(DONE) Default Mash Thickness & Unit Options

[renthispace]

1. I do batch sparging and while I do care about my mash thickness, I am more concerned with how much water I have remaining to rinse the sugars left in the grain. I do 5 gallon batches which usually means about 7 gallons of water used during mash. I would love if instead of a 'default mash thickness' in the equipment setup that there was a 'how do you mash' drop down box with the option to do batch sparge. And if you select batch sparge, it allows you to enter a 'how much water do you want for your 2nd (or even 3rd) sparge'? Essentially you no longer have a target mash thickness, but a target sparge amount and the mash thickness varies. Obviously a problem could be created if the user put a desired sparge amount that was too large or too small so that the mash thickness would be below 1qt/lb or above 2qt/lb, but you could easily program a prompt in to warn the user of their bad selection (or not, you can't bubble wrap the world).

Right now I have to get the total water calculated for the brew, subtract 2 gallons, convert it into quarts, then divide it by the amount of grains to get the actual mash thickness that I will be using. Then I put that number into the mash calculator to get the target strike water temperature to get to my mash temp. So ultimately I'm trying to make the mash calculator more accurate to my usage to help reduce calculations during brew day. This leads to the next desire...

2. I don't brew in quarts, I brew in gallons. It would be nice to have the option of how the units are displayed (instead of just metric/english).


Otherwise, great site! Keep up the good work!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Re: Default Mash Thickness & Unit Options

#1:
We have just updated the water requirements section to display information about strike and sparge volume, which partially addresses #1. Unfortunately, the system is focused on targeting a strike thickness and volume. We feel that is more important to the brewing process. Mash thickness does factor into conversion efficiency if it is too far out of the normal range.

The mash calculator section allows you to adjust the numbers, but working from the desired sprage volume backwards would be tricky. That is why this thread was left open for so long. We're open to seeing if anyone else is interested in this. The mash calculator is there for you to work backwards on your own, but granted it isn't very streamlined.

I guess I'm curious how far you let your mash thickness vary for the sake of hitting a specific sprage volume, and why sprage volume is so important to you? It is just a rinse step really. We have to not only understand our own brewing process - but everyone's in order to make an effective software system. However, we also want the beer to turn out awesome, so there is a balance between what most people do, and what works best, and what the individual wants to do... Its a challenge!


#2:
As for mashing in gallons, that is now asked in a few places, and we'll be working on that next!
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=398

 

[LarryBrewer]

Re: (NEXT RELEASE) Default Mash Thickness & Unit Options

The next release will include the following:

#1:
Brew Session -> Mash Calculator tab -> Strike Water, will get the option of targeting a mash thickness, or a volume. That should take care of what you are after there.
This thread details the request, and I think it is the same thing:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=514

#2:
The next release will include a new profile option called 'Mash Water Unit'. For users with units set to US, the options will be quarts and gallons. A new field on the brew start screen will be there to let you pick what units you want to mash in, in-case you want to override it for that batch. From there, everything on the mash calculator tab in the brew session will be displayed and entered in those units!

 

[LarryBrewer]

Both of these features are now live!

 

[jeffbarleycorn]

@LarryBrewer I have noticed a problem with the Mash thickness units on my recipes. I have all my system settings set to metric. So my "Mach Water Unit" is set "Liters" but on my recipes the display shows "qt/lb" and the strike water volume calculates as "qt/lb" x weight of malt in kg

 

[Pricelessbrewing]

@LarryBrewer I have noticed a problem with the Mash thickness units on my recipes. I have all my system settings set to metric. So my "Mach Water Unit" is set "Liters" but on my recipes the display shows "qt/lb" and the strike water volume calculates as "qt/lb" x weight of malt in kg

This should be resolved coming monday, but in the mean time fret not it's only a text issue. The calculations are all correct in the background, it's just displaying the wrong label.