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Carbonation tool vs. Recipe

chubba27

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I'm very curious about why the recipe's corn sugar weight value and the carbonation tool's value are so different? 

e.g.,
If in the recipe, I have an estimated bottling volume of 4.5g to be aged/stored at a temp of 60°, I'm told to use 4.02 oz. to get 2.5 volumes.  However, the carbonation tool, using the same values tells me an amount of 3.64 oz.  Which one do I believe?
 
I have noticed the same thing just recently. I bottled two different beers and am having difficulty getting them to carbonate. When I went into BeerSmith, I noticed the carbonation values on the fermentation tab did not reflect what I get when I input them into the carbonation tool. The carbonation tool instructed me to use a greater amount of dextrose compared to the fermentation tab.

I even changed the amount of beer I was bottling on the fermentation tab to see the amount of dextrose increase but it didn't. It just stayed the same. The only time I could get the amount of dextrose to change was when I changed the carbonation level or bottling temperature.

I'm not sure which one to trust. I guess I'll have to figure it out old school and see which one is correct.
 
Had some bottling to do today, so had to do a bunch of research on my own.  As near as I can tell, the tool takes the bottling temperature into account and then accounts for residual CO2.  The fermentation tab doesn't take a temp into account, but assumes a temp of 70F.

Article on residual CO2: Residual CO2 at BYO

[Edit]Did more digging and discovered that it doesn't "assume" 70F.  The temp is set by clicking the checkmark next to your carbonation profile and setting the temp.[/Edit]

 
The in recipe carbonation tool works off the estimated bottling volume. The tool works off what you enter.
 
Thanks, but the estimated bottling volume isn't a figure you can change directly it's only an estimate and not actually what you may bottle after losses. Why wouldn't BeerSmith work off the "Measured Bottling Vol" instead so you can see exactly how much dextrose is required?

Perhaps this could be a change for the next revision?

Thanks again
 
You can't change it directly but you can change it indirectly. Near as I can tell the fermenter loss only affects the estimated bottling volume.
 
Was there ever an answer for why "Fermentation > Carbonation used" is based on the original intended "Design > Batch size" rather than on "Fermentation > Measured Bottling Volume"? This makes no sense to me so I'm obviously missing some basic understanding of the system. Which is giving the corrected value, the Carbonation tool or the "Fermentation > Carbonation used" where the measured bottling volume is different from the batch size? Please help.
 
I have the same problem.

Why is Beersmith working with the estimated bottling volume instead of the Measured Bottling Volume.

Could anyone explain it to me?
 
Mostly because the program does not know what your actual volume is until you enter the value.  Even then, if you planned for 5 gallons and entered 5.2 gallons, is it because you poured in some of the trub that was planned to be left in the kettle?  Though I wish it had a secondary calculation for priming sugar based upon the actual value, I prefer to recalculate the priming sugar once I have the carboy out of cold crash and can see the actual amount of the trub versus the volume post-fermentation.
 
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