Beersmith offers three hop utilisation formulas under Options\Bitterness namely, Tinseth (default), Rager or Garetz. The obvious question is "which one do I use?".
The Rager formula gives the highest IBU estimation, followed by Tinseth with Garetz estimating significantly lower than the other two.
It seems to be generally accepted that Glenn Tinseth's formula, being the latest is probably the most accurate, although this does not seem to have been conclusively proved throughout the variable range and various sources cite significant inaccuracies (IBU can be measured in a lab).
Personally I will stick with the default Tinseth but see it as a relative scale rather than an accurate measure of bitterness.
A minor problem arrives if you are brewing a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles for example, you will struggle to match the IBU's correctly with Tinseth because Jamil (the author) uses Rager. You need to change the setting to Rager to work out the recipe.
The Rager formula gives the highest IBU estimation, followed by Tinseth with Garetz estimating significantly lower than the other two.
It seems to be generally accepted that Glenn Tinseth's formula, being the latest is probably the most accurate, although this does not seem to have been conclusively proved throughout the variable range and various sources cite significant inaccuracies (IBU can be measured in a lab).
Personally I will stick with the default Tinseth but see it as a relative scale rather than an accurate measure of bitterness.
A minor problem arrives if you are brewing a recipe from Brewing Classic Styles for example, you will struggle to match the IBU's correctly with Tinseth because Jamil (the author) uses Rager. You need to change the setting to Rager to work out the recipe.
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