Balanced Beer and BeerSmith

[stevemwazup]

    I'm new to BeerSmith and this forum and wanted to say thanks for all the good advice that's been posted.

I'm wanting to increase the malt extract for  higher alcohol, but wanting to know if the BeerSmith program will adjust

or compensate for the hops or any other important ingredients to keep the beer balanced and not have that alcohol bit.

Any ideas would be welcomed.
Stevemwazup.

[MaltLicker]

If I understood the question correctly, you may have a recipe that makes a 1.050 porter, and you want a 1.065 porter instead?  Same batch size, just a bigger beer? 

I don't know of a single button to push like the "scale" button will adjust the batch size, keeping the beer the same. 

If I were doing it, I would first note the BU:GU ratio, and the percentages of each grain.  Then I would start increasing the amount on each grain (edit: and the hops!) until I reached my OG target, and then check the ratio and %'s to confirm I had kept the recipe in the same balance as the original. 

PS: and on a slight tangent....it would help to know the hops utilization model (Rager, Tinseth, etc.) of the original recipe if you can find it.  If you're copying and then changing a recipe done in Rager, and BSmith is set for Tinseth, the IBUs and therefore the BU:GU ratio will differ somewhat.   You set that under Tools\Options\Bitterness.

[stevemwazup]

      Thanks for your reply, that was helpful.  I give it a try with my next batch, probably with a red ale .
Stevemwazup.

[UselessBrewing]

You may also want to look at the Bitterness Ratio which takes the IBU and divides it by the SG. If the new recipe is within a few points of the old recipe I would say that you succeeded.

Cheers
Preston

[stevemwazup]

   Thanks Preston,

So I would look at the bitterness IBUs, let's say 37.3 , and as I add the malt extract the IBUs number
will start to go down.  That's when I would adjust my hop profile to make the IBUs ratio the same % as orig.??

Does this sound like I'm down the right path?
Stevemwazup.

[UselessBrewing]

Yes that is correct. As you increase the malt, the bitterness will drop because the malt overpowers the hops. So to keep it as close to the original, you would adjust the Hops accordingly.

Cheers
Preston

[stevemwazup]

Thanks again.
Stevemwazup