Maltodextrin's fermentability in Beersmith

[eer]

I wonder why adding maltodextrin(MD) to a recipe in Beersmith raises the OG (as it should, I presume), does not change the FG, and increases the estimated amount of alcohol in the recipe? Surely Beersmith can not mean that MD is 100% fermentable.

Adding maltodextrin to the recipe makes it hard to dial in the process, because I can not calculate alcohol or attenuation/FG properly. Which tempts me to exclude dextrins, but I like to add extra body to extract beers below 1.055.

Some say MD is 16% fermentable, but I believe it is 0%. I added 1/2# MD to my last batch and the estimated OG was off(could be other factors), the FG (1.012) was spot on by Beersmith but did not change due to MD (extract ESB of 1.055).

Is the best way to solve this to make/add a new ingredient in the software and change fermentability parameters?


Thanks for any help

 

[day_trippr]

^ That needs an edit, there's at least one FG in there that should probably be an OG.

BeerSmith punts the whole malto-dextrin thing into some weird void where it doesn't contribute anything to either OG or FG. That's nonsense, of course, but it's likely due to an underlying fatal flaw in BS2 that provides no mechanism to account for varying fermentability of ingredients. Anything that hits the fermenter ferments the same.

Malto-Dextrine isn't even in the Grains and Sugars group, probably for the same reason, as to put it there would require dealing with that same big problem. Easier to stuff it in Miscellaneous ingredients, where fermentability isn't ever a factor.

MD should contribute around 40 points per pound to both OG and FG, but you cannot create a Sugar ingredient with that quality in BeerSmith. So I think you have to deal with that on paper...

Cheers!

 

[agrazela]

Maltodextrins do vary, but they tend to contain about 12-15% fermentable sugars (1, 2, 3-unit sugars).

What they DON'T tend to contain are sugars longer than 7 or 8 units, which is why IMO they can't substitute well for the mouthfeel produced by the dextrins from a mash.

 

[eer]

day_trippr:
Thanks. (I edited/changed the first "FG" in the post, beersmith adds MD to the OG as it should.)
Ok, I think you are right. I'll probably just do my own calculations and live with that, or stop adding it all together.

agrazela:
Appreciate the info. I did not know the MD doesn't consist of the longest sugars. Maybe I'll just leave it out, and do a mash when I make lower abv beers.

 

[Oginme]

Your other option, if you have some data that you can rely on, is to edit the maltodextrin in BS2 to reflect the amount that is fermentable.