Problem with OG in recipes

[egaberik]

I have had Beer Tools for a while now but have really just had a chance to start using it and trying to figure out all the features. I have been trying to input all the Brewing Classic Style recipes while I am figuring it out and I did have one problem. On the recipes in the book it seem the OG is always higher then what beer tools puts out. I am following the efficiency for the book and the pre and post boil volumes so I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. An example for the cream ale in the book it gives a 1.050 OG but when I enter everything in beer tools gives me a 1.043. Any ideas to fix this? Thanks.

[slothrob]

It's quite possible that the difference lies in the grain specifications. Depending on malt type, lot and manufacturer one grain may have a different expected gravity contribution than another. It's quite possible that BCS just assumes an average contribution of 36 or 37 ppppg, or perhaps the grain they were using had a higher contribution than the grain lots from which BTP took the specs.

I see that some grains have contributions as low as 32 ppppg, in BTP. Check to see what specs BCS uses, check those of the grains you use, and check the edit window for those grains in BTP and decide which numbers you want to use.

[jawbox]

Just base your input on percentages of grain bill.

[slothrob]

Just base your input on percentages of grain bill.

That's a good point. I usually enter other peoples recipes with the grain amounts as a percent. I do this by entering 100% as 10 #, 10% as 1 #, 5% as 0.5 #, etc. Then I use the Scale functions to make the recipe hit the actual target OG with my efficiency.

[jawbox]

I do the exact same thing sloth. Even when I'm designing my own beers. Actually being able to enter ingredients as a percent of grain bill would be a nice feature.

[slothrob]

Grain percent is probably the easiest and most meaningful way to swap recipes, since it avoids the efficiency differences between brewers. I'm better at thinking in terms of percentage than I used to be, but I have to admit that I have a better grasp of what 0.5# of Crystal 60 means to my beer than 5%. However, I finally came to realize that they're pretty much the same thing.

Another case where I persist in thinking in terms of weight is for color additions by roasted malt. I tend to think of adding 2 or 3 or 4 oz. of something like Carafa, but never think of it in terms of percent because I assume it will add the same amount of color to a 1.040 beer as it does to a 1.068 beer, even though it's a different percentage.