I am still pretty new to home brewing and I am using extract. I just recently got Beersmith and I have been trying to get familiar with it and figure out how to use it really. Its the first Brew calculator I've used other than Brewers Friend. My Question: I am Trying to come up with an IPA recipe and I wanted it around 7% - 7.5% ABV, but whenever I reach like 6.9% ABV or around 1.071 OG its says my FG is at the edge of the recommended FG for this style. Why cant I reach 7% ABV with a lower FG? I am using DME in the recipe calculations on Beersmith. Any advice would be appreciated. Can someone please explain this to me?
Actually there is a good forum on the Beersmith site that could probably answer your question better. On that note is there an Imperial IPA category? I have Beersmith but its at home and I cant look at it for you, also I do all grain. Good luck
Extract can often be a little heavy on the non-fermentables. One solution would be to add a little table sugar (or other simple sugar), which is close to 100% fermentable. Sugar is fairly common in IPA recipes, especially when they get into the 7+% range.
Thanks for the reply, I will check out the beersmith forum. I believe there is an imperial IPA, I was just curious to know why I cant get a higher abv IPA without the FG being to high. It make we wonder if most breweries IPA's are technically outside the guideline?
Thanks for the advice, I will keep that in mind and try to learn a bit more about using sugar in the recipe.
I think guidelines are just that a guide, on my first extract beers I followed them, now I just look at them and color outside of them. Use them to get started and then do what you want.
Agreed on this point. Not only are the guidelines just a guide, but brewing software is much better at predicting OG than in is FG. There are too many variables for it to be more than an educated guess, and some are better than others.
I would highly recommend Briess Pilsen Dried Malt Extract if you are looking for a highly fermentable malt extract; this extract will achieve a lower final gravity for you. An alternative strategy is to substitute some table sugar for your malt extract since sugar is 100% fermentable. A third thought is to use no (or little) crystal malt if you desire a super low final gravity. Cheers!
Does it allow you to adjust the FG? ibrewmaster has a suggested FG that is in most cases higher than what I end up with. But it allows me to enter the FG. Using pure O2 for aeration I get down to 1.010-1.012. When I would manually oxygenate (pouring through strainer and shaking the bucket) it would be around 1.013-1.014. For a 5 gallon batch 7 LB light DME and 1/2 LB corn sugar should get you close to 7%.
It doesn't let me change the FG, only the OG. Ive thought about using sugar, not tried it yet, I had hoped to find away to get to 7-7.5% abv with a reasonable FG without using sugar. Im not having much luck figuring that out yet. thanks for the reply.
For a given yeast strain, Beersmith assumes the same attenuation, regardless of the fermentables (grains, extracts, whatever). So I wouldn't take any FG it offers you very seriously.
It's probably because extract beers tend to turn out a higher FG anyways than their all grain counterparts in most cases.
That would be a reasonable guess. But the program doesn't treat extract any differently than grains as far as attenuation goes.
Yeah, I would have elaborated, but I was too lazy to type it out on the ipad last night on the couch. Fg estimates suck on most programs. Don't account for attentuation with all the factors.
