I put together a grain database...

I put together a grain database in a fairly easy to use format. Includes name, country of origin, whether or not the grain needs to be mashed, the color, diastatic power, potential, recommended max percentage of a recipe, and a note field.

A lot of credit goes to Beersmith for the underlying data, though there have been some edits/additions.

Input of any sort is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

Nicely done sir.

 

Glad it's useful for you.

 

Pretty cool. Since you're asking for suggestions, while I'm a fan of simple, what about the ability to organize by grain type? Maybe base malts then specialty by SRM, then adjuncts? I know that's more work than is really necessary.

 

Since this is actually database driven, those should be easy to do, as they are just sorts on the data.

I'm planning to do another of these for extracts, for sugars, and for other adjuncts, too.

 

I like this. Thanks for sharing. I have often time thought of an open, community-driven, standards-based, maltster-specific grain/hop/etc database where software could query for, and import, ingredients. Such that, if you choose to use it, various softwares could be working from the same page in terms of ingredient specifics (how they implement those values is obviously software specific). I like what you've started. I assume this is stored in a database and not just static data?

 

Your grain (and hops) databases rock.

Can you tell me where the "35 diastatic power is enough for self-conversion" (paraphrased) figure came from? Not doubting, just wondering the source?

 

I like it!

I think it would be nice to have column headings drive a sort option. But it's certainly useful as is.

 

Thanks. Yes, this is an a MySQL database - I actually use it to power the recipe database that I have on my site. I don't have the search/filter features up yet, but I am fully capable of doing it (and plan to do so at some point).

I have considered opening it all up to the community. I think there would be value in having a small, moderated database of real beer recipes - not just crap that people post just to get their names on some site. However, seeing as how there *are* massive recipe repositories already, I don't know how much interest there would be in something like that.

Thanks for the kind words. The 35 figure comes from the Beersmith blog (Brad Smith). I have seen sources suggest it is a bit lower for self conversion, but I think that 35 is a pretty good rule of thumb.

 

Thanks. Sortable column headers are a definite coming enhancement.

 

I agree that another recipe database might not be something that's needed; not to mention the amount of time would be involved in developing a workable solution that offers something more than what's already available.

Rather, I was thinking along the lines of the ingredients themselves and individually. For instance, brewtarget and beersmith have ingredient lists when you first install them. Usually, they do not have a specific malters malts and associated malt data (moisture, extract potential, protein, etc). What I've contemplated was creating a database that's serves this singular niche purpose - storing ingredient specifics in some kind of standards-based and open format such that softwares like brewtarget, beersmith, etc can import ingredients as needed (and update ingredients too). Granted, any software wanting to utilize said database would have to build in the functionality if they wanted a seamless experience and that would be up to them. This idea has crossed my mind a few times because I've created several brand-specific ingredient groups for beersmith and thought that it would be nice to have these all stored in a common database whereby any user of any software with the standards could access it easily from within the software. Making it community-driven just takes the workload off of one persons shoulders and distributes it, however you get into the issue of reliability of the data once that occurs as well (wikipedia). But, like you mentioned, a moderated, community-driven solution might suffice.

These were just fleeting thoughts I've had a few times but never acted upon (obviously). It's a long shot for usefulness and wouldn't even be worth exploring unless there was some sort of interest from the folks at the softwares themselves...... Than again, as long as selected lists are exportable as XML then they can easily be imported into beersmith (brewtarget too I think). I had actually come across a defunct website a while back that began this process and had some sample data in it's database with xml export functionality. It worked but the database was very scarce and abandoned.

I don't know.... just ideas

Thanks for the great list!!

 

I could certainly see doing that. My base info came from exporting the Beersmith data as BeerXML - it wouldn't be tough for me to export back out of the system as BeerXML.

 

I was editing my post above when you replied. I had added that I had come across a database a little while back with this type of functionality but was basically abandoned. Anyway, I looked it up again and here's the site I had come across a while back.

http://beerdb.org/beerdb/

The premise is cool and could be very useful - especially of the data was reliable.

 

On that site, try searching for 'malt' in the name field. You can then get an idea of what it tries to do - just not very pretty to look at.

 

Looks like that sucker is totally broken.

I'm probably going to allow for my recipes to export as BeerXML, and I could certainly see allowing the fermentables, hops, etc lists to also export. Lots to do (eventually).

 

Try again with my suggestion above. It's kind of a "search and hope it's in there" approach but, again, it looks pretty defunct before real usefulness was completed.

 

Ah, okay. I see what you are saying.

 

Just an FYI, in Beersmith you can use Add-ins. I've loaded a couple of recipe databases from like "Can You Brew it?", Morebeer, etc.

Some of the Add-Ins are malt and hop specs from the manufacturers. I have not loaded any of that yet to see what all you get, but I assumed it would be a comprehensive listing to add to the default ingredients database.

 

That's really good information, thanks!

 

Looks like that beerdb.org was or is an attempt at a point of sale system. It was either in its infancy or some kind of proof of concept is my thought.

Anywho, I was going to suggest having a drop down for Malts, Hops, Yeasts, etc so people can filter. As someone else said adding sorting based on the columns would be handy and since it's a MySQL DB it'll be fairly simple to use the order by clause. Sorry, programmer here too.

Another is to move the column descriptors to the top of the screen? That way people won't have to try and figure it out until we get to the bottom and realize we've been over thinking the site the entire time. Or maybe it's just me. Is the color SRM or EBC?

Finally, maybe...and this is just a maybe but throw up a few formulas for calculating OG #'s. You've got the max percentage to include in a recipe and if I'm letting something roll around in my head I won't want to go look up the formulas to figure it out.

Overall though AWESOME site! I've got it book marked and will be using it for sure.

 

Homebrewdad,
Just looked at your blog and databases. Excellent work, very informative.

 

Thanks! Glad you find it to be useful.

 

Thanks for the helpful feedback. Yeah, sorting is easy.

Color is in SRM. Formula for OG is a really good idea. Hmm... maybe another calculator is in order!