Adjusting grain bill for efficiency

I am currently using Beersmith for brewing and I get pertty consistent results with the brewhouse efficiency set to 65%. So when I want to use a recipe that is using 70 or 75% brewhouse efficiency how should I adjust my grain bill to get the desired results? Should I add more of the base malt or adjust all the grains equally?

When I had my brewhouse efficiency set to 70%, I ended up adding DME to get the target preboil gravity. So I think that would be similar to adding more base malt to the recipe to start with, right?

Beersmith also gives you proportions, which is what I pay attention to.

If I have a recipe I like, and I need to adjust it for efficiency or batch size or whatever, I try to keep the proportions similar. So if the starting recipe is approximately 80% base malt, 20% others, I try to keep that proportion in the adjusted recipe. Does that make sense?

Good luck!

I actually asked the same question a month or so ago ... here's the thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/converting-recipes-efficiency-method-do-you-use-146710/

seems like the general consensus is scale all the ingredients to keep proportions the same. makes sense to me - it's just like cooking anything else. If you're making tomato sauce, and you add more tomatoes, the result won't taste the same unless you also add more spices.

On the other hand, I'm not sure if I could taste the difference between, say, 4.5 oz of Vienna malt and 6 oz of Vienna malt in a beer that's made from 11lbs of grain. So the difference may not matter all that much, depending on what grain you're talking about.

Can't you just enter the recipe into beersmith as is at 75% then change it to 65% and beersmith will make adjustments?

Kilted Brewer said:

Can't you just enter the recipe into beersmith as is at 75% then change it to 65% and beersmith will make adjustments?

Click to expand...

No, I think when you change the efficiency, BeerSmith keeps the ingredients but updates the calculations (like estimated OG). Maybe there's a way to tell it to do what you suggest, but I don't know it.

Found it. Just use the scale function. Don't change the volume, just the efficiency number. The grain amounts will change.

if you use the adjust recipe function in beersmith, or convert recipe (i can't remember and am at work) it will allow you to set the new effienency and it will scale all the ingredients to match.

************someone beat me to it^^^^^^^^

Ok cool. Thanks for the help finding where in Beersmith to scale the recipe. So you select <Scale> and then select <Choose> on the equipment line; then the appropriate screen pops up. That's the part I never got to work before. I like it!

No... Just hit <scale> then change the Brewhouse Efficiency ^ right on that page... Also, make sure to check your batch size on the same page when you change the Eff%.. Mine defaults back to 5g if I don't watch it...