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Late Extract addition Method

T

Thomas Hubbell

Hi,

I've just downloaded the Beersmith evaluation and have been very impressed so far.

Lately, I've been using the extract brewing method in which only a portion (1-2 pounds) of the extract is added for the full boil time and the remainder is added for the last fifteen minutes. This has been described in BYO, I believe, but I learned about it in various forums. It is supposed to lighten beer colors and increase hop utilization (since the majority of the hop boil is in a lower gravity wort).

It seems that BeerSmith assumes that all extracts will be added for the full boil time. Unless I just didn't see the proper setting, there appears to be no way to change the boil time of the malt extracts. Also, I guess that BeerSmith wouldn't calculate the IBU's correctly in this case, since it assumes that all malt extract is added at the beginning.

Is there anyway to overcome these limitations in the current version of BeerSmith and are there any plans to incorporate support for late extract addition in future versions?
 
Thomas,
 This has been suggested and I am looking seriously at adding it as a feature.  The challenge continues to be how to precisely calculate the hops contributions for all of the additions.  The main effect of a late extract addition is a change in bitterness.  I'm still working my way through all of the math since it is not as straightforward as it sounds.

 In the existing program there is an "Add after boil" option that lets you mark an extract addition as occurring after the boil.  While this is not exactly what you need, it does give you a more accurate picture of the bitterness increase you will get from a late extract addition.   Note that this calculates what you would have if you added the extract at the very end of the boil - your actual bitterness level (IBUs) will not be quite as high as it is with this option set.

 I hope this helps a bit.   Thanks again for writing in with the suggestion - it is appreciated!

Cheers!
Brad
 
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