G'day men,
If I have an all grain recipe that is 5%, how can I turn it into a 4.5% brew? Do I just adjust the malt amounts till it hits 4.5%? (on beersmith)
Cadbury
beersmith has gravity recalculator. From memory, within the recipe there's a gravity button at the top where you can enter the new OG and beersmith will recalc weights for you...
You could also keep the same grain bill but up the water amounts slightly (ie hit target gravity and volume then add a couple of litres more boiled, cooled water).
Erm why would you want to follow the likes of Tooheys and Carlton and water your brew down?
However if you don't mind spending a dollar or two you can easily adjust using 1.25 L bottles of ALDI sparkling mineral water which is sterile and deoxygenated. I've used it to adjust mild ales for competitions.