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Why such a discrepancy between programs?

F

Fuzzuy

Why is there such a big discrepancy between ProMash and Beersmith?  I have Beersmith and like it a lot for its ease of use, but whenever I enter a recipe from a magazine or clone site, the OG and IBUs in Beersmith are way off what the recipe says it should be.  I am an extract brewer using specialty grains and that is what I have setup in Beersmith.  The recipes are extract recipes with specialty grains.  For example, here is a recipe I entered in Beersmith and ProMash (and also in Beer Tools calculator which gave same numbers as Promash):

Blue Moon Clone - extract
Batch size - 5 gallons
SG - 1.059
FG - 1.010
Boil time - 45 minutes
Ingredients:
5 lbs extra light dutch dme
2.5 lbs orange blossom honey
1 oz hallertauer pellet hops (4.5% boil 45 min)
.5 oz hallertauer whole hops (2.4% - steep 10 min)
1 oz coriander seed (1/2 boil for 10 min, 1/2 steep 10 min)
1 oz orange peel (steep 10 min)
Wyeast 1214 Belgian Abbey ale

Beersmith gives me the following:
SG - 1.044
IBU - 11.4
SRM - 4.0

Promash gives me:
SG - 1.058
IBU - 16.1
SRM - 2.8

Why such a difference?  Also, how do you enter "steeping" in when you are doing that for hops?  Is that considered boil of 0 minutes and would the hop extraction (if there is any) be included in the calculation?
 
I think you forgot your honey addition in BeerSmith.  I get the same values for both BeerSmith and Promash.

Fred
 
Nope, I have the honey in there.  But I list it as an adjunct.  

edit:  I changed it to sugar and the FG are comparable now, but the IBU's are still off
 
IBUs are off because the other program uses the Rager method for calculating bitterness but BeerSmith uses Tinseth by default.

 You can change the formula used in BeerSmith from the options command on the tools menu (bitterness tab).

Cheers,
Brad
 
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