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scaling Hops

M

Mark Robinson

Hi
I am trying out beersmith and was suprised at the result of the scaling function.

I am brewing an Imperial Stout from a 5 gallon recipe but want to do a 10 gallon brew. I entered the ingredients as stated in the recipe and then scaled to 10 gallons.

I adjusted the %acid specs for the hop definitions. I entered the hops in oz. When scaling the program doubled the grain bill but x4 the hops amounts.

The recipe states the hops as HBUs and I calculated the oz amounts using the actual acid%. How did the program calculate the scaling. If I wanted to look at some value before and after the scale to see that the program is attempting to keep constant what value might it be and where might I find it on the recipe sheet?

Unfortuately when trying to understand this scaling process I found that you cannot go back. If you scale down the results are no longer what you started with. Rounding issues I suspect.

thanks for the great program.

best Mark
 
Hi
I am replying to my own post. I see that another brewer came accross this problem as listed in the support colum and what didn't seem reasonable in fact is an error. I learned from the other post that I should look to see if the IBUs stay constant. Using the remedy suggested, ie manually adjusting the boiling volume before scaling improved the result imensely although still didn't hold the IBUs constant.
For instance my first bittering hop at 35.7 IBU for 5 gallons scaled to 47.2 IBU for 10 gallons using the fix, while it had gone to 74.2 IBU without the hand change in boil volume.

thanks Mark
 
Mark,
 My apologies, but the first time anyone reported this error was yesterday!  

 I'm still working through exactly what the problem is and would greatly appreciate it if you could forward your recipe via email to me.  In many cases that I've tried the command works fine, so I suspect some combination of hop conditions may be at work.  I will get to the bottom of this -

 I also note the following:
 - I recommend using the scale recipe command from the main recipe database view as opposed to on an open recipe (this lets you undo if you have problems).
 - As another work-around, you can scale the IBU's to any value you want using the "Adjust bitterness" command on the action menu if you have the recipe open.
 
Cheers!
Brad
 
Mark,
 I thought I would try one more time - any chance you could send me the recipe you are having problems with (via email to beersmith@beersmith.com)

 I think I've corrected the problem but I want to test it against your recipe if possible since you seemed to have an unusual problem.

Thanks!
Brad
 
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