PeeBee
Brewer
For calculating starting gravity the program uses the ingredient's configured value for "potential extract" and the hardware's value for "brewhouse efficiency". Along with values such as mash temperature the program can then make a good stab at the starting gravity of the beer and the ABV of the finished beer.
For some ingredients (e.g. lactose) there is the option to declare it "not fermentable" so it still provides the calculations with a figure for "potential extract" to come up with a starting gravity, but none of that extract is involved in calculating alcohol so it all ends up in the estimate of finishing gravity.
Good! Following? Sorry, this is a bit long-winded.
But there is nothing in between. The calculated extract is either processed as fermentable, or else all deemed not fermentable.
The figure for "extract" can be manipulated to only reflect fermentable extract. But then any "not fermentable" extract is skipped and not included as part of the final gravity. This has become a problem for me when designing beers containing a lot of crystal malt (particularly low-alcohol, <0.5% ABV, beers) where quite a high proportion of the sugars can be "not fermentable" or convertable having been subject to caramellisation and "Maillard's Reaction". Most extreme is "dextrin malt" ("Carapils", "Carafoam", etc.) which undergoes processes to preserve the dextrins against attack by mash enzymes and yeast enzymes despite being very light in colour and not being subject to caramellisation.
Currently I'm electing to designate all crystal malt as "not fermentable" for these low-alcohol formulations, which isn't ideal.
So: Could we have an option for "not fermentable" that took a figure representing the degree of fermentability ratther than just a basic checkbox. So if the ingredient option had a value of 50%, half would be passed to the calculations that figure out how much alcohol it will produce, and half will be treated as "not fermentable".
For some ingredients (e.g. lactose) there is the option to declare it "not fermentable" so it still provides the calculations with a figure for "potential extract" to come up with a starting gravity, but none of that extract is involved in calculating alcohol so it all ends up in the estimate of finishing gravity.
Good! Following? Sorry, this is a bit long-winded.
But there is nothing in between. The calculated extract is either processed as fermentable, or else all deemed not fermentable.
The figure for "extract" can be manipulated to only reflect fermentable extract. But then any "not fermentable" extract is skipped and not included as part of the final gravity. This has become a problem for me when designing beers containing a lot of crystal malt (particularly low-alcohol, <0.5% ABV, beers) where quite a high proportion of the sugars can be "not fermentable" or convertable having been subject to caramellisation and "Maillard's Reaction". Most extreme is "dextrin malt" ("Carapils", "Carafoam", etc.) which undergoes processes to preserve the dextrins against attack by mash enzymes and yeast enzymes despite being very light in colour and not being subject to caramellisation.
Currently I'm electing to designate all crystal malt as "not fermentable" for these low-alcohol formulations, which isn't ideal.
So: Could we have an option for "not fermentable" that took a figure representing the degree of fermentability ratther than just a basic checkbox. So if the ingredient option had a value of 50%, half would be passed to the calculations that figure out how much alcohol it will produce, and half will be treated as "not fermentable".