instructions. That ought to give you some small indication of what is going on.


0.75oz of 8% AA Brewer's Gold for 60 minutes in a 1.045ish wort ought to be around 25 IBUs. Not sure how you are getting 50+ IBUs.

1.0oz of East Kent Goldings for 15 minutes, assuming 5% AA, will get you another 10 or so IBUs according to my copy of Beersmith.

That puts you over the typical range for an English brown, but certainly not double.

And, if the AA% on those hops that you got was lower than the numbers in Beersmith, then you are probably right on target. If they were higher, then maybe not. However, regardless you should read and understand the instructions before you make modifications to a recipe.
 
I downloaded your recipe and played with it a bit. It does seem to be giving 50ish IBUs as it started. If I drop it to a 2.8 gallon boil (the closest equipment profile I had lying around, one of the default ones), it still stays around 38. Something is up with the recipe, AA% is a good guess, though none of the numbers you have in there are way out of whack.
 
OK I clicked on your beersmith link, and your instructions. Maris Otter is not Amber LME, and Amber Malt is not Amber DME. Maris Otter is a base grain, which you shouldn't even have in your recipe for an extract recipe, and Amber Malt is some specialty malt that has no business being there either.

There is an ingredient in the grains which says "Amber Liquid Extract". THAT is what you should be using, along with 2 lbs of "Amber Dry Extract". That at least will get you a more reasonable gravity number. I'm not even sure how you got the number you have...I guess you have some weird setting for efficiency, and you didn't select "Extract" as the recipe type, as you should have, because then you'd get extremely wrong numbers that would make it obvious you were doing something wrong in Beersmith.



But even with all of that, I still get much higher IBUs--in the range of around 35-38. Really you should be using more like .5oz of the Brewer's Gold if you're doing a full boil, assuming they are 8% alpha acid.

So, in the future, if you are doing an extract recipe, select "Extract" as the recipe type. You have selected either "Partial Mash" or "All Grain" because otherwise you'd be getting something like 1.007 for your OG. Then you should substitute Amber Liquid Extract for your Maris Otter, and substitute Amber Dry Extract for your Amber Malt. That should give you IBUs around 37-38. If you click "decrease amount" on the Brewers Gold to bring it down to .5oz, you'll see the IBUs fall into the 20's.


The recipe was written assuming a partial boil, where you add all the extract at the beginning of the boil and you are boiling something like 1/3 to 1/2 of the final volume. Really you could get away with half of the bittering hops (even with a partial boil extract, so long as you don't add all the extract at the beginning) and end up with the right IBUs.
 
OK now we're getting somewhere :)

Thanks for investigating that for me. I definitely find it difficult to figure out which ingredients to select in beersmith to match my recipe.

Still not sure where the original 21-25 ibus listed in the recipe is coming from, but oh well.

I just hope my beer isn't too bitter, because I was trying to brew something with mass appeal since my first two have been a pale ale and ipa.
 
I guess you have some weird setting for efficiency, and you didn't select "Extract" as the recipe type, as you should have, because then you'd get extremely wrong numbers that would make it obvious you were doing something wrong in Beersmith.

It looks that way, but I downloaded the actual beersmith data file and in there, he has tweaked those ingredients to be LME and DME, and the recipe is set as Extract. The numbers might be off because of this, but they aren't off enough to make the difference between 21-25 and 35-40 IBUs. I tried swapping those modified ingredients for the "real" thing and it made a small difference---1.042 vs 1.040 OG. Nothing significant, in other words.

If you switch the bitterness formula to Garetz instead of Tinseth (the default) or Rager, then you get a number in the mid-20s. That might be the difference.
 
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