BeerSmith vs Brewer's Friend: different OG

[faithie999]

tomorrow I'm brewing an extract kit from NB. The recipe sheet lists OG as 1.074. I decided to enter the recipe into BeerSmith and it calculates OG as 1.055. Brewer's Friend calculates 1.068, which is close enough to 1.074 to call it "right".

any idea why the discrepancy?

6.3 lb Gold Malt Syrup
2 lb. Golden Light DME
1 lb. corn sugar
.5 lb Carapils, steeped 15 minutes
.5 lb flaked oats, steeped 15 minutes

if the recipe sheet is right at 1.074, I would leave the corn sugar out because I want a lower ABV.

thanks

Ken

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

any idea why the discrepancy?

Most likely, it's an equipment configuration problem (or a water volume problem).

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For a 5 gal batch, 1.074 looks good:

(For Carapils and Oats, I used 30 PPG and 30% efficiency).

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IIRC, Brewers Friend will show PPG values for the recipe. That information would be helpful for identifying where the estimates are different.

Speculation: if Brewers Friend uses 35PPG for LME -and- the DME was entered as LME, I get 1.069:

 

[faithie999]

great--thanks for your help! other than lowering the OG, omitting the corn sugar won't have a noticeable effect, I assume.

 

[dmtaylor]

Without enzymatic base malt, the oats will contribute starch but not much sugar if any. What the oats will do for the specific gravity, I'm not sure, but I left it out. Regardless...

StrangeBrew (which I've been using for 25 years and which I trust) predicts about 1.077 assuming 5 gallons. So the 1.074 is the most accurate of your 3 sources... and BeerSmith is apparently WAY off.

 

[mac_1103]

I'm getting 1.075 from Brewer's Friend. Probably slight differences between the extracts we selected. I would trust the recipe sheet.

 

[day_trippr]

[edit] Ok, I screwed that post up entirely. Lemme try again.

QBrew for a 5.0 gallon batch using steeped carapils and flaked oats comes up with OG of 1.078.
If those two ingredients are Mashed the OG goes up to 1.079.

BS3 for a 5.0 gallon batch using steeped carapils and flaked oats comes up with OG of 1.071.
If I set those two ingredients to "Mashed" the OG jumps up to 1.075.

I had the batch size set to 5.5 gallons before...

Cheers!

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

i've thought of for years, people say 5 gallon batch all the time but that's not the starting batch, i go by starting batch for a recipe. it makes a huge difference for a recipe, I brew a 6.5 gallon beer to get a 5 gallon beer, you get my point

 

[day_trippr]

I suppose it depends on where you set the goal posts. All recipes start with a pre-boil volume, and for my heavily hopped neipas, accounting for boil off, cooling shrinkage, and kettle hop and dry hop losses, I have to have a 14 gallon pre-boil volume to get a full 10 gallons into the kegs. That translates to 12 gallons post-whirlpool cooled volume, 11 gallons to the fermentors, and then 10 gallons to the kegs. Not the most efficient style

Cheers!

 

[GoodTruble]

great--thanks for your help! other than lowering the OG, omitting the corn sugar won't have a noticeable effect, I assume.

To answer your later question, no it will not have a noticeable effect. Corn sugar would raise ABV and thin out the beer a little bit. But most people would never notice the difference (and half the people who did would probably prefer it).

 

[GoodTruble]

great--thanks for your help! other than lowering the OG, omitting the corn sugar won't have a noticeable effect, I assume.

I guess this could also depend on the style a bit, but usually, no. (Is this a trippel or strong belgian ale?).

 

[kevin58]

I can't speak for Brewers Friend but it is quite important to have an accurate and customized equipment profile when using Beersmith. Also if the efficiency of the published recipe is different than on your system you will have a discrepancy. Adjust your efficiency to match that of the recipe.

 

[faithie999]

thanks to all who replied. I'm sure my issue was due to an incorrect equipment profile in beer smith.

I have just finished the boil and cooled the wort. the OG is what was predicted by the brewers friend calculator.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I suppose it depends on where you set the goal posts. All recipes start with a pre-boil volume, and for my heavily hopped neipas, accounting for boil off, cooling shrinkage, and kettle hop and dry hop losses, I have to have a 14 gallon pre-boil volume to get a full 10 gallons into the kegs. That translates to 12 gallons post-whirlpool cooled volume, 11 gallons to the fermentors, and then 10 gallons to the kegs. Not the most efficient style

Cheers!

I have the same set up, it works also for the best clarity without having finnings or filtering

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I'm bios I work for brewer's friend so I can't comment lol, I do know that if there is a complaint we dig into it and fix it or at least try

 

[MaxStout]

BeerSmith has a bit of a learning curve and you need to plug some empirical data back in to dial it in.

Getting the equipment profiles tweaked takes some time and a few brews. Out of the box, BS may not even be close to what you experience. Take VERY GOOD NOTES of your process, and circle back to BS. The more input you provide, the better the tool becomes. Be patient, it's a great tool.

It took me 3 or 4 brews just to get the boiloff volumes where I wanted them.

 

[day_trippr]

I started with version 1.4 and to be honest after being totally intimidated by the [gawdawful] gui that it had back then it was weeks before I came back to it with determination to learn the damned thing. And then it was more weeks and recipes before I got it to where it was actually helping and not just being a %#$@&! pita.

Now, I would be at sea without it. There's definitely a one-way dependency thing going on

Cheers!