Feature Requests

Suggestions and discussion about upcoming features in future BeerTools Pro releases.
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billvelek
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Access to READ the main database

Post by billvelek »

Jeff, I don't know if it was a programming obstacle or what, but even with the new layout, I'm not sure why the 'Database' was dropped from the menu bar; I thought it was very handy and useful. Anyway, so be it.

What I'm requesting now is a feature that will allow a user to somehow access the database more easily than we now can. Unless I'm missing something, as it is right now a user must drag an ingredient from the Ingredient DB folder to the Inventory folder before it is even possible to look at the database, and then delete it from inventory or else clutter the inventory folder with a bunch of stuff that a user might not have on hand or ever use. Is there not someway for a user to read the database without making it editable, if that is the problem? Along those lines, I'd like to suggest that when the Ingredient DB is displayed in the top panel, that a double-click open the database to that particular ingredient so that all info can be viewed; the double-click function is not being used for anything else.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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wottaguy
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Double Click to get Style Editor...

Post by wottaguy »

Hello All!

I feel that when anyone has selected the Style folder that's located in the nav bar on the Left and then double clicks the style of choice in the list pane on the top, the Style Editor should open to be viewed. Currently it does not. (ver 1.1.0.5-alpha)

Also, it would be good to be able to hide the list box on the top and the NAV tree on the left at times by clicking a roll-up arrow near each feature.

Another idea would be adding to the toolbar on the top, buttons to bring up the "My Recipes, Styles, Ingrediant DB and the My Ingrediants" information (with quick keyboard shortcuts?) to access these areas.
I'm just finding that having the nav bar tree where it is takes up a lot of space as does the list box on the top. At times these features are handy, but at other times I find that they are distracting.

Maybe try a floating nav bar?

One more concern that I have is that I have noticed that when I browse through the styles list box, when I click a style to review, the recipe style drop down box changes to the style selected in the list box. I feel that this should not happen in this manner as it makes room for mistakes to be made when selecting a style to use for the recipe. Maybe adding another right click menu to choose to add the style to the recipe or open the Style Editor is needed.

I'm enjoying using the alpha version(s) and it looks very promising! Great job!

(_)3
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Apply utilization settings to all recipes...

Post by TCBrewguy »

From time to time, I learn a little bit more about my process and decide that I need to adjust my utilization settings in BTP. Instead of having to go through each individual recipe and change the utilization settings, do you think there could be an option to apply them universally?
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billvelek
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Re: Apply utilization settings to all recipes...

Post by billvelek »

TCBrewguy wrote:From time to time, I learn a little bit more about my process and decide that I need to adjust my utilization settings in BTP. Instead of having to go through each individual recipe and change the utilization settings, do you think there could be an option to apply them universally?
Hi, TC. Pardon me for double-checking, but do you mean "utilization" (as is hops), or "efficiency" (as in percent of sugars from mash)? The reason I ask for clarification is because the way I see it, playing with the utilization setting is only useful when developing a recipe, so if you're already brewing an existing recipe and aren't going to change anything, then your current choice of utlization formulas won't matter. Obviously it's what goes into your beer and how long you boil, etc., that determines the outcome, and it will be the same whether your recipe used Rager or Tinseth.

Anyway, I suspect that you probably actually meant "Efficiency"; if so, that's a great idea. If that's NOT what you meant, I'd like to suggest that to Jeff and Lathe right now. In fact, this raises an interesting thought in my mind. Let's say that I import a recipe where the initial brewer for some reason had terrible efficiency, like maybe only 65-70% whereas I'm usually getting around 80%. (I haven't tried importing yet, so I presume it imports the original recipe settings such as efficiency.) If I raise the previous recipe's efficiency, the O.G., T.G., and Alcohol% will all rise. If I don't want to raise them, e.g., I actually want the exact same results as the recipe's author, would it be possible to 'scale' the mash ingredients (obviously not kettle ingredients) for that purpose? An alternative would be to dilute the runnings to arrive at the same original 'kettle' gravity, but assuming the same boil-off rate, I would end up with too much beer. Just an idea that Jeff might think about.

EDIT: TC, I see from another post you made that you are looking at pellet utilization, so perhaps that's what you did mean. Sorry for questionning you. Also, Jeff/Lathe, to the extent that the form of hops actually does make an appreciable difference in a recipe for those who use the utilization formulas, shouldn't the form of hops appear in the ingredients list of a recipe so that we will know that another brewer used whole hops whereas we have pellet hops, etc.; also, it would also be likewise handy if that info appeared on the shopping list -- pellets, plugs, or whole (leaf) hops. Thanks.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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Re: Apply utilization settings to all recipes...

Post by TCBrewguy »

billvelek wrote:
TCBrewguy wrote:From time to time, I learn a little bit more about my process and decide that I need to adjust my utilization settings in BTP. Instead of having to go through each individual recipe and change the utilization settings, do you think there could be an option to apply them universally?
Hi, TC. Pardon me for double-checking, but do you mean "utilization" (as is hops), or "efficiency" (as in percent of sugars from mash)? The reason I ask for clarification is because the way I see it, playing with the utilization setting is only useful when developing a recipe, so if you're already brewing an existing recipe and aren't going to change anything, then your current choice of utlization formulas won't matter.
It does matter, however, if the finished product does not reflect the anticipated result based on the utilization settings. This is why I would like to have the option to apply the utilization settings (pellet hop correction, etc.) to be universally applicable. For example, if I used the Daniels pellet hop correction formula but my taste buds really tell me that I'm getting less hop utilization (lower IBUs), I can either select another pellet correction algorithm or create one of my own that I feel more accurately reflects the actual amount of utilization I am getting in the boil.

I know what you are saying as far as the utilization settings only being useful when formulating a recipe, but that is assuming that a particular utilization setting is yielding my desired result. For the purposes of the feature I am requesting, the assumption is that a particular utilization setting is not yielding my desired result.

Edit: I suppose if a utilization setting is not yielding a desired result, however, this could be alleviated by simply adjusting the amount of hops in the recipe. However, I frequently design my hop schedules around a suggested BU:GU ratio (bitterness units to gravity units) for a particular style. So, using a utilization formula that I feel most accurately reflects actual IBUs will allow me to continue to use the BU:GU ratio in designing hop schedules.
Last edited by TCBrewguy on Sun Sep 23, 2007 1:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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billvelek
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I understand ... sort of

Post by billvelek »

I can understand wanting to tweak a single recipe by using the utilization formulas to bring it more into line with what your taste buds tell you, but would it be wise to apply any tweaking to ALL of your recipes -- unless they are ALL coming in under hopped, for example. Anyway, this is beyond my experience, so I'll let it go at that.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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Enable two-finger scrolling on info pallet?

Post by TCBrewguy »

Would it be possible to enable two-finger scrolling for Mac users on the info pallet? I assume this wouldn't be too difficult since it is already enabled in all other respects within the app. :wink:
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menu tree

Post by warthog »

how about "my equipment", and "my schedules" on the menu tree?
for example if i am brewing a smaller batch, or doing a partial mash, i want to select different equipment. or if i were to brew using a different mash schedule, it would be nice to select it from the tree also.

thanks.
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lathe
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Equipment ...etc

Post by lathe »

Seems like you are starting to "feel" the logic of the new interface. Stay tuned much more on the horizon.
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RE: MenuTree

Post by wottaguy »

I agree fully with warthog on these ideas! I was actually going to address the "my equipment" question this evening but now I think it is covered. I have numerous boil kettles of different sizes and I use them for different size sessions. I brew using either whole grain, partial mash or extract only. It just depends on how much time i am allowed from the "boss"!

Has there been any movement of the Partigyle Mash Designer idea at all? My last 4 sessions were partiglye sessions and got 8 different beers out of them. I had to manually figure out the main mash grain bill then go from there. BTW...all the beers came out great and right on my calculated numbers!

(_)3
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billvelek
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Re: any future partigyle feature (edited subject line)

Post by billvelek »

wottaguy wrote:Has there been any movement of the Partigyle Mash Designer idea at all? My last 4 sessions were partiglye sessions and got 8 different beers out of them. I had to manually figure out the main mash grain bill then go from there. BTW...all the beers came out great and right on my calculated numbers!
Jeff/Lathe, I'm curious about that, too, because I've done a number of partigyles and would be very interested in doing them much more often if I could find an easier way to work with them and BTP. The two batches currently in my fermenters and ready to bottle were from a partigyle: an IPA and a pale ale. The way I worked it was to do roughly equal runnings -- the initial running and three batch sparges -- with the first and third going into the IPA kettle and the second and fourth going into the pale ale kettle. Since I still haven't gotten around to replacing my broken hydrometer, I don't know what the O.G. was for either, although I don't particularly care as long as the beer is good. I just hope that the pale ale is not too watery. By the way, I actually did a triple-partigyle once, and had to swap out extracts from one pot to another, checking the O.G. with my hydrometer to get them about right, but I point that out only for the purpose of letting you know that if you work on a partigyle feature, I think you ought to design it so that people can do up to three brews rather than just two. I know that I've read literature which described three batches, too, so while it is probably somewhat uncommon for homebrewers, three is certainly not unheard of.

I have some thoughts/ideas about what I'd like to see in a partigyle feature. In the blank space to the right of the 'glass' beer-color indicator, I think you could add a radio-button or check box to activate the partigyle feature (if necessary); below that, you would have three sets of fields -- a set for up to three different batches. Each set would have a place for the name of the brew, the style, and the O.G. -- perhaps with a sliding bar graph to adjust the proportions of O.G. (when one is increased, the other one or two decrease). Clicking on the name field of any one of them would replace the main ingredient list with 'Runnings' at the top, displaying the volume and O.G. for those runnings, but the mash ingredients would no longer be displayed. Then for that particular batch, a brewer would add any additional adjuncts, DME, or whatever, as well as the hop additions and boil times. The kettle volume, boil duration, evaporation, final volume, etc., as well as the tabs for 'Style', 'Analysis', 'Notes', etc., would also pertain solely to the partigyle batch that is being viewed. The schedule would obviously remain the same for all except that you might, if necessary or appropriate, have a way to possibly designate the runnings as for PG#1, PG#2, and PG#3. I don't know how beer color is spread among the batches, so that might be problematic.

By the way, if you need room next to the 'Glass' to add three sets of fields, I think the "Display" drop-down menu can be moved to the left and somewhere below the glass without it causing any confusion. I'm not trying to tell you your business, but since you might have been too busy with other things to give this feature any real thought, I thought I'd pass along my ideas on how I think this might be done. I think that this would be a SUPER COOL feature which I hope you can eventually implement.

I hope you don't mind my brain-storming here. Perhaps other users can improve on these suggestions and/or add some comments.

EDIT: In checking for any replies, I just noticed that the subject line was still about the menu tree, so I've just changed it.

Cheers.

Bill Velek
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Partigyle feature

Post by Bob57702 »

I too would be interested in a feature of this type although I have yet to do a partigyle brew session. I have done all of the calculations based on my limited reasearch and have designed a Scotch/Scottish Ale Partigyle session. I've recently moved so I haven't had time to do it but I intend to this fall or winter. I even roughed out a spreadsheet to do most of my calculations. It'll be fun to see if I get anywhere close to my numbers.

Anyhow if you're looking for a count on how many people may be interested in it I would be one more.
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Re: Partigyle feature

Post by just-cj »

Not really related to BTP, but if you want information about how to partigyle, check out the Partigyle FAQ over at BrewBoard.
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Residual Alkalinity

Post by bzwrxbz »

i made this feature request a while ago in the software forum, but i will put it here as a refresher...

It would be nice for BTP to propose a recommended RA level (maybe below the beer color or something) so we can adjust our water (if mashing) to hit this.

I have seen the formula ->
Ideal RA = ( SRM * 7.14 ) - 37

being used. This approximate formula seems to match up well with John Palmers equations (Although he has hi and low points, the above formula is the average). Perhaps this can be placed below the colored Beer Glass.

cheers!
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Water Chemistry

Post by bzwrxbz »

When a water chemistry profile is loaded, there is no indication in the title bar (or anywhere else) as to which file was loaded and is being currently worked on. Maybe putting the name in that window's title bar will help.

cheers!
Fermenting : Ordinary Bitter, Hefe
Bottled : Too many bottles

WinXP PentiumIV Res:1920x1200 120DPI

Blog: http://hobbybrau.blogspot.com
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