bug in save, bug in special malt fermentability

Hi, this evening I was playing with a recipe I should brew tomorrow and I encountered a couple of issues:

1- even if I dont save the recipe and close it, the software seems to automatically save the changes I made so when I reopen it, I don't get the original version of my recipe but the one i edited (without saving)

2-special malts (seems all of them, like carafa, chocolate, crystal and so on) go and count as fermentables adding points to ABV % even if I set (I think they should be set automatically by the software) them as non fermentables


thanks in advance

gobbo said:

1- even if I dont save the recipe and close it, the software seems to automatically save the changes I made so when I reopen it, I don't get the original version of my recipe but the one i edited (without saving)

Click to expand...

Yes, this is the default. It's far more likely that someone wants to save changes, than not. To escape without saving, use the Cancel button.

2-special malts (seems all of them, like carafa, chocolate, crystal and so on) go and count as fermentables adding points to ABV % even if I set (I think they should be set automatically by the software) them as non fermentables

Click to expand...

You should see the "non fermentable" results in the Final Gravity. Specialty malts add to original gravity because that's how you get residual gravity. Most have a max potential around 35 pppg. Even when just steeped, lower colored crystal malts should give you 20ish PPG Higher colored crystal malts as low as 10 PPG. So, there's a range.

HOWEVER, when the item is added as a Grain or Adjunct, the Final Gravity doesn't change when the "Non Fermentable" box is checked. This is a legit bug.

The workaround is to list the item as an extract or grain, though this increases the OG a little because BeerSmith assumes 100% efficiency with those items. Grain additions are limited by your mash or steep efficiency.

Specialty malts are not "non fermentable," in the truest sense. Though they are extremely limited in in fermentability, nearly all can be mashed on their own with added amylase and fermentable extract will result. Lighter crystal malts can be as much as 60% fermentable. Munich, Vienna, Honey and Biscuit malts are all very fermentable. Medium crystal malt fermentability drops significantly, but still shows some, while dark crystal is around 10 to 15% fermentable.

Roast malts still have some starch, too. Not much, but some. They're also not typically used at high enough levels to register much impact.

Thanks for explaining how save works my workaround was to save as with other name, using cancel seems much quicker than that!

About the special malts: today I did brew this black ipa/aipa and basically got confused: say I used about 1,75 kg of special malts, 1 kg wheat malt and 4 kg pale malt to get 23 liters in the fermenter. the only way I found to get a good approximation for ABV was to remove the special malts from the recipe, but that of course changed also my OG (havent measured that yet, will do tomorrow) and my pre-boil gravity (measured, got 1042 instead of 1044 calculated by beersmith not taking in account the special malts contribute) so I am not sure how much do the special malts contribute for the og, maybe a lot less in proportion with the fermentables because they do not add sugar to raise the gravity? Im pretty sure I got a good efficiency for biab, so my 1042 seems a bit distant from the 1053 calculated by beersmith when adding the special malts to the recipe)

If steeped and not enzymatically active, specialty malts seem to average about 6 ppg. If enzymes are present, then the contribution is closer to your mash efficiency per kg. And sorry for the mixed measuring standards, there.

Again, they *do* add sugar, just not all fermentable. So, the OG depends on how you extract them but still rises because of them. What will show you the potential abv better is to lower the Max attenuation of the yeast by 3 to 5%. Then when the beer is done, change it in the recipe to match the FG results you get.