I'm a ProMash user but hearing so much about you guys from The Brewing Network (thanks for the support) I decided to give the demo a pretty comprehensive run through and like it. I'll most likely switch over when the new release comes out. I'm kind of a number/variable junkie and perfectionist sometimes to a fault... so I pull out the calculator to do these and they wouldn't stop me from buying the program, I'd just like to one day have something all inclusive.
A few things I still do manually because ProMash or Beersmith doesn't feature or compensate for (that I can find) that I'd like to see:
1. Boil strength (best term I can come up with to describe)... I periodically take refractometer readings during the boil and tweak the strength of the boil to make sure I'm on target to hit my numbers as wind, propane pressure, etc. can affect the (e)vaporation rate. Example: Preboil is 10P and you're aiming for 12P postboil then over a 60 minute boil every 15 minutes you should theoretically see a difference of about 0.5P. I envision a simple "Tool" where you fill in variables of Preboil gravity, Target Postboil Gravity, Boil length, and time into the boil.
2. Boil volume temp adjustment. I like that you allow us to compensate for the 4% cooling loss from boil to chilling. I'd like to see a similar thing for boil volume as water expands a couple percent at mash temps. I think the efficiency spreadsheet calculator at BrauKaiser.com allows this... I typically just multiply my preboil by 2% to determine how much I need to collect though a more accurate method might be cool based on actual expansion of water at a measured temp.
3. Kettle inches. My brew kettle is approx .95"/gallon and I use a metal yard stick to determine the boil volume, so a tool where I can type in the boil volume I need to collect multiplied by inches/gallon (maybe combined with temp adjustment above which I apply after) would be handy.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head... Thanks!
A few things I still do manually because ProMash or Beersmith doesn't feature or compensate for (that I can find) that I'd like to see:
1. Boil strength (best term I can come up with to describe)... I periodically take refractometer readings during the boil and tweak the strength of the boil to make sure I'm on target to hit my numbers as wind, propane pressure, etc. can affect the (e)vaporation rate. Example: Preboil is 10P and you're aiming for 12P postboil then over a 60 minute boil every 15 minutes you should theoretically see a difference of about 0.5P. I envision a simple "Tool" where you fill in variables of Preboil gravity, Target Postboil Gravity, Boil length, and time into the boil.
2. Boil volume temp adjustment. I like that you allow us to compensate for the 4% cooling loss from boil to chilling. I'd like to see a similar thing for boil volume as water expands a couple percent at mash temps. I think the efficiency spreadsheet calculator at BrauKaiser.com allows this... I typically just multiply my preboil by 2% to determine how much I need to collect though a more accurate method might be cool based on actual expansion of water at a measured temp.
3. Kettle inches. My brew kettle is approx .95"/gallon and I use a metal yard stick to determine the boil volume, so a tool where I can type in the boil volume I need to collect multiplied by inches/gallon (maybe combined with temp adjustment above which I apply after) would be handy.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head... Thanks!