Questions about Est. & Measured OG, FG ABV, etc... in Beersmith

[pshankstar]

I am new to Beersmith and still learning. I find it to be a great tool and enjoy learning more about it as time goes on. I was curious to know more about the "Gravity, Alcohol Content and Color" section. There is an estimated OG, FG and ABV, plus there is a measured OG, FG and ABV. Now I know one is an estimate and the other is measured, but when you are making recipe or following one, which do you all usually follow or pay more attention to? It seems like the estimate version seems more in line with recipes I find online or in articles like BYO.

For example, I plugged in the NB Ranger IPA from the BYO magazine. In Beersmith I get the following:

Est. OG - 1.064
Est. FG - 1.012
Est. ABV - 6.8%
Measured OG - 1.046
Measured FG - 1.010
Actual ABV - 4.7%

BYO Ranger IPA details are:
OG - 1.059
FG - 1.009
ABV - 6.5%

With all of this being said, it seems like the estimates in Beersmith seem more in line then the measured numbers. Why is this? Why are they both in there? Is it just to confuse us newbies? LOL

Thanks in advance!

 

[LLBeanJ]

The estimates are what you should be paying attention to. BS just populates the actual value fields with default values that are in the profiles you are using. They are usually not relevant to the recipe you are working on. Build and tweak your recipe based on the estimated values and ignore the actuals until you have real data to fill them in with. When creating a recipe, I always transfer the estimated values into the actual values fields, then I update the actuals with real values on brew day and beyond as they become known.

 

[pshankstar]

The estimates are what you should be paying attention to. BS just populates the actual value fields with default values that are in the profiles you are using. They are usually not relevant to the recipe you are working on. Build and tweak your recipe based on the estimated values and ignore the actuals until you have real data to fill them in with. When creating a recipe, I always transfer the estimated values into the actual values fields, then I update the actuals with real values on brew day and beyond as they become known.

OK, that makes sense! I am creating a beer log folder where I copy the recipe to the folder after the brew day. There I can change the "Measured" fields with my numbers I get from batch of beer.

Thank you so much for the quick response! I feel silly that I asked such a question, but there is so much to Beersmith and being new it can sometimes be overwhelming. Especially when you cannot find anything after searching to answer your question(s).

 

[brewfun]

You can created a default recipe that has all of your preferred profiles and is populated with all the things you use in every recipe, like Irish moss, favorite yeast. Then zero out all of the measured fields. Just save it as the default recipe middle of the home ribbon) and all new recipes are clean and have the tedious stuff covered.

 

[pshankstar]

Thanks @brewfun! That is good to know. I may end up doing that when I actually find a brew that I want to keep making over and over again. Right now, I like to keep changing it up and make a different brew each time.

Here's another question. When I have an inventory setup in Beersmith and brew a beer that uses some of those ingredients. Do I have to manually update the inventory? Or is there some sort of check box or trigger that I can use that decreases the amount in the recipe when I brew?

Thanks in advance everyone!

 

[kh54s10]

When using the recipe design page there is a button on the toolbar labelled remove inv. Clicking on that button will remove all the items in the recipe from your inventory. The only issue is that there is no indication shown that you have done it so if you click it again, it will remove the same amount again.

 

[pshankstar]

When using the recipe design page there is a button on the toolbar labelled remove inv. Clicking on that button will remove all the items in the recipe from your inventory. The only issue is that there is no indication shown that you have done it so if you click it again, it will remove the same amount again.

Thanks! I'm not sure how I missed that large button at the top of the screen! LOL

 

[Shannanigans]

So I have pulled some recipes into my BS and when I change to my equipment it totally changed the estimated values so I tweeted the equipment to adjust to that. I'm a little lost though because I don't understand why my equipment would change IBU. The other think is I Brewer a triple IPA from craft pours.com and then after put it in BS and it shows a OG of 1.103 and the actual was 1.086 that's a big spread! And it was in craft pours as 1.09x

 

[brewfun]

So I have pulled some recipes into my BS and when I change to my equipment it totally changed the estimated values so I tweeted the equipment to adjust to that.

Did you just swap the profiles or dd you use the scale recipe function? If you just change equipment, then the recipe specs will respond to those parameters. Using the scale recipe function, the recipe ingredients will be changed to match the specs.

 

[raysmithtx]

Check the efficiency you have set for your equipment. That is usually the reason recipes import with different values.

 

[Shannanigans]

They were both 5 gal batches so I just changed my equipment. It's fine if it all works out because it was a lighter color IPA than I wanted any way so I changed it but what was concerning me was that the beer wouldn't turn out as I would like. I put in a triple IPA recipe that I got off craft pours and it was suppose to be 105 IBU and in BS it says 165IBU a bit concerning!!

 

[LLBeanJ]

Are the AA% for the hops the same? BS has default AA% for all the hops varieties in its database that it will use when you add hops to a recipe. Most likely, BeerSmith's AA% is going to be something different than the hops you actually use and the same goes for the AA% of hops in a recipe you pulled from another source. When I build a recipe, I go with the hops AA% as they are in BS, but then I update the AA% in the recipe with actual AA% once I buy my hops. Most recipes will give IBUs for each addition and that's what I try to match using the actual AA% of my hops.

If that's not enough to worry about, you need (well, you don't really need to, but you can if you choose) to determine which formula your source recipe is basing the IBUs calculation on: Tinseth or Rager. BS has a setting for this in the options. Most folks just pick one or the other and stick with it, but BS will spit out differing IBUs depending on which one you use. I think Tinseth is more common, but IIRC all the recipes in Brewing Classic Styles, for example, use the Rager formula.

 

[Shannanigans]

Legit! Thank you that helps! And makes sense.