BrewCipher 4.0

Just tried the final Windows version of Gnumeric. Alas, it doesn't support macros, which wouldn't be so bad...you can use BrewCipher without using its Macros. But it also gets tripped up by hard coded Data Validation Lists, i.e. all the Hop Type selection L/P, and questions Y/N. I can change those dropdowns to get their values from named ranges in the next release of BrewCipher, at which point I'll list Gnumeric (for Windows) as usable, assuming all else goes well. Alas, for now I can't recommend it, which makes me sad.

But in a couple hours I'll be visiting a Buffalo brewery opened by one of our old BA Homebrew denizens, so it's still a good day.

 

Minor Update, Version 4.2.2, the Daylight Wasting Time Version, is up.

- Now compatible with Gnumeric, for those who don't have Excel and don't like Apache Open Office. (Changed the dropdowns so that all would pull their lists from named ranges instead of delimited lists. For whatever reason, the delimited lists confuse Gnumeric.) Gnumeric's display looks nicer than Open Office's, but the penalty is that the automatic ingredient scaling macros (or any macros) don't work with Gnumeric.
- Added some new ingredients, mainly a bunch of hop varieties that all the cool kids are using nowadays.

So...if you're set for hops and don't use Gnumeric, skip this version.

Or download it and the accompanying User Guide from Google Drive or DropBox.

 

Minor Update, Version 4.2.3, the Happy New Year Version, is up.

- Extended the Mash Tun Over Capacity warning(s) to include problematic no-sparge mashouts and batch sparges.

- Added and Integrated DrewF's Kegging Beer Line Length (balancing) formula to the Carbonation Tab, and included a Keg Line Resistance Multiplier in the Brewhouse parameters. This allows you to dial-in the formula for best pours when your brand of (for example) 3/16" I.D. Plastic Beer Line doesn't behave the way resistance-wise the model would otherwise assume.

- Added a few new ingredients.

Download it and the accompanying User Guide from Google Drive or DropBox.

 

It would be a bitch, since it's not currently set up for gravity contribution time slicing. Maybe sometime (but probably not soon).

If you have a standard percentage of your extract you add at 60 minutes and the rest at 15 minutes, give me the percentages and I can probably compute a decent approximation number for you to use in the Brewhouse Hop Utilization Multiplier. (I'm assuming the gravity is coming all or almost all from extract.)

But...when you say "include it at 15 min," do you mean 100% at 15 minutes? If yes, or if it's much more than half at 15 minutes, I'm not sure a computation would be very useful. That's because I doubt Glenn's data involved utilization at tiny gravities (approaching 1.000), and I suspect the calculation would probably overestimate utilization near that extreme. (By how much, I dunno.)

Then of course there's the theory that it's not actually the sugars in the wort that affect utilization, but the amount of "something" (maybe cold break after the boil or who-knows-what) that does, and that gravity is really only a proxy for the amount of that "something." In which case, extract addition timing might not be important at all from an IBU standpoint.

 

I did some ROM math based on the average gravity throughout the boil...the Hop Utilization Multiplier ought to be about 1.4. Truthfully, I'm not very confident it would work that way in reality, for the reasons already discussed.

 

I suspect it would be complicated by the fact that you'd need to know the whole buffer system in the particular wort/beer, and that that hasn't really been studied. But let's ask @utahbeerdude if such a thing is theoretically possible.

 

Are you using the CO2 extracted, not yet isomerized extract (a la Hop Shots)? I've heard the density is around 1.05 grams per milliliter, i.e. 0.03704 ounces by weight per milliliter. You could add it as a hop to the Hop Lookup Tab and specify 61.1% AA%. Maybe someone is more certain of the density, but either way, the model should work fine using weight (in ounces or grams, depending on your brewhouse settings) to compute.