rdcipe formulation

I am having a hard time warming up to Beer Smith after using ProMash for many years, and would appreciate some insite on various items.  Formulating a recipe: (1) when adding a lot of grain do you have to keep adding 1/4 lb at a time, (2) Hops - where is the time in boil shown and how to change, (3) Mash - How do you make changes such as water to grain ratio, (4) calculate efficiency of brew. I am sure the answers are to be found somewhere in the program but how to find them.  I have been brewing for 20+ years and would like to switch brew programs if it is to my advantage.  Thanks in advance for your help, John

1. If you are starting a new recipe click on add grain on the lower right of the new screen you will see a box to enter amounts. If you have already enter the grain double click on it in the recipe screen, next screen, second column you can adjust amount
Then you can find tune it in the recipe screen with increase or decrease amounts.

2. Same for hops

3. Click on the mash tab upper right. On the mash screen upper left you will find preloaded mash profiles (Double Infusion Full Body  Etc.) select one that you wish to use. Then double click on the mash step to adjust the water to grain ratio.

4. I would brew a few batches with Beer Smith before changing the efficiency. Make sure you set up your equipment profile.   

I'm with you brother! I have been brewing for 23 years and have all of my recipes on Pro Mash. I tried Beer Smith a few years ago and went back to Pro Mash. It is obvious now that the Pro Mash folks have left us and we are going to have to move on. I have yet to figure out a good way to get my recipes into Beer Smith although I have been told there is a way. I can't figure it out. I gave up. Now I love Beer Smith. You just gotta get in there and figure it out. My biggest issue was getting my profiles set up. The rest is easy. Keep working at it. You will get it.

John Brice said:

calculate efficiency of brew. I am sure the answers are to be found somewhere in the program but how to find them.  I have been brewing for 20+ years and would like to switch brew programs if it is to my advantage.

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Like any new program, BeerSmith will take some time to learn. However, its flexibility s vastly superior to ProMash.

+1 to Ihikeut's answers. Efficiency in BeerSmith is about what gets into the fermenter (brewhouse efficiency), where PM is about just the mash. Therefore, this number is going to be "lower" because of losses between kettle and fermenter. Whatever percentage of volume is lost before the fermenter has to be deducted from brewhouse efficiency to give a good starting point.

Mash efficiency is still available, in the mash tab, but its' prediction is based on your overall efficiency as found in the equipment profile or the recipe design tab.