Explain the Balance value in BrewPal...

[Beavdowg]

In the Hops tab of BrewPal there is a new value, that is Balance. Explain this balance, please. I'm asuming it's the bitterness ratio but the number doesn't correspond very well to the bitterness ratio spoken of from Brewsmith. For example, Brewsmith lists a bitterness ratio of 0.800 for an English IPA as a standard. I entered Ed Wort's Bee Cave IPA into BrewPal and it gives me a balance of 2.27. The numbers seem different enough to make me think they're not the same thing.

Please educate.
thanks

 

[qvantamon]

It's the balance value, it's calculated from the real terminal extract (not just the simple ibu/og). The simple IBU/OG fails when attenuation is not average - a beer that starts at 1.080 and ends at 1.020 is much sweeter than one that starts at 1.080 and ends at 1.010. The Balance Value tries to remedy that, and also normalizes it so that a balanced beer is around 1.0.

Check this out for details/formula.