ABV prediction way off

[jomebrew]

So, just out of curiosity, why does BeerSmith cap the ABV at 10% WITHOUT a yeast strain in the recipe? I get the tolerance of each strain part. That makes sense. But if I am adding just ingredients before adding yeast, shouldn't I be able to see the potential ABV still?

You couldn't estimate the ABV without a terminal gravity. I'd prefer no value until yeast is added though BS3 could default to 1.000 as the terminal gravity until it has something better to work with.

[Oginme]

You couldn't estimate the ABV without a terminal gravity. I'd prefer no value until yeast is added though BS3 could default to 1.000 as the terminal gravity until it has something better to work with.

That would certainly prompt the user to add the yeast!  I've had several sessions of throwing around ingredient centered around a given base recipe and later realized that I didn't include the yeast on any of them.  Luckily this was just a thought on computer exercise and not something I would take to the kettle, but still...

[dtapke]

This seems reminiscent of the guy complaining that the glass picture didn't automatically populate a color that matches the style.

haters gonna hate, there's always going to be something that someone doesn't like about the way the software handles something, it seems as though these were great improvements over bs2 in my mind (more accurate step mashing, and yeast tolerances) but obviously some people would've rather had it the other way.

as far as BS3 capping a default 10% abv, that seems pretty logical as most brewers don't often brew over 10% and to get there you've got to add a bit of extra effort. Knowing all of the ingredients and steps required to beat that alcohol level is something that takes a certain level of expertise, and that level of expertise i feel often comes along with the level of expertise to know why the program isn't doing what you think it should. ESPECIALLY since it's well documented.

[Oginme]

People don't like to think about hitting these limitations as they design their 16.35% ABV English Mild  .  There are ways of forcing attenuation above what a yeast can comfortably handle, but this should only be done by people who know how to make it happen and the results are usually less than spectacular.