Brewing Software

[BrewDaddyDave]

Hey everyone!

We're a brand new brewery awaiting our state licensing. Just got our federal issued this week!

Anyways, I was wondering what sort of software the pro's use to formulate recipes, etc? We're a group of homebrewers making the leap, so to say, and we're used to BeerSmith. I didn't know if there was something more appropriate to use once we jump to professional grade equipment and recipes, etc?

We use BeerSmith for recipe formulation and BeerRun for fermentation schedule, cellaring, reporting taxes, etc.

[a10t2]

I don't really know which is correct, but there are apparently some differences between the various softwares in terms of what 100% extract yield would be for various different grains.

Most likely, neither is correct. There are variations in the potential extract of different malts, and even from one lot to the next coming from the same maltster. The best thing to do is replace the default value with the numbers from the actual lots of malt you're using. In practice, it's really only going to make a significant difference if we're talking about base malts.

[powwowwow]

I use beer tools pro and like it a lot. But i've noticed some discrepancy between the gravity it predicts, given a particular grain bill and efficiency percentage, and the gravity predicted by beersmith. I don't really know which is correct, but there are apparently some differences between the various softwares in terms of what 100% extract yield would be for various different grains.

[CharlosCarlies]

I've heard the increased utilization from larger kettle thing for years in the homebrew community, but logically it's never made sense to me. Sure, there are plenty of factors that can and do affect utilization when scaling up to a larger system, but can someone please explain why simply changing the kettle volume increases utilization assuming all other variables remain constant?

[pjbroyles]

Every system is different, and your jump is not as great in volume as some. I would start at 110-125% and do some side-by-side taste testing.

[TemplarBrewing]

1bbl

Thanks Pete,
What utilization factor would you use for a 1 barrel pot based on a five gallon recipes?
Rick

[TemplarBrewing]

Thanks Pete,
What utilization factor would you use for a 1 barrel pot based on a five gallon recipes?
Rick

[pjbroyles]

You can adjust your hop utilization factor in your equipment profile in beersmith. I have been using it for five years in my brewery after making the leap from a homebrewer. Works great!

[TemplarBrewing]

Do you think it is worth buying Beer Tools Pro- or just figure beer smith- make a spreadsheet- and make the 125% adjustment at that point?

Also, does your 7bbl system run about 80% efficiency?

[TemplarBrewing]

Buy it?

yes, for 7 bbls a good starting point is 125% utilization, which can be plugged in in most of the software. I use beer tools pro and you can just set a custom profile and have it correct for 125%

Remember this is just for Alpha Acid utilization, more or less. So in other words you''ll use less hops in your bittering additions, but will probably want to use the full scaled up amount for aroma and flavor additions. Further more since you will be getting more AAs from those later additions the bittering addition will decrease even further. You still want all those volatile aromas from your late addition hops.

Do you think it is worth buying Beer Tools Pro- or just figure beer smith- make a spreadsheet- and make the 125% adjustment at that point?

[beejay]

Yeah, this would just be for recipe formulation. We're currently using a 10 gallon pilot system we created ourselves and once we get done with financing we're going to have a 7 BBL system, probably from Stout Tanks or Premiere Stainless.

As far as scaling recipes up, from what I've read the grain bill is pretty much linear, but the hop utilization factor is something like 125% or so when scaling up, meaning we'll be using about 25% less hops on a 7 BBL batch than with a 10 gallon batch. Am I right so far?

yes, for 7 bbls a good starting point is 125% utilization, which can be plugged in in most of the software. I use beer tools pro and you can just set a custom profile and have it correct for 125%

Remember this is just for Alpha Acid utilization, more or less. So in other words you''ll use less hops in your bittering additions, but will probably want to use the full scaled up amount for aroma and flavor additions. Further more since you will be getting more AAs from those later additions the bittering addition will decrease even further. You still want all those volatile aromas from your late addition hops.

[Molly Pitcher]

Yeah, this would just be for recipe formulation. We're currently using a 10 gallon pilot system we created ourselves and once we get done with financing we're going to have a 7 BBL system, probably from Stout Tanks or Premiere Stainless.

As far as scaling recipes up, from what I've read the grain bill is pretty much linear, but the hop utilization factor is something like 125% or so when scaling up, meaning we'll be using about 25% less hops on a 7 BBL batch than with a 10 gallon batch. Am I right so far?

[a10t2]

If it's just for recipe formulation, stick with what you know. I've been shopping around lately and it seems like the next step up from consumer-level recipe software is a full-on brewery/cellar management package. For reasons I've never understood, those start in the four figures, plus monthly fees, and go *way* up from there.

[Molly Pitcher]

Hey everyone!

We're a brand new brewery awaiting our state licensing. Just got our federal issued this week!

Anyways, I was wondering what sort of software the pro's use to formulate recipes, etc? We're a group of homebrewers making the leap, so to say, and we're used to BeerSmith. I didn't know if there was something more appropriate to use once we jump to professional grade equipment and recipes, etc?