[flbrewer]

I'm having some issues using Beersmith and setting up the right volumes for an extract boil. I want to be reasonably close with my malt and hop bill. Are there tools other than Beersmith around that will show me a good estimate of what my OG and IBU's will be based on X volume going into the boil?

[morticaixavier]

not sure what you are asking. beersmith asks for the batch volume which would be 5 gallons for you (5.5 is a good idea actually as you will lose some to various steps and it will net you 5 gallons in bottles) and the boil time. It will tell you your gravity as you add fermentables and your IBUs as you enter hops. the hops will want to know how long you intend to boil them and will default to 60 even if you said you only want to do a 15 minute boil so make sure you set them correctly. It will also tell you your preboil volume. this might not be exactly correct unless you have determined your boil off rate and even then it's hit or miss because there are so many variables in how fast you boil off.

simple math on the gravity side though if you want to do it that way, DME is ~40-43 pppg (Points Per Pound Per Gallon) so if you have 9 lbs of DME that is 9*40 = 360 points on the low end and 9*43 = 387 on the high side.

in 5 gallons that is 360/5 = 72 points on the low side or 77.4 on the high side. for 5.5 gallons it's ~65 and 70 so that's a gravity of ~1.070.

[flbrewer]

Let me try to clarify...as I change "my equipment", the OG will swing wildly for 9 lbs. DME as an example. I imagine it's doing the same for IBU's of hops. For example, the equipment I tried to load (5 gallon batch pot) is showing 1.079 for 9 lbs of DME for a 15 minute boil.

[duboman]

IIRC you need to verify the equipment as one setting is partial boil and one is full boil. You also need to go into the equipment settings to verify the volumes and losses are correct for your set up

There are also check boxes to select automatic calculations whichever you may or may not want

In addition. I believe you need to use the scale tool to properly switch the equipment profile, not simply change it on the fly once the recipe is put in.

Hope that helps and Mort gave you the basic math for gravity to check things. Also, I'm pretty sure BS uses 45 points for most of the DME although I might be wrong but that would throw you off as well