Recipe Question involving LME volumes

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JonnyO

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I've got an Irish Red recipe that I'm planning on brewing. The recipe calls for 6 lbs. LME plus 1 lb. of various specialty grains to be steeped. My LHBS only sells the 3.3 lb. can of the extract. I don't really want to cut out any of the specialty grains, but how do I handle the situation where I have 0.6 lbs of extra LME. I'm sure this is a common question for beginners, I'm just looking for some advice. Is it better to order a 6 lb. bottle of the extract from another supplier, or can I make things work with the two 3.3 lb. cans? I think the specialty grains are more for flavor and color than anything else, but I'm not sure how important that 7 lb. total is.
 
Dude, just weight the cans first then pour out enough till you get .6lbs less weight between the two cans. If you want store the left over in the fridge in an airtight container, or just dump it. Ordering from another place makes no sense since you'll pay more with the shipping charges.


Rev.
 
I'd toss the recipe into brewing software and tweak it for the extra extract, you may have to up the steeping grains and the hops a squosh to balance it, but you'll just end up with a slightly higher abv beer.
 
You're only talking about 10oz of LME more... If you're that concerned over it, just scoop out the difference from one of the cans... Save it to use in making a couple of starters later...

I've added extra DME to recipes before (a full pound more) and didn't alter the specialty grains at all. Still came out as a solid brew. Would I do it again? Probably not, but that's only because I've gone all grain.

If you plug in 6.6# of LME compared with 6# into software, you're only talking about 6 gravity points (for the OG) difference (on a 5 gallon batch)... The FG will be all of 1 gravity point higher.

I say RDWHAHB on this one...
 
For the record, any opinions on a good, cheap (or free) brew software (or iPhone app).
 
For the record, any opinions on a good, cheap (or free) brew software (or iPhone app).

iphone: nope
Good and free: nope
Good/great and cheap: Beer Smith, but you'll need Windows to run that. :drunk:

I gave up my last mac system almost a year ago... No real desire to ever get one again. I had been using them since 1988, but apple continued to just piss me off, so I'm done with them.
 
iPhone - Brewpal (only 99 cents I believe): http://www.brewpal.info/

For the desktop I run Beersmith in Linux. Cost me $22 but was well worth it! There's a free trial too.

@Golddiggie - I might have missed it but where did he mention he has a Mac and not a PC?


Rev.
 
iPhone - Brewpal (only 99 cents I believe): http://www.brewpal.info/

For the desktop I run Beersmith in Linux. Cost me $22 but was well worth it! There's a free trial too.

@Golddiggie - I might have missed it but where did he mention he has a Mac and not a PC?


Rev.

Think I just equated the 'iphone' listing to mean he was more of a mac personage... Just so sick of all the iphone commercials and such... :drunk:

Figured there was at least a 98% chance he wasn't running Linux, even thought there are good options there.

Brewtarget is another app choice... Believe it's available for all three OS'... It's open source, so it could be more buggy than the ones you actually pay for.
 
Just so sick of all the iphone commercials and such... :drunk:

Tell me about it, I'm an IT Tech for a living btw ;). I had an iPhone for two years even though I completely hated Apple as a company due to their fascist policies and leader. It was a good device but the limits just got me to the point where I'd had enough and switched to a Droid 2 and love it so much.

For the Droid I use Brewzor (it's free currently), though it's still in beta stage it works quite nicely and imports my Beerxml exports from Beersmith. Brewpal looks pretty sweet though for the iPhone for only 99 cents.


Rev.
 
Brewpal for the iPhone, worth the 99 cents.

I use Brewmate on the PC, free. I like it.

I had tried Brewtarget, didn't find it buggy, it is much more designed for AG though.
 
In IT over here too... None of the apps I use on a daily basis (and are critical for me) run under the mac OS... SO, in order to use a mac, I'd also need to run VMware Fusion in order to run Windows so that I COULD run my critical apps... Makes zero sense to me, which is why I just run Windows now.

I have a BlackBerry Storm2... I passed on the first Storm since I didn't think it was ready, and I knew I'd be pissed off with it (I tried it a couple of times in the stores)... Been enjoying the BB though... IF I was to switch to another device type, it would probably be something running the Android OS... Sure as hell wouldn't be one of the 'i' devices... In fact, if I could get my protected music to transfer to my BB, I'd toss my iPods...
 
Brewpal for the iPhone, worth the 99 cents.

I use Brewmate on the PC, free. I like it.

I had tried Brewtarget, didn't find it buggy, it is much more designed for AG though.

That's a good enough reason for me to try the BrewTarget software now... I'm all grain, so that's no issue for me. :D
 
Thanks for all the additional advice. For the record I have a Mac at home and a pc for work, so I can work with either. May try the brewmate or brewpal apps, or look into beersmith (especially if they have a free trial).
 
JonnyO said:
Thanks for all the additional advice. For the record I have a Mac at home and a pc for work, so I can work with either. May try the brewmate or brewpal apps, or look into beersmith (especially if they have a free trial).

Sorry, just figured out brewpal isn't an app
 
Beer Smith lets you try it for 21 days... If you do purchase the license (a whoppin $21) you can install it onto two systems... So if your mac is good enough (Intel processor, that's strong enough) you could install VMware Fusion and run Windows within a VM and put Beer Smith on that, plus your work computer (if they let you)...
 
A little too much IT info. Funny that it all started over an extra 0.6 lb of extract that would probably be fine if I just added it in.
 
That's a good enough reason for me to try the BrewTarget software now... I'm all grain, so that's no issue for me. :D

I had tried it awhile back to formulate recipes and it was far to complex for my needs then, I might revisit it though.

For strike/sparge temps/volume, I found Brewpal to be pretty darn handy.

The other plus is your can create a recipe while stuck in some meeting.

Typically I export them and use Brewmate for my recipe catalog.



Anyway, to JohnnyO, Brewpal is great with figuring your recipes with extract, for less than a dollar I recommend giving it a shot.
 
A little too much IT info. Funny that it all started over an extra 0.6 lb of extract that would probably be fine if I just added it in.

Well, you did later ask about brewing software for the desktop or iPhone. Not like we all just went there on our own ;)


Rev.
 
Well, you did later ask about brewing software for the desktop or iPhone. Not like we all just went there on our own ;)

Going to agree on that one...

You have enough people on here from all different career paths, so you know your chances of having someone in the IT field see a post asking about software is pretty damned high (these days)...

Just be glad we're not from India...

"Would you like a Slushy with that??"



I already know I'm going to hell... :rockin:
 
Not a phone app, but one of the best free online recipe calculators is Beercalculus.

You can save recipes online and everything.

Thanks. I put the recipe into Beercalculus (pretty cool site, by the way), and it seems like the extra LME won't change things very much (as everyone already said). The calculations did raise a question for me, however. There's a spot in the worksheet to edit the boil size (batch size set at 5-gal). The recipe I have calls for a 2 gal. boil, which is good since I don't have a larger pot at this time. The worksheet calculates a big drop in IBU's with a 2 gal. boil vs. a 5 gal. boil. It doesn't seem like the wort volume should affect the IBU's, but I want to make sure, before I get to boiling.
 
the higher the gravity of what you're boiling is, the less hop utilization you'll get. since a two gallon boil is much more concentrated (i.e. higher gravity) then a five gallon boil, less alpha acids get absorbed
 
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