Beersmith adjustments

[Redleg84]

I'm having some issues with my brewing that I'm hoping to resolve with the batch I'm brewing tomorrow. My beers haven't been getting hopped correctly, not bitter enough. I downloaded beersmith to see if it'll help.

When I enter in the recipe the IBUs (10 over) and SG (7 over) are higher than the recipe indicates. I've adjusted the hops for the difference in AAUs.

I can adjust my efficiency lower to get the SG to get closer (not overly worried about the SG being a little high), but what about the hops? Should I let beersmith adjust the hop amounts down to get the listed IBUs? What influences the IBU levels from hop bill other than batch size/water volume? I want to make sure it's not something I have set wrong giving me the number, I'd hate to adjust the numbers down and have another underhopped beer.

What would you guys suggest?

 

[MerlinWerks]

Can you post the recipe?

 

[olotti]

The amount of time the hops are in the boil will effect ibus and adjust your mash temp and that'll raise or lower your fg. So if you have a recipe just input the hop additions as written but you may need to manually adjust the amount of hops to get the appropriate ibus provided by the recipe.

 

[Redleg84]

It's Enohcs' recipe :

Mash at 154 for 60min. I had 70%eff
American Rahr (2 row) Pale: 11.50lbs
American Briess Crystal 20 1.00lbs
American Briess Light Munich 0.75lbs
American Briess Carapils 0.75lbs
American Briess Torrified Wheat 0.25lbs

Chinook (Pellet) 1oz 30min
Cascade (Pellet) 1.5oz 30min
Williamette (Pellet) 0.5oz 15min
Cascade (Pellet) 1.5oz 15min
Williamette (Pellet) 1oz 5min
Cascade (Pellet) 2oz Dry in secondary

Don't worry about the lack of a 60minute hop addition. The bitterness is spot on.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=81478

 

[Redleg84]

Ok, that's what I was wondering about. I'll input the adjusted amounts to get to the stated ibu level.

Also, this will be my first time bagging my hops. I'm assuming this will lower my trub loss amount? This will impact the IBUs as well I'm guessing.

I'm thinking of adjusting the hops to the recipe's ibu level and then keeping the trub loss at the default .75 gallons and seeing what I get.

Not sure if I'm over thinking this, just tired of underwhelming beers lol

 

[kh54s10]

I use Beersmith and, IMO, you will have to work with Beersmith for a couple of brews tweaking your profiles to get pretty close to what you are looking for. I have been using it for 5 years and am satisfied if my OG is +/- 3 points. So if I was looking for 1.050, I would expect 1.047 to 1.053 in reality. I usually get closer than that though.

The most important part to work on is your equipment profile.

 

[Redleg84]

I wish I had used it earlier, I never kept track of some of the info that could really help right now.

If I'm pretty close I'll be happy, I realize I'm estimating on some of it. Trial and error has been the name of the game since I started brewing. Hoping to refine everything and gain consistency with the help of this app

 

[ba-brewer]

If you have your dead space volumes or how much is left when draining the mash tun and your boil off rates you should get pretty close to start. Tweak it like KH54s10 said over a few brews and you should get predictable results.

Double check the recommended mash and sparge volumes to see if they make sense with your previous brew sessions.

There are videos on youtube that go over how to set up beersmith if you need more info.

 

[Redleg84]

I just got done brewing the batch up. Everything was right on except for my SG for some reason. My pre boil gravity matched beersmith, and my boil off amount was accurate. My post boil SG was 5 points low, not sure if it was a bad sample or if I messed up along the way.

This app sure does make things easier.

 

[ba-brewer]

Being off by 5 points is not too bad for the first recipe. It is hard to have the correct gravity and volumes pre boil with the correct boil off and end up with the gravity being off.

(gravity preboil)*(volume preboil) = (gravity post boil)*(volume post boil)

If you have those numbers you can double check things.

Keep notes and adjust your beersmith inputs and things should tighten up.