Feature Requests Archive A

[slothrob]

When FWH is selected for a hop addition, it works to be able to select a boil time to customize utilization, but it would be nice if the Ingredients window displayed "FWH" (like the "Dry" when you dry hop), not the time, so that when you're making the beer it's clear when to add the hops.

(Sorry if you had to read this twice, I posted this accidentally in the beta section first, but wasn't sure if that forum was still being monitored.)

[djavet]

Hello

I wish this feature in Beertools:
2 extra fiels in ingredients DB.
1 for the shop (not the supplier) where I can buy the per. exemple malt
1 for the article/reference n

[jawbox]

Two things I'd really like to see

1) Evaporation/Hour percentage be lockable, anytime you change anything on the left side it recalcs the percentage rather than the actual evaporation loss. I think most peoples evaporation loss is pretty standard so I think it makes sense to have this lockable.

2) Database for equipment. I'd find it much easier to pick equipment from a database rather than having multiple template files. Plus wouldn't we be able to share the info?

Just got back from a weeks vacation and there's already three updates, you've been busy. Going to play with the scheduler.

Thanks,

Jaw

[ColoradoBrewer]

Two things I'd really like to see

1) Evaporation/Hour percentage be lockable, anytime you change anything on the left side it recalcs the percentage rather than the actual evaporation loss. I think most peoples evaporation loss is pretty standard so I think it makes sense to have this lockable.

Jaw

Yeah, I agree. I've already mentioned this a couple of times, but what I'd like to see is the ability to set the evaporation rate to a specific volume (gallons or liters) per hour. Most of us brew on the same system repeatedly so the volume lost to evaporation is fairly constant. In other words, the volume of liquid that boils off is going to be pretty much the same regardless of batch size, but the percentage changes with batch size.

[jawbox]

ok just got through with the new scheduler and was wondering if would be possible to list the runoff for each sparge on the print out. I think this would make more sense on brew day and also for people who might not be familar with batch sparging. See below

60min IPA
14-B American IPA



Size: 6 gal
Efficiency: 65%
Attenuation: 77.0%
Calories: 214.21 per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.064 (1.056 - 1.075)
|===============#================|
Terminal Gravity: 1.015 (1.010 - 1.018)
|=================#==============|
Color: 11.3 (6.0 - 15.0)
|=================#==============|
Alcohol: 6.52% (5.5% - 7.5%)
|================#===============|
Bitterness: 59.69 (40.0 - 60.0)
|=======================#========|

Ingredients:
8 lbs Golden Promise Malt
8 lbs Maris Otter Pale
12 oz English Amber Malt
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 50 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 50 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 50 min
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 40 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 40 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 40 min
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
0.125 oz Warrior (16.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
0.125 oz Simcoe (13.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
0.125 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min
.5 oz Amarillo (8.5%) - steeped after boil
1.0 ea Whirlfloc Tablets (Irish moss) - added during boil, boiled 20 min
1 ea WYeast 1187 Ringwood Ale

Schedule:
00:05:00 Mash In - Liquor: 5.23 gal; Strike: 165.6

[billvelek]

This might not be possible, but I would find it handy from time to time if this can be implemented. I have a variety of specialty grains and hops on hand at any given time, and usually a couple of different yeasts. Sometimes I decide on the spur of the moment that I'd like to brew, and while I know, off hand, of some of the beers that I can make with what I have on hand (basically recipes I've made before), it would be nice to generate a short list of typcial beer styles that are often made from what I have in inventory. Then, when the mood strikes me to try something different -- or at least something that I have rarely made -- I'd be able to get a list of my options and pick a beer.

Also, some sort of inventory database that would track what is consumed in recipes and then generate a shopping list would be useful.

Thanks.

Bill Velek

[PieOPah]

it would be nice to generate a short list of typcial beer styles that are often made from what I have in inventory.

This sounds similar to the 'Generate Recipe' feature on the site. I think that the problem would be determining the different styles based on your ingredients. Would it need to use all of them or try and use a variety of them? The possibilities could potentially be endless.

I do think that having an inbuilt recipe generator would be a great idea though.

[djavet]

Hello

It is possible to create a recipe withour select a style? And the stlye are or move from my recipe?
Exemple: I wish this, and this, and still this... etc and at finish I've something in the style of.

Just to play a little with the ingredients, to let the creative aspect emerge without frames.

Dom

[PieOPah]

As a default there should be no style selected which means you can then play around with the ingredients without being conformed to a specific style.

Sometimes I will create a recipe and then find the style that fits it best....

If your template has a style selected, just select the 'make default' option and untick the style option. This should clear it for you to play with from fresh...

[djavet]

Thx!

Dom

[billvelek]

it would be nice to generate a short list of typcial beer styles that are often made from what I have in inventory.

This sounds similar to the 'Generate Recipe' feature on the site. I think that the problem would be determining the different styles based on your ingredients. Would it need to use all of them or try and use a variety of them? The possibilities could potentially be endless.

I do think that having an inbuilt recipe generator would be a great idea though.

Well, it shouldn't be as daunting as you seem to think. First of all, I wasn't asking for recipes, as in possibly up to 5,400 results, but rather for 'styles' ... and BeerTools has about 80 on its list including many which would easily be eliminiated with some check-boxes as part of the 'style searcher': e.g., ales vs. lagers will cut the list down the most; not having oatmeal, wheat, honey, maple syrup, fruit, etc., in your inventory will eliminate categories, and there could also be check-boxes to indicate styles that I am not even interested in trying, like a lambic or a barley-wine. Now, what I had in mind was a search for ingredients that are typical for a beer style, so if American 2-row malt is typical for a style, and all you have in inventory is 6-row, then that style would be eliminated, even though it is possible to make an attempt at that style with 6-row. Same way with hops; if Cascade is typical of a style and all you have is Kent Goldings, then that style is eliminated. The hops and specialty grains in inventory would probably be the most determinative, and then possibly the yeast. The point is that those of us who have a very large inventory can make just about anything and probably wouldn't find the feature as useful; but for those of us who have only two or three hops on hand, along with a sack of grain or bucket of extract, and a handful of specialty grains, it would be nice to know that "these are the seven beer styles that are ideal for the ingredients you have in inventory", and then I could pick a style and THEN look for recipes. Now, that would be quite an expansion over the search function for the recipe library that is available at BeerTools.com, because that allows only one entry in each of four fields: grain, extract, adjuncts, and hops, ... which would become very tedious in attempting to manually select all of the different combinations.

And because we don't really have a pile of recipes accumulated in our programs until we've taken the time to transfer them each month from the website (something I'm still not very pleased with), you wouldn't want to be looking for possible recipes anyway; rather, the program could have certain criteria (perhaps several of the MOST typical hops for a style, the most typical special grains for a style, etc.) in a database built into the program, and the program would simply search your inventory to see if you have what is typically needed for that style, and then check the next style, etc. If I'm off-line and using my own computer, I wouldn't care if it would take 10 or 20 minutes to explore all possibities and then generate my list; I'd just go do something else. Jeff, if you see this, I hope you can appreciate that this should be much easier than it might seem at first glance, and I think it would be super cool and very useful for many of us -- and it will make your program that much more innovative.

Anyway, thanks for your comments.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

[slothrob]

I don't know if this is practical from a programming perspective, but I'd like to have more control over editing the ingredients list.

What I mean is that when developing a recipe I often play around with the ingredients (e.g. specialty grains for color or different hop types or addition times) until I get something that seems like it's going to work. I do this by either deleting and adding new ingredients to the list and re-entering the weights and times, or adding more ingredients than I actually need and reformulating by checking different combinations of boxes.

What I'd like to be able to do is to click on a given ingredient, select a different ingredient, and have the ingredient change while keeping the weight and times.

[PieOPah]

What I'd like to be able to do is to click on a given ingredient, select a different ingredient, and have the ingredient change while keeping the weight and times.

I assume you mean replace a selected ingredient with another? That would be quite useful

[slothrob]

Here's a couple picky items. Feel free to ignore them if you think they're a waste of time. I'm sure these have become issues for me simply because I've been typing in dozens of recipes.

I'd like weights to default, as they do now, to 0.0, as most recipes include ingredients with fractional pounds or ounces. However, when ".75" is typed into the weight field, it should appear as "0.75" in the main field, not ".75". Most programs dealing with numbers seem to make this correction automatically.

I'd like times to default to whole numbers. Every time I enter a time I delete the ".0" because I never use anything but whole minutes for addition or mashing times. I doubt many people do. I find the resulting display easier to read without all the 60.0, 30.0, 10.0, 0.0, etc. times.

[slothrob]

What I'd like to be able to do is to click on a given ingredient, select a different ingredient, and have the ingredient change while keeping the weight and times.

I assume you mean replace a selected ingredient with another? That would be quite useful

Yes, that's what I mean.