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Some of it may depend on which calculation you choose. The plain truth is that IBUs are not an ever upward spiral of bitterness. And it certainly isn't linear. No matter what you do, you can't get 100% utilization of the hop itself. There is an inverse log scale that says the longer you...

At my first read of AJ's response, I wanted to say, "wait! Whay??" But then I remembered a reasonably large brewery that high gravity brews and then uses deaerated, acidified and sulfate enhanced water to make their pilsner taste crisper. Minerals added post fermentation change perceptions...

Mash efficiency is what makes it into the kettle. You're applying the rule that more volume = less OG. In that scenario, you're logic is sound. BeerSmith uses brewhouse efficiency as a measure of how much sugar makes it into the fermenter and can become beer. Based on your description...

A false bottom is precisely what you need. Scorching is eliminated when the heat can move through the mash without being trapped in a small space. The liquid distance from a false bottom provides more heat dissipation than the grain. The next step is to recirculate while heating. This is...

Indeed, something did. In the equipment profile, your boil off was a mere 0.5 gallons (~1 liter). Is this what you expected? Just 2.2% evaporation? The recipe doesn't help much because it doesn't seem to reflect your actual measurements. Your original post said you checked your preboil...

Extract recipes don't really rely on the Brewhouse Efficiency number, too much. The Extract is given 100% yield for creating the OG. You'll often see a huge difference if you change it to partial mash or all grain. The variability is in the efficiency of the steeped grains for extract...

When the actual Brewhouse efficiency matches BeerSmith's predictions, but the mash efficiency is off by more than a couple of tenths, the issue is typically loss to trub being a bit low. Increasing the loss to trub increases mash efficiency because BeerSmith keeps the gravity and batch size...

Honestly, scaling recipes is very much dependent on the flavor goals of the beer. Hugely hoppy beers don't need much malt adjustment, but more complex malt driven styles like Porter and Brown Ale do. You do get a lot more punch and color from specialty malts as size scales up. It's amazing...

Olotti; You need to set the Brewhouse Efficiency to match your results. If 68% is your average, use it. Having multiple equipment profiles to match circumstances is one of the benefits of using BeerSmith. I have profiles for "regular" beers and for larger kettle hop loss and for more dry hop...

Two Tips: 1) BeerSmith has different has a different rate for steeped grain. It defaults at 15%. This is changeable in the Options > Advanced menu. 2) In using "Brewhouse Efficiency" as its main calculation, BeerSmith doesn't lower the anticipated OG when loss to trub is increased. It...

It's a recovery mode screen. It will recover the iPad back to the last time you updated and backed up the iPad to either your computer or the cloud. More recent pads automatically update to the cloud when unused, charging and on wifi. Standard iPad recovery directions here.

On the fermentation tab, there's a field called "Measured Efficiency." When accurate numbers are recorded, this is the number you should update to your equipment profile Brewhouse Efficiency number. When you put the measured efficiency number into the equipment profile, the numbers should...

When you change the version number and close the recipe, the prompt will ask if you wish to save it under a new name. Clicking Yes will show the same recipe name with the version number tacked onto the end. Or, you can just rename the recipe. This feature is a little kludgey and almost...

You have to start by writing an equipment profile for 3 gallons. You can use the wizard to speed up that process or just copy and modify something close to your needs. What's in BeerSmith is a template of options, but not a full range. It's probably not possible to capture every possible...

There are two parts to mash efficiency: Conversion and Sparge. These combine to give you a gravity. A refractometer will tell you when your conversion is complete. The simplest explanation is that the gravity will stop rising when conversion is complete. An iodine test is incomplete for...

It kind of depends on what your definition of "batch size" and efficiency is. First, always trust the numbers that the person writing the recipe provides. They know what they were making and how is should turn out. This is your target. BeerSmith looks at efficiency from the perspective of...

The difference between your two preboil volumes is .177%. Which happens to correspond to the expansion expected for 22C (72F) water. That seems to be the "cold" temperature reference point. Your point about the sparge volumes is correct, though. The sparge volume is tied to the expansion rate...

Seems like there is a pretty simple resolution for this. In your equipment profile, if you select "Calculate Boil Volume Automatically" and then change the cooling shrinkage number, does the pre and post boil volume change? I believe it does. That would indicate the numbers are measured hot.

The general spec sheets are a list of production goals based on minimum or maximum specs. Actual malt specs are found in a malt analysis sheet. Briess has a QR code on each bag that links to their malt analysis. So does Weyermann and several other maltsters. Malting is a fairly sophisticated...

Are your gravities correct? Or are they a little high? If the latter, then yes, a little more water in the kettle is called for. Your preboil and post boil kettle volumes are measured hot in BeerSmith. In your equipment profile, you can adjust the expansion to fit the temperature you're...