Taloring a recipe for your system with software

Don't worry about SRM. Don't worry about ABV. Pay some attention to OG.

If you've figured out your efficiency then you must be always doing the same OG. For me at least OG is somewhat a sliding scale. For low OG I get a higher efficiency. For big beers I get lower. It's because with more grain I get more first runnings which are at max sugar levels. Since I always do the same start of boil volume that first runnings make a higher percentage. Basically I don't have the need or space to sparge out all of the sugars for a large grain bill. So I have a handy spreadsheet with all of the four variables. I put in three and it tells me if I need to make adjustments.

Are you entering a competition? SRM values are based on per-determined models. Just like the water spreadsheets and IBU calcs that we use, they aren't that accurate. Just a tool to start with. Once you know your system you can dial these in.

ABV - I'm told that if your adjusting your system to a known recipe that as you adjust your efficiency you just adjust your base malts. That's what I do. But ABV is also dependent on where in a fairly big window that we get form the yeast specs and how your fermentation falls into those numbers. Again, if you care and if you take good notes you adjust this to your system.

 

Yeah, it seemed like you were worrying about being off a few percentages or two.

I'll admit that I'm not the best in recipe formulation, but there is a bigger picture to what the software programs tell you.

First I look to my base malt and what role it plays into the style. Do I want to add some darker base malts in? Then I think about specialty malts. Roasted malts? I kinda look at percentages and I think about how I waNT THE BEER FLAVORS AND MOUTHFEEL TO PROGRESS. opps Basically I to balance my malt flavors with the dextrins or lack or dextrins that are made during the mash, with the hops and yeast. Anyway these really aren't the type of things that you get from the software. (yeah that didn't make much sense)

My take is if you balance those things out you'll get good numbers w/the software and a good beer.

 

If you have everything the way you want it, but want to tweak the color, you can replace a portion of your pale (2-row, pale ale, pilsner, etc,.) base malt with more of one of your darker malts, or vice versa. Or add a very small amount of a very dark grain like roasted barley, or Carafa Special, and reduce one of the other malts proprtionally. Obviously this will change the flavor somewhat, so it can be a tradeoff. Most styles have a wide enough acceptable color range that you don't have to worry about this if your recipe is solid in terms of OG and traditional grain bill.

 

Although I sometimes want to make a beer that is a certain color, I find that getting it exactly the way I imagine is tricky, except for very dark or very pale ales. Trying to write a recipe from scratch to give a particular shade in the deep gold to pale brown part of the spectrum (orange, amber, red) is particularly vexsome without brewing and rebrewing. I am resigned to not worrying too much about color. Plus, there is always the danger that if I get the color spot-on, I'll just stare at the beer and never drink it, completely dazed by its visual appeal.