Recipe Specific IBU/Hop Adjustment Function

All the basic functionality of this request is already in Beersmith, but what I'm looking for in the next version of Beersmith is some ease of use. I brew for consistency so I do a lot of tweaking of my recipes. The grain bills for my recipes stay pretty much the same from batch to batch, but the hops that I can buy often vary quite a bit as to the alpha acid content and whether they are pellet, plug or whole.

But my target IBU is always the same for each recipe from batch to batch. This means that I often have to sit down before I brew and use the bitterness function to tweak the amount of hops I add to account for the specific AA content and type of whatever hop it is that the LHBS had. If the recipe is fairly simple, then this is not an onerous thing to do.

If I'm brewing an IPA, however, with multiple additions and types of hops this can be a very tedious and irritating task switching between the recipe screen and the bitterness screen and writing down the various values.

So what functionality do I want?

What I would like is to be able to "lock" the IBUs, highlight each addition of a specific hop and then alter the AA for that hop and have the recipe automatically adjust for quantity for all the additions.

And all IN the recipe screen itself.

I realize that you can sort of do this "trial and error" style in the current setup. You can edit each hop individually, alter the AA and type (plug, pellet, whole) and have the IBUs change in the recipe. Then you can alter the amount upwards or downwards until you get the appropriate IBUs. You can even go to the hop bitterness function and bypass the trial and error. But this entails a constant switching between screens, and multiple data entry changes.

I just want to be able to define my beer's IBU parameters, then make one AA change entry and have the amounts change automatically.

Thanks for listening!

NYCHomebrewer

+1 for more hop functionality. I use ProMash to get my hop age adjustments, then enter it as a new hop such as Chinook 2008 into BeerSmith. If you use the age feature for one hop in BeerSmith, it changes them all! I hate adjusting each hop for each batch, but it gives good consistent results. Even if you buy the 2009 crop, you still need to make age adjustments. Particularly an unstable version like Centennial. Now if we could get a function that auto sets an age...

ghwren said:

Now if we could get a function that auto sets an age...

Click to expand...

Yea!  Why can't I enter my best guess of the "birthday" of the hop in the inventory (of that specific purchase, not the entire database) and have BeerSmith just degrade my inventory as I use it?  I do nothing after entering the "born on" date.....

As a function of age and the HSI, so I can then sort my hops inventory on "better use it or lose it." 

Wow Maltlicker,

What a great idea!  Perhaps if BeerSmith could accommodate this, the function could be selectable per hop entry. We like to keep the basic database unchanged so we have some reference when looking at someone elses recipe to determine how to duplicate the hopping scheme. We duplicate the hop in the database and then rename it to <Hop Name> Current Batch and then use the AA% of the current purchase. This would be the entry we would like to age!!

What do you think?

Preston

I was just thinking about the same thing as I have hops that have been in my freezer for about a year, no more, but want to know when I buy new stuff, what the older stuff is in my inventory for the purpose of rotating stock.  I would use a born on feature, or at least a purchase date to help with my hop aging.