differences in target OG between BeerSmith and other calculators

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KyleWolf

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So I normally use a combination of Hopville and Brewmaster's Warehouse for my recipe calculations and they are almost always within 1 or 2 gravity points of each other, same for IBU. However, I recently I have switched to BeerSmith, I have read that most other people see there target OG goes UP with beersmith...I am having an opposite problem.

Example, my target OG for 75% efficiency on an Imperial India Brown Ale according to Hopville and Brewmaster's Warehouse is 1.097 +- .001. When putting it into BeerSmith, it only displays 1.088 @ 75%. I am just curious if anyone else has had a similar problem between these calculators?

btw, When I actually brewed this, I got a gravity of 1.092. So now I want to know if I ended up with something like 72-73% or if I actually was closer to 77-78%.

Looking forward to your experiences.
 
Without knowing for sure (I use ProMash pretty much exclusively), I would guess that the default settings for grain PPG is different, i.e. Hopville/Brewmasters might have 2-Row listed at a potential 1.036, whereas Beersmith might have it at a potential 1.034.

These are small differences, but add up in large grain bills or when the differences lie in your base malts. Just double check. If you are really concerned, you would need to note the PPG of each of your grain varieties at time of purchase and adjust in your brewing software. They should all be relatively the same, but from manufacturer to manufacturer or season to season could vary slightly.
 
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