Brewtarget 1.2 - Free open source brewing software

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rocketman768

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A newer version 1.2.2 is now here.

I give you Brewtarget 1.2.1! Has lots of little bug fixes and stuff since 1.2 was released.

As always, it's free, open source, and works on linux, windows, mac, and more. It's compatible with recipes by software that use BeerXML like Beersmith. In case you're unfamiliar with brewtarget, see the 1.1 thread.

Download it here: https://sourceforge.net/projects/brewtarget/

4219518993_791bbeccb5.jpg

New Features

  • Even more accurate calculations.
  • Shows percentages of each ingredient and IBUs for each hop addition.
  • Can now choose between SI/US/Imperial units independently for mass, volume, and temperature
  • Many more hops in database, and average values for all the major hop oils are included with each hop type.
  • Can copy recipes.
  • Can backup and restore all recipes easily.
  • Tool to scale recipes.
  • Tool to convert between units.
  • Tool to hit your OG if you miss your anticipated efficiency.
  • Priming calculator.
  • Can copy your whole recipe to the clipboard to paste into the forums, or to print out.
  • Can choose between Daniels', Morey's, and Mosher's color formulae.
  • Can choose between Tinseth and Rager IBU calculations.
  • Can save and recall mash profiles.
  • Shows style limits on the main window.
  • Shows boil SG.

There are probably more, but I can't think of them right now.

Windows Installation
Unzip to wherever. Right click "brewtarget.exe" and then "Send to desktop" or any other method to make a shortcut on your desktop.

Mac Installation
Unzip the app to wherever. You need to have the Qt 4.6.2 (or greater) runtime library installed. Go here: http://qt.nokia.com/downloads then LGPL, then Framework Only. NOTE: there is a problem with some of the Qt versions for mac (including 4.6.0), in that they are missing a few essential components (QtDBus libraries). This is a bug with Qt that I have no control over, but has been fixed since 4.6.2.

Linux Installation
Download the .deb and use dpkg to install as usual. You need to install the libraries for Qt 4.5 or above, as well as Phonon. If you can't use dpkg, you probably want the .tar.bz2 download, which is the source. The build process is the standard "./configure && make && make install".

Getting Started
Before you do ANYTHING, please go through the example recipe in About->Manual. This example tries to hit on all the features and how to use brewtarget in general.

Ongoing Translations
I am preparing to release translations of the software. However, I need help. I have someone translating to French and Croatian, but I need help translating to other languages (especially like German, Spanish, and other major languages). You only need to be fluent in both English and another language. You need no programming experience. Keep in mind that you have to know all the beer jargon like "wort," "hops," "decoction," etc. There are about 700 short phrases to translate. If you're interested in doing this for a language, PM me your email address, and I'll send you more details. There's no deadline; you just work on it when you have time.

Anyway, enjoy!
 
when entering your equipment data is there a way to un-highlight the remove equipment button, i hit return by accident before i'd finished entering all my data and it removed everything i'd just entered.
also do you have to manually save the database after you've entered new info, i had a crash and my recipe and equipment data disappeared.

only minor niggles, everything else seems awesome though, thanks again, martin:mug:
 
Thanx Rocketman,

I've only one brew thru the original one, but expect to do many more with this version.

Nice job!
 
Strange. Can you walk me through the exact steps to reproduce this problem?

i created a new equipment list then proceded onto creating a recipe i'm making today,entered fermentables,hops and yeast.
next went to the mash option, created a new single step infusion at 68c entered the info into the relevant boxes, hit mash wiz,it froze for a few seconds and crashed.

i'm not sure if this helps but if i can offer anything more specific then just ask
cheers
martin
 
Thanks for your efforts. I downloaded it last night and played with it a bit today, reproducing the brew I did yesterday.
It has some nice features, but I had a few problems.
I started by redefining the ideal equipment to match mine using the equipment editor. No problem until I hit ENTER after entering the lauter deadspace. Lo and behold, the ideal equipment had been deleted! Exit without saving, and started again. This time, I hit the save button instead of hitting enter. I like the boil-off rate in gallons per hour instead of %
Then I entered my fermentables:
10 lbs UK 2 row, 8 0z crystal 55 (I used 60) and 4 oz Special roast. For a 5.25g batch it predicted an OG of 1.059. Promash predicted 1.062 for the same brew. This was easily explained. The UK 2 row in the database had a yield of 78%, whereas 82%+ would be more typical. (Promash used 82.23%). I changed the yield to 82.25% and got 1.062.
Then, I adjusted the AA% for the hops I used, and entered the hops. Your predicted IBU's came out at 44.4 as opposed to Promash's 45.9 (both using Tinseth). No problem there.
Incidentally, I love the way you add the ingredients, where you can select all the grains (or hops) and add 0 weight of each item, and then quickly go through and enter the weights. This is so much easier than either Promash or Beersmith.
Rather than creating a record for WLP002 (that I used) I substituted the Wyeast 1968. As far as I can tell, these are the same yeast, so again, no problem.
I was a little puzzled that you predicted a FG at this point (without knowing any details of the mash), but that is a minor detail. Promash doesn't even try to predict a FG.
Lastly, I tried to enter the mash details, and this is where I had some problems.
I fly sparge rather than batch sparge, and instead of using your mash wizard, I tried to enter what I did yesterday to keep things as close as possible to my actual practice especially as I achieved exactly the results that Promash forecast.
First, I infused 3 gal of 168 F water to hit 152 F for 60 minutes
My predicted OG dropped from 1.062 to 0.730, and my preboil gravity increased from 1.046 to 1.202. This is clearly impossible, and I suspect you have an undetected overflow condition somewhere in the calculations.
After thinking about this for a while, I generated a Brewday report, which showed that the mash tab covers the sparge as well as the mash. Perhaps you could change the "Mash" to "Mash/Sparge" as that tab covers both operations.
I continued by adding 6 qts 205 F water for a mash out, followed by 5 gal of 168 F water for the sparge. This is effectively what I did yesterday, and combined with 0.6 gal lauter dead space, and 0.5 g loss to chiller, kettle dead space, and trub should have delivered 7.0 gallons to the kettle, boiled down over 75 minutes to 5.75 gal, and 5.25 gal into the fermenter.
Having put these figures into Brewtarget, it reported that my OG would be 1.048 at 80% efficiency, rather than 1.062 which Promash forecast, and I achieved.

At this point, I tried to save the mash details, and the program quit, destroying all my data.

One thing I did do was to examine your code, and found that the 0.6 gal dead space in my MLT was treated as a loss of 0.6 gal with a gravity of 1.062. In actual fact, the wort remaining in the MLT at the end of the sparge had a gravity of 1.010. This would account for 6 points, but I have no idea where the other 8 points went.

-a.
 
No problem until I hit ENTER after entering the lauter deadspace. Lo and behold, the ideal equipment had been deleted!

Ah, I see that the delete button had been mistakenly marked as the default button for this dialog, which means that if you press enter, that button gets pressed. Fixed. Thanks for telling me that!

Incidentally, I love the way you add the ingredients, where you can select all the grains (or hops) and add 0 weight of each item, and then quickly go through and enter the weights. This is so much easier than either Promash or Beersmith.

Thanks man.

I was a little puzzled that you predicted a FG at this point (without knowing any details of the mash), but that is a minor detail. Promash doesn't even try to predict a FG.

Yeah, predicting FG from mash temps combined with a particular yeast is a crap shoot. I just use the apparent attenuation given by the yeast to estimate.

First, I infused 3 gal of 168 F water to hit 152 F for 60 minutes
My predicted OG dropped from 1.062 to 0.730, and my preboil gravity increased from 1.046 to 1.202. This is clearly impossible, and I suspect you have an undetected overflow condition somewhere in the calculations.

Actually, this is supposed to happen. Before you enter the mash details, you'll notice that the "Calculated batch size" reads just what you want it to. Brewtarget is lying to you here since how can that be the batch size if you're adding no water? But, I like just starting up a new recipe and adding my ingredients to get running, so I make bt pretend that the batch size is right. After you added the 3 gal infusion, it assumed that was all the water you were adding, and you should notice that your batch size is like 1 qt or something tiny, which means an extremely high OG of 10.730 (which displayed as 0.730). Bottom line: only trust the OG when your calculated batch size is near your target batch size.

Having put these figures into Brewtarget, it reported that my OG would be 1.048 at 80% efficiency, rather than 1.062 which Promash forecast, and I achieved.

I'm almost sure this has to do with a calculated batch size (takes into account mash additions, grain absorption, losses, etc.) that is just too far above the target batch size.

At this point, I tried to save the mash details, and the program quit, destroying all my data.

Really? What platform? I can't get it to crash when saving a mash.

One thing I did do was to examine your code, and found that the 0.6 gal dead space in my MLT was treated as a loss of 0.6 gal with a gravity of 1.062.

Sort of. Right now, I am basically assuming a batch sparge since I always do batch sparges. I'm not very familiar with the details of fly sparging. Of course, a quick fix is just to reduce your lauter deadspace, though I know that's not ideal. I'll work on including fly sparging since I know it's common.
 
After you added the 3 gal infusion, it assumed that was all the water you were adding, and you should notice that your batch size is like 1 qt or something tiny, which means an extremely high OG of 10.730 (which displayed as 0.730). Bottom line: only trust the OG when your calculated batch size is near your target batch size.

I realized that as soon as I looked at the Brewday mode report.
I checked again, and with the 3 gal addition, I would have ended up with -ve volume post boil. I guess -ve volumes can be expressed any way you want to. :)

I'm almost sure this has to do with a calculated batch size (takes into account mash additions, grain absorption, losses, etc.) that is just too far above the target batch size.

I don't think so. The figures I entered were:
Pre-boil volume 7 gal
Batch size 5.25 gal
Boil Time 1.25 hr
Boil Off rate 4 qts per hour
Kettle to Fermenter loss 0.5 gal
Lauter Losses 0.6 gal

With the 3 gal, 6 qt, and 4.5 gal additions (I made a mistake in the previous post, the sparge should have been 4.5 gal not 5), my pre-boil volume came out at 7.002 gal, which leaves 5.252 gal in the fermenter. I hope that you don't have to get within 0.002 gal (1.5 tsp) when estimating the batch sizes.

Really? What platform? I can't get it to crash when saving a mash.
Windows (XP Pro - S.P. 3) I can't get it to crash now either, but it did when I tried it the first time. I also cannot get it to save the Mash.


-a.
 
OK, I'm on the Jaunty install of Mint (Mint 7). I start the program from the terminal, like you do, and then go to the 'New Recipe' button. The window pops up and asks me for a name. When I enter the name and click 'OK', the program closes on me.

When starting the program, I get the following messages in the terminal:
Code:
WARNING: Could not open /home/colin/.config/brewtarget/options.xml for reading.
ERROR: Could not open /home/colin/.config/brewtarget/database.xml for reading.
ERROR: Could not open /home/colin/.config/brewtarget/database.xml for reading.
ERROR: Could not open /home/colin/.config/brewtarget/database.xml for reading.
brewtarget(25208) Phonon::KdePlatformPlugin::createBackend: using backend:  "Xine"

When it errors out, I get:
Code:
ERROR: Could not open /home/colin/.config/brewtarget/database.xml for reading.

Hope this helps! The layout is really nice, I'd like to be able to use this!

I also can't seem to get the example to load. I go to About -> Manual and the window that pops up (HTML Viewer) is blank.
 
Hmm, I'm running 1.1 on Mac right now but 1.2 won't run. I get the same error i used to get before QT was installed right "brewtarget quit unexpectedly" but obviously it is still installed or 1.1 wouldn't work. do i need to do anything because 1.1 was installed?
 
Hey guys. Several of you pointed out some errors. I believe I have fixed them, although some of them I couldn't reproduce, so I don't know for sure. Anyway, just download it again and everything should be fine. If not, PM me.
 
I am a few discrepancies between Brewtarget and Beer Calculus. Not sure which one is correct. I am preparing for a German Pils

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 11 lbs
Munich Malt - 20L 8 oz

Target boil 6.394 gal Beertarget; 6.4 gal Beer Calculus

BJCP BT BC
O.G. 1.044-1.050 1.055 1.045
F.G. 1.007-1.011 1.014 1.011
ABV
 
I am having a few discrepancies between Brewtarget and Beer Calculus. Not sure which one is correct. I am preparing for a German Pils

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 11 lbs
Munich Malt - 20L 8 oz

Target boil 6.394 gal Beertarget; 6.4 gal Beer Calculus

BJCP BT BC
O.G. 1.044-1.050 1.055 1.045
F.G. 1.007-1.011 1.014 1.011
ABV 4.4-5.2 5.3 4.5
Color SRM 4-5 6.5 3.0

Any ideas what is going on?
 
I am having a few discrepancies between Brewtarget and Beer Calculus. Not sure which one is correct. I am preparing for a German Pils

Pilsner (2 Row) Ger 11 lbs
Munich Malt - 20L 8 oz

Target boil 6.394 gal Beertarget; 6.4 gal Beer Calculus

BJCP BT BC
O.G. 1.044-1.050 1.055 1.045
F.G. 1.007-1.011 1.014 1.011
ABV 4.4-5.2 5.3 4.5
Color SRM 4-5 6.5 3.0

Any ideas what is going on?

You don't say what your batch size is. However, if your efficiency is 70% and I assume the batch size is 6.4 gal, and I ignore the amount of crystal malt, the points should be:

(11 * 46 * 0.81)/6.4 * 0.70 = 45 points (i.e. OG = 1.045)

Which is what you're expecting I believe. If I'm right, I think you may have confused batch size and boil size. Perhaps you wanted the batch size to be 6.4 gal instead? Batch size is how much you want to end up in the fermenter. Boil size is how much wort is in the kettle at the start of the boil. To move the calculated batch size up or down, you must edit the boil off rate in the equipment record you have associated with the recipe.

Hope this helps.
 
I'm just getting back into extract homebrewing after about a 12 year absence and am looking for some good software. I ran across Brewtarget and it looks nice!

I bought an ingredient kit from "Brewer's Best" to get started and thought I'd put all of it into the software. One ingredient that came with the kit that I can't find in Brewtarget is maltodextrin. Am I just missing it, or is it not there? Any idea how to add it and what information I would need to add it?
 
I'm just getting back into extract homebrewing after about a 12 year absence and am looking for some good software. I ran across Brewtarget and it looks nice!

I bought an ingredient kit from "Brewer's Best" to get started and thought I'd put all of it into the software. One ingredient that came with the kit that I can't find in Brewtarget is maltodextrin. Am I just missing it, or is it not there? Any idea how to add it and what information I would need to add it?

Hey man. You can create a "fermentable" ingredient to be Maltodextrin like this:

1) View->Fermentables
2) Click New
3) Enter "Maltodextrin"
4) Change the type to "sugar" (yes, I know it's not really a sugar)
5) Change the yield to 87. The reason is 1 lb in 1 US gal of maltodextrin gives 40 points and 40/46 * 100 = 87.
6) Click OK.
 
when I was editing my system information, I got it all in and unthinkingly hit enter.

the default on the edit system page is to delete on an enter key stroke apparently.

:(

User error, for sure... but that might be good to remove the default there.
 
That is why we test and retest, I guess!

I am really enjoying the new version... the export to text is GREAT! exactly what I needed.
 
I don't know about "all of those", but you did fix that one.
-a.

Thanks for the input... I may be crazy... but it does default to delete on enter...

if you do not create a new equipment system. As soon as you create a new system, it changes the default... but when you are editing a system that exists... the default is delete.

correct me if I am wrong.
 
I crashed it yesterday. I meant to click on the "Amount" box of my base malt and zero it, but accidentally clicked the "Type" box, backspaced to clear it, and hit enter before I realized what I had clicked on. Program froze and then crashed. Not a big deal as long as you don't do what I did though.
 
Thanks for the input... I may be crazy... but it does default to delete on enter...

if you do not create a new equipment system. As soon as you create a new system, it changes the default... but when you are editing a system that exists... the default is delete.

correct me if I am wrong.
That used to be the default behavior, but he changed it sometime after 12/28/09. It now exits without saving, but doesn't delete. (Perhaps you need to download the package again.)

-a.
 
I crashed it yesterday. I meant to click on the "Amount" box of my base malt and zero it, but accidentally clicked the "Type" box, backspaced to clear it, and hit enter before I realized what I had clicked on. Program froze and then crashed. Not a big deal as long as you don't do what I did though.

Hm. Double clicking there should've shown a drop down list. I'll take a look.
 
That used to be the default behavior, but he changed it sometime after 12/28/09. It now exits without saving, but doesn't delete. (Perhaps you need to download the package again.)

-a.

Pressing enter there should save your equipment and close the editor, or at least that's what happens when I do it.
 
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