Kit And Extract Beer Spreadsheet

[TheDudeAbides]

I think others have had a similar issue as me, but I couldn't find any solutions.

I put together a couple of recipes with the K&E spreadsheet and was happy with the results and how the spreadsheet numbers reflect what I actually got.
And then I decided for my most recent batch to use Beersmith 2, just to give it a go.

I built the following recipe into Beersmith 2:

Brown Porter (10L batch)
1.1 kg Amber LME
0.5 kg Dark DME
150g smoked malt
120g medium crystal
120g carapils
100g choc malt
10g Northern Brewer hops (60 min)
5g Northern Brewer hops (5 min)
10g Goldings hops (30 min)
Danstar Windsor yeast

Beersmith told me this recipe fell within guidelines for a Brown Porter (except for OG).
The K&E spreadsheet tells me something different.

BEERSMITH K&E SPREADSHEET (no HCF)
OG: 1.053 OG: 1.061
IBU: 21.1 IBU: 36.8
EBC: 46.1 EBC: 56.7
ABV: 4.9% ABV: 6.0%

Quite a difference. The actual OG was 1.064, so the K&E spreadsheet is a lot closer.
Clearly it's either Beersmith 2 that needs to have a good, hard look at itself, or user error.

Any thoughts?
(sorry for the long post)

 

[Gerva]

Hi Ianh i went to download this on XP and it wont open for me on the computer due to i need the right file to open it, cheers.

 

[damoninja]

Hi Ianh i went to download this on XP and it wont open for me on the computer due to i need the right file to open it, cheers.

You need excel buddy.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Or open with google docs or openoffice.org (both gratis) if you don't own excel.

 

[Rod]

Or open with google docs or openoffice.org (both gratis) if you don't own excel.

I use open office without and problems

 

[damoninja]

Or open with google docs or openoffice.org (both gratis) if you don't own excel.

Googledocs wouldn't run the macros and wouldn't let you save / load / other custom functions?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Googledocs wouldn't run the macros and wouldn't let you save / load / other custom functions?

Didn't think of this. I don't normally run macros and I just use my work computer (with office) to access the file via dropbox.

 

[Linkn]

I'm new to AHB and after going through this thread and playing with the excel doc I gotta say Ian is the leader of Brew Porn! Well done mate - amazing spreadsheet that just makes me smile whenever I find new features. Well done.

Has this been taken to the next level and made into an App? I'd happily help organise that (that's my job) if there's legs on it. Looks like it's beating Beersmith up.

Cheers
Lincoln

 

[carniebrew]

I've never seen any mention of an app for Ian's spreadsheet, so I doubt it. I reckon it'd do alright though, I loved the spreadsheet back when I was starting out and brewing with extract, and still use it occasionally to help with questions about kit/extract brews. A mobile/tablet app would also help the problem that a lot of people don't have Excel, or have no experience using it.

 

[DU99]

sounds a good idea,i would ask ian first.then and long as the app was free

 

[Forever Wort]

Yeah, seriously. It does not need to be a spreadsheet: it could be much more user friendly, with a step by step process.

Not that it isn't fine the way it is!

 

[indica86]

It does not need to be a spreadsheet:

It does actually. That way it can have equations in it and give values based on variables.

 

[Bax]

The only way you could avoid it being a spreadsheet would be something like a simple Visual Basic program. But you'd still have to have the formulas running in the background.

That's the simplest way I can see of making it a step by step process. But honestly the spreadsheet works, it IS a step by step process with the spreadsheet.

 

[damoninja]

The only way you could avoid it being a spreadsheet would be something like a simple Visual Basic program. But you'd still have to have the formulas running in the background.

That's the simplest way I can see of making it a step by step process. But honestly the spreadsheet works, it IS a step by step process with the spreadsheet.

Web based.

Boom.

But seriously, you'd basically just be creating beersmith.

 

[Bax]

True, didn't even think about web based. Build it into the user section of this site. Store saved recipes on the page etc.

Would save me having three different versions floating around, and having open office that doesn't open it properly haha

Seriously though, I'm quite happy with how it is.

 

[adrian078]

Ok so I've created a recipe with OG of 1.046. It uses 2.7kg of DME. No grains or any other adjuncts. If on the "Main" tab, under "Weight of Malt in Grams to add to bring BG up to 1.040", I do a 27L boil then, it tells me I must add 2.88kg of malt to get gravity of 1.04 for the boil.

I can see that the OG is calculated using the ferment volume which is only 22L. So I understand adding 5L to bring it to the boil volume of 27L will bring the gravity down.

Question is, in a full boil, should I be adding enough DME to hit the OG for the 27L starting boil volume or only enough for the 22L after boil volume? I need 27L because 5L will evaporate during the boil.

What do I do?

 

[yum beer]

follow the numbers that it gives you.
Your gravity will increase back as you boil down your 27 litres to 22.

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Are there any recipe brewing spreadsheets that you can use on an iPad/ I phone? If so can you please point me in the direction.
Cheers

 

[Bizenya]

Brew smith works on both devices

 

[Rosscomatic]

Hi all.

I'd just like to say that IanH is possibly the best Excel guru I've ever come across. I thought a friend at work was pretty good but IanH puts him to SHAME!!!

I think I've basically sussed out the spread sheet... Having said that, I seem to understand something new every time I open it...

Can someone explain to me what the 'Yeast' bit does and how it works? I understand that you select the yeast you'll use and it tells you the yeast attenuation...

But what is:
BU:GU
BV
Calculated IBU

Thanks heaps!