science help please

[robsan77]

Just been messing about on brewmate and with regards to mash efficiency and some of the topics discussed recently.

I changed the efficency in the software but locked the og and sg so of course as it fell, the malt required went up. The colour srm also went up :hmm: but the og and sg didnt change :wha: so how can the beer have a darker colour but not have any more fermentable sugars present? Have I mised something????

 

[richc]

I'd expect that the colour calculation doesn't take efficiency into account. My understanding of the calculations is that they are just based on the amount of each grain and it's colour contribution. Makes me wonder if this is correct, any experts have any explanation here?

 

[Kyral210]

The thing to remember is all software is written by a person in a room, and not handed down from the God of Beer. Assumptions have to be made and it is unlikely that the software package contains all the intricate interdependencies that actually go on. Think of brewing as a very complex collection of chemical processes.

In reality, I wouldn't worry about it. Your beer designer software is only a guidelines to how the beer will be, and a few lovebonds between friends is nothing. Also your not going to be fixing anything in brewing, so its rather academic.

I have never used Brewmate before. I used and paid for Beer Smith and I have to say I am incredibly happy with it. I would say download it and give the free trial a go. Then you can see for yourself if a different software package suits your brewing better.

 

[graysalchemy]

Surely the answer is that if I take it you decreased the efficiency the extraction of fermentables has decreased and you have had to add more malt to compensate, but in doing so the software has assumed that colour extraction has stayed constant thus srm has increased.

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