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Brew ware / bjcp dilema

Northern Brewer General
#1

I normaly dont, however my HBC does a quaterly comps. This next one is on a munic dunkel. Now here in lies my topic of conversation. We all have to brew the same recipe, so since I happen to have 2 brewing programs I entered the recipe in both to see if there was any differences, in the estimated variences.

Come to find out there was in every aspect as far as estimated og, fg, srm, ibu, and abv goes. However ther thing that gets me is that all of the programs, beersmigh and ibrewmaster have their database guided with the BJCP guidlines. So I compared those results to the guidlines on the net.

They were all different, meaning beer smith and ibrewmaster said I was within the guidlines on certian things but both of them were different, and some of those things did not match up with the guidline to that particular style beer as far as bjcp goes. for example

note: not exact quote but, beersmith says srm is 19, ibrewmaster says srm is 14, the recipe we are using from byo says the srm should be 20, to top that off none of witch fall into the bjcp guidline of 22. I know that the srm is probably pretty difficult to notice as a judge but what do I know I am not a judge.

just thought it was interesting is all

7city country roads brewery

#2

It’s probably just because the ingredients are not entered with the same specs in both programs or they use different formulas. Still you have to realize these are just educated guesses and changes in your process can change the real outcome. Knowing what to expect only comes from experience.

#3

I agree…My LHBS sells roasted barley with a SRM of 700…the one default in beersmith is SRM 300…That said I have gone thru the database and created custom ingredients based on what i buy locally.

Also the BJCP usually has a range not an exact number so if the mean were 22SRM then 19 and 20 would be “to style” the 14 would be on the fringe for sure so examine the parameters of the ingredients in the software.

#4

I’m sure you’ve brewed a few batches in the past, yes? So, which of the different softwares has seemed to be the most accurate when it comes to anticipated bitterness, gravity, and color? Personally, I’ve always used StrangeBrew and have found it to be dead on in every respect, almost every time. There was a batch of Dortmunder once that turned out brown instead of pale gold, and didn’t taste right either, but I figure that was probably my fault. One other thing I can tell you is that BYO’s estimates seem to be invariably wrong on every parameter every time. If I enter a BYO recipe into StrangeBrew, the results differ wildly from what BYO tells me to expect. But in my experience, it’s StrangeBrew that’s right and BYO is dead wrong. Just one little observation from my own eyeballs. Other homebrewers will probably want to argue that their software is the best or that BYO is gospel. In the end, you’ll have to take a leap of faith that your favorite software is right, and then go back and verify whether or not it really is the most accurate. You might also want to try a third or fourth software program to help find out which one is the outlier, and then probably ditch the outlier. By the way… make sure you’re using the Tinseth method for calculating IBUs. It’s the most accurate. Rager is used a lot, but it’s not as accurate. Tinseth ain’t perfect either, but it’s about as close as you’re going to get to reality.

#5

to summarize what everyone’s been saying, those are all things you’ve set yourself. Apparently you have different settings in the two pieces of software.

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