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Help with Beersmith and Equipment profile

MercifulGiraffe

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Hello all, Apologies if this is in the wrong location - I'm new to the forum.

I'm new to beersmith, and am having trouble converting an existing recipe, and i think its something to do with the equipment profile.

I am trying to convert the following recipe to the grains available locally, and my equipment profile:



I have a Brewzilla 65L, and i setup the following equipment profile for half batches (23L):



I have ended up with the following, and am confused about how:
1) I ended up with a VERY high IBU on line 6



2) How much water this equipment profile indicates i should be using - Sparge water seems to be way too much for the total volume required, am I just reading this wrong?



Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong, or what I'm missing?
 
So the IBU being very high seems to be related to the "Estimate Boil Hop Util in Whirlpool" setting. If it turn this off, then the IBU's are back to where I expect.

Still confused about how to read the volumes needed though... :)
 
It may be the equipment profile or it may be your methodology for converting the recipe.  There is nothing in your equipment profile which stands out as different.  Realize that even if you downloaded a Brewzilla profile, you will still need to do some customization on the profile to get it to match the way you use your equipment. 

First thing that I would do is to substitute the grains for those you plan to use.  You can do this by clicking on the grain in the recipe to highlight it and then clicking on 'substitute' to the right of the ingredient box.  You can select your choice for a replacement and the program will plug it in at the same amount as the previous grain.  Once you do this for all the grains,, you can adjust the OG slider just under the ingredient box on the design tab.  Clicking on this box will bring up a window where you can click on the value and bring it back to the original recipe target. 

Now that you have subbed out the grains that you are replacing and have the recipe back to the intended targets, use the 'Scale Recipe' function to adjust the recipe from the original equipment profile to your profile.  When you do so, make sure you click to match the original gravity, bitterness, and color.

This should take care of the high IBU issue you are seeing, because by scaling the recipe in this way the program will make adjustments for utilization or elevation differences.

Lastly, BeerSmith works by using the ending volume into the fermenter and calculates backward to determine how much water is required.  If you think something is wrong with the sparge water, it will be in your assumptions of losses from your equipment profile.  If this is the first time you brewed with this profile, and you don't have much data from past brews on your boil off rate or process losses, then I would give the brew a try with the estimates the program gives you.  Take measurements of gravity and volumes pre-boil and post-boil, measure your trub losses, and then use those numbers to refine your equipment profile to match your actual results.  Pay attention to the calculated efficiency on the 'sessions' tab and use that number to adjust your estimated efficiency in your equipment profile as well.  Do this several times and you will find yourself getting closer and closer to the targets the program.  Keep track of the changes and you will probably find that an average for the values needed in the equipment profile will give you a very good place for your future brewing.

 
You'll find an excellent video on setting up your equipment profile here:
http://brulosophy.com/2014/08/04/beersmith-tutorial-equipment-profile-setup/
You should also be aware that the mash profile is important too.
In order for the software to work properly, it relies heavily on your inputs.
The BeerSmith site has a wide variety of articles and videos covering use of the software.

 
Thank you both for your input!

I'll take a read of the links and watch the videos, and see if i cant work out whats going on with the water volumes.

 
I found this post every helpful, and it explained the numbers to me:

http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=13530.0#:~:text=To%20do%20this%2C%20you%20need,that%20becomes%20your%20mash%20volume.

Essentially, I was ignoring the volume of water that the grains would absorb. It all makes sense now! Thank you all.
 
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