> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://brewgravity.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Recipes

> Building and editing a recipe, and what the numbers mean.

The recipe editor is one screen. Ingredients, mash schedule, and live stats are
all on it, and the stats update as you type.

## Recipe settings

Four fields drive every calculation on the page:

**Batch size** `litres`

The volume you expect in the fermenter. Every gravity figure is a
concentration, so this is the single biggest lever on OG.

**Boil time** `minutes` (default: 60)

Used for hop utilisation, so it feeds IBU directly.

**Efficiency** `percent` (default: 72%)

Your brewhouse efficiency — how much of the theoretical sugar you actually
extract. This describes *your system*, not the recipe. If imported recipes
consistently read high or low, this is usually why.

**Type** `all grain | extract | partial mash`

The brewing method. Extract recipes do not use efficiency the same way,
because extract yield is not a function of your mash.

## Ingredients

> **Fermentables**
>
> Grain, sugar, liquid extract, dry extract, or adjunct. Each carries a weight
> in kilograms, a colour in SRM, and an extract yield percentage.
>
> Weight and yield determine OG; colour determines SRM. Brewgravity ships presets
> for common malts, so picking "Maris Otter" fills in sensible colour and
> yield rather than making you look them up.

> **Hops**
>
> Each addition has an amount in grams, an alpha acid percentage, a time in
> minutes, and a use: **boil**, **dry hop**, **mash**, **first wort**,
> **whirlpool**, or **aroma**.
>
> Only additions that contribute bitterness affect IBU, and their contribution
> falls off sharply as time drops — which is exactly why a 5-minute addition
> barely moves the number and a 60-minute one dominates it.

> **Yeast**
>
> Strain name, type (ale, lager, wheat, wine, champagne), form (liquid, dry,
> slant, culture), and expected apparent attenuation.
>
> Attenuation is what turns OG into estimated FG, and therefore ABV. If you
> know from experience that a strain finishes drier than the lab number, put
> your number in — the estimate will follow you rather than the packet.

> **Other ingredients**
>
> Spices, finings, water agents, herbs, flavourings, and anything else. Each
> has a type, a use (boil, mash, primary, secondary, bottling), an amount with
> its own unit, and a time.

> **Mash steps**
>
> An ordered schedule of infusion, decoction, or temperature steps, each with
> a target temperature and a rest duration. A single 60-minute infusion at
> 66 °C is a perfectly good schedule; step mashes are there when you want them.

## The stats

Stats recalculate on every keystroke — there is nothing to press.

| Stat | Meaning |
| - | - |
| **OG** | Original gravity from fermentables, batch size, and efficiency |
| **FG** | Estimated final gravity from OG and yeast attenuation |
| **ABV** | Alcohol by volume |
| **IBU** | Bitterness, by hop amount, alpha acid, and contact time |
| **SRM** | Colour, which also sets the recipe's colour swatch |
| **BU:GU** | Bitterness-to-gravity ratio — the balance number |
| **Attenuation** | Apparent and real attenuation |
| **Calories** | Per 12 oz and per 330 ml |

> [!TIP]
>
> BU:GU is the fastest sanity check on a recipe. Roughly: 0.3–0.5 reads
> balanced, above 0.7 reads distinctly bitter, and below 0.25 reads malty and
> sweet. A number far outside the range for the style you are aiming at usually
> means a hop or grain amount is off by a factor of ten.

## Versions

The right-hand panel has two tabs: **Stats** and **History**. History lists every
saved version of this recipe, newest first, with the kind it came from and the
numbers it had at the time.

Versions appear two ways:

| How | When |
| - | - |
| **Save version** | You press it. Add a label like "Before the Citra swap" to find it later. |
| Automatically | Every time you press **Brew**. |

Editing a recipe never creates a version on its own — the list stays short
enough to be useful.

Click any version to see what has changed since it: the individual edits, and
the effect on OG, FG, ABV, IBU and SRM. Two icons on each row:

> **Brew this version**
>
> Starts a brew session from the version exactly as it was. Your current
> recipe is not touched.

> **Restore into the recipe**
>
> Rewrites the recipe back to that version. It lands as a single undo step, so
> ⌘Z takes it all back.

> [!NOTE]
>
> Saving twice with no changes in between reuses the existing version instead of
> adding a duplicate. Restoring re-adds any missing ingredients at the end of
> their list — the ingredients match, the ordering may not.

## Exporting

The **Export** menu on a recipe writes it out as **BeerJSON**, **BeerXML**, or
**Markdown**. BeerXML is the one other brewing software will accept; Markdown is
the one you can paste into a forum post. See [Exporting](/docs/import/exporting).

## Undo

Brewgravity keeps an undo history for edits and deletions, including deleting a
whole recipe. Rapid edits to the same field collapse into one undo entry, so
undo steps back a change rather than a character.

Deleting a recipe hides it rather than destroying it. Its ingredients, its brew
sessions, and their fermentation logs all stay exactly where they were, so undo
brings the whole recipe back — not an empty shell — and the sessions keep
working either way, because each one holds its own snapshot of what it brewed.

## The command palette

<kbd>⌘</kbd><kbd>K</kbd> (or <kbd>Ctrl</kbd><kbd>K</kbd>) opens the command
palette from anywhere. It creates recipes, jumps to Recipes, Brew Sessions,
Inventory, or Import, and searches your recipes by name — which is the fastest
way to open one once you have more than a screenful.


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