BrewCipher 3.41

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by VikeMan, Jul 10, 2014.

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  1. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Another Minor Update, not worth a new thread...
    Version 3.42 is up. New for V3.42, based on user requests...

    - Added more Water Tab results to the Recipe and BrewDay tabs. (User selectable, since some people might not use the water tab, and the results therefore wouldn't be relevant.)
    - Added style parameters for (and added to style dropdown) Sour styles. Note that I have not added souring bugs to the yeast selections, because there's no attenuation data available for them, and I very strongly suspect they wouldn't fit the fermentability models. I can't in good conscience just make them up. But users can certainly add strains to their hearts' content.
    - Added more informational fields (location, days, temp, method) to the Dry Hop section
    - Added BU:GU output

    Google Drive/Docs is acting flaky again in folder view. If you can't download from the link above, these links will take you directly to each file...

    .xls (for excel users): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-9BMe0xDqppX21TUC1fMkltT1U/edit?usp=sharing
    .xlsm (for Apache OO users): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-9BMe0xDqppZE41eU53MHlXb2s/edit?usp=sharing

    If downloading from the individual file links, use the "File" menu on the linked page. Google Docs is free and sometimes I get what I pay for.
     
    #21 VikeMan, Jul 26, 2014
    Last edited: Jul 26, 2014
  2. Thorpe429

    Thorpe429 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,705) Aug 18, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    One thing I noticed is that on the water tab, it has "Kettle Amount (g)" for the additions, but then speaks of "Sparge H20 Concentration (ppm)" in the resulting water area. Should the latter be changed to something like "Kettle/Boil" amount?

    It seems like it shouldn't be linked to the sparge water, as the sparge water acidification recommendations for acid doesn't change based on what's input into the "Kettle Amount" salt additions now. It should, as putting 100g of extra calcium (whether from CaCl or CaSO4) should change the pH of the sparge water, thus changing the acidification recommendation, right? I don't know how difficult it would be to link sparge/kettle additions and the sparge acidification area, but changing terminology so that salts are only added to the mash and/or boil kettle and acid is the sole thing for acidifying sparge water would make everything consistent.

    Thanks again for all the work, love having all of this information together instead of having 10 different calculators/programs open :slight_smile:

    Finally, as a request list for next time (unless I'm just missing this), an efficiency calculator would be awesome!
     
  3. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    If you read the comment attached to the "Sparge H20 Concentration" cell on the Water Tab, it explains that 'sparge water' salts are normally added to the kettle, and that the sparge water acidification calculation assumes that they will be (added to the kettle). The problem with potentially labeling it "Kettle H20 Concentration" is that some people would assume that meant a combined concentration (for all the water that went into the kettle, i.e. mash plus sparge). That's why it's labeled "Sparge H20 Concentration)," but with the embedded comment to explain. (BTW, adding CaCl or CaSO4 to sparge water itself wouldn't change the pH of the sparge water. The reason they change the pH of a mash is that the Ca ions react with phosphates from the malt, releasing H+ (protons).)


    I'm not sure what you mean by efficiency calculator, but the Recipe tab has a place to input your actual post boil OG and volume, calculating actual mash efficiency. There's also a tab labeled "Mash Efficiency Predictor" which you can use to predict the change to your mash efficiency by switching from sparge to no-sparge (or vice versa), and/or chaning the size of the grain bill.
     
  4. Thorpe429

    Thorpe429 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,705) Aug 18, 2008 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah


    Thanks all around. Makes sense on the water calculations, and good point on pH, always forget that the calcium is reacting with something to lower the pH :slight_smile: Missing the note under "Sparge H20 Concentration" serves me right for trying to make comments while in the middle of brewing and transferring!

    Missed the OG/volume entry on the recipe tab, and will start using that.

    Thanks as always!
     
  5. jakwi

    jakwi Initiate (0) May 14, 2014

    Hey Vikeman,

    So I have been using your sheet for a number of batches now. Overall I think it is great, it is my Go To sheet. I have a couple of comments. The first comment and I hope that you'll take it in the spirit it is given. For my taste the yellow is to glaring. The thing is that I often prepare my recipe during the week for the weekend, and the yellow doesn't look like any of the other sheets I might use at work so it stands out. Any other more muted color would be great, but that is just my opinion. I'd change it myself, but of course the sheet is protected.

    Another change that I think it would be helpful to add the following info to the Brewday printme sheet, just sort of as a reference. ( I often write some of this info on the sheet after I print it. )

    23.25 lbs Total Grain Bill
    Boil off Rate
    1.5 gal/hour
    Total Preboil water volume
    15.52 gallons
    Total Post boil volume
    10.25 gallons
    Total volume to boil off
    5.27 gallons
    Calculated boil time
    3.52 hours

    My last comment has to do with Water calculations. I often use the calculator over at brewers friend, http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/, to help me determine what to add. At the bottom it indicates what the flavor profile will be. Since I don't really know what I'm doing this is immensely helpful. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to incorporate something like that, but it would eliminate the extra step of going to a website to work out the salt additions. Also if there were a way to calculate suggested water additions to meet a profile that would be cool to.

    Of course these are just ideas that I think would be helpful, but I'm pretty new to this so it may be info that no one else is interested in seeing. Thanks again for your work on this, even if you don't change anything else it is a great sheet.


     
  6. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Yellow background is (or at least was at one time) sort of a defacto standard for input cells in spreadsheet models. I could of course change it to any color, but what? Suggestions welcome...if enough people want a different color (and the same color as each other), I'll be happy to do it.

    I could squeeze in some summary data like the above...it would have to be right beside the grain bill. What do you mean by "calculated boil time?" (The boil time is already displayed on the BrewDay sheet.) Any other users of the BrewDay Sheet mind if I add some summary info beside the grain bill?

    I don't mind suggestions at all. I welcome them. Usually if I can add something of general interest without making the interface more difficult/unwieldy for others, I'm glad to do it.
     
    ChrisMyhre likes this.
  7. ChrisMyhre

    ChrisMyhre Initiate (0) Sep 15, 2013 Massachusetts

    Additional summary data on the brewsheet would be at least fine and possibly helpful. I don't mind the yellow entry cells and did also think that was kind of standard, but also would be fine with a change I suppose. I do use Libreoffice so I haven't been able to make much use of the water profiles.
     
  8. jakwi

    jakwi Initiate (0) May 14, 2014

    As far as boil time: The boil time shown on the sheet is taken from the time entered from the recipe sheet, which I assume has more to do with hop additions than volume reduction. What I was looking for is calculated based on the boil off rate and the total amount on pre-boil wort. So if the collected wort is 15.5 gallons and the into the fermenter volume should be 11 gallons then you need to boil off 4 gallons at say 1.5 gallons per hour, so the boil time would be 2.67 hours. Maybe there is a better term for it.

    Or am I misunderstanding how a brew day should go? I consistently have to boil for 2 or 3 hours to get my volume where I need it. It is always sort of a guessing game on timing my hop additions work with the volume reduction.

    As far as the color I vote for a muted grey, but if that is just my preference then no worries, it may very well be the standard, I'm just not familiar with it.
     
  9. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    The boil time you enter on the recipe tab is the total boil time (nothing to do with hop boil times directly), and that's what's also printed on the BrewDay sheet. If you are boiling for over 2 and a half hours, you're using way too much water, unless you have some other reason for wanting to boil that long. If you enter the boil time you want (60 minutes or 90 minutes is pretty common), and get all your parameters on the BrewHouse sheet set up properly (boiloff rate, various deadspaces, etc.), BrewCipher will calculate the correct amount of water to use.

    Get your parameters dialed in and you won't have to guess at all. Feel free to send me mail if you need any parameter help.
     
    jakwi likes this.
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