Announcing the release of 'Mash Made Easy' version 9.40

[Silver_Is_Money]

Announcing the introduction of 'Mash Made Easy' version 9.40 in both the USA and Metric format.

Changes found within 9.40 include:
-----------------------------------------------
1) Eliminates the Base Malt drop down selector and moves these options to the standard Grist entry drop down column as separate entries.
2) Adds Acid Malt as a standard Grist component entry item, plus retains the former recommended Acid Malt addition output.
3) Separates Biscuit, Aromatic, and Munich malts into their own grist addition categories.
4) Virtually across the board revision of malt acidities.
5) Adds 'SRM Made Easy', a stand alone 'SRM' based mash pH adjustment assistant. (called 'EBC Made Easy' in the Metric version).
6) Display shows mEq related details for Grist, Mineralization, and Mash Water.
7) Defaults the buffer multiplier factor to 1.00, whereby it is not modifying the grist components buffering factors. Formerly this switch was set at 0.70.

Note: Version 9.30 was used only for internal testing and as a BETA Test platform and was not publicly released.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I added the ability to alter the Kolbach divisor values for calcium and magnesium as per an ongoing discussion in another thread over on the 'Brew Science' forum, and bumped it up to version 9.45 on my website accordingly.

 

[aeviaanah]

Can you explain the need to modify Kolbach divisor? Is this just a formula to solve for ppm?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Can you explain the need to modify Kolbach divisor? Is this just a formula to solve for ppm?

The mEq divisor was Kolbach's means of determining the degree to which mash water added calcium and magnesium will depress the Wort pH when measured at Knock-Out, which is post the boil stage. But for many decades it has been used as if it was intended instead for the mash itself. It is now being revealed that the degree of pH suppression witnessed within the mash due to added calcium and/or magnesium is not likely as great as applying Kolbach incorrectly to the mash (as opposed to knockout) has indicated. AJ deLange had suggested a few times that the degree of Kolbach pH suppression due to Ca and Mg in the mash water is roughly 50% of what had previously been presumed. And a 2015 study titled "Influence of Strike Water Alkalinity and Hardness on Mash pH' as seen in the (2015) Journal of the American Society of Brewing Chemists: Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 240-242 suggests it may well be noticeably less than that. I don't honestly know what the true degree is, or if there even is one that has fixed as opposed to variable value, and it appears that no one else has fully pegged this either, but if you set this cells value to '1' there is no change, and if you set it to (for example) 0.5 the reduction in pH due specifically to calcium and/or magnesium in the mash water is cut in half, in line with AJ's assesment. Or you can set it at any fraction ranging from 0.25 to 1. It merely provides options. If you prefer to not bother with it, simply leave it at 1.00.

 

[aeviaanah]

I see thankyou for the detailed response. Do you have it set to 50% by default?

I'll be sure to update

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I see thankyou for the detailed response. Do you have it set to 50% by default?

I'll be sure to update

It comes set by default to 1, but it is very easy to change it on the main page. At '1' it is no different from version 9.40.

 

[marc1]

I've been using version 7.0. I've done two batches since getting a pH meter, and the predicted pH was less than 0.05 off on both. Really good!

I'll try out the new version for tomorrow's brew.

There are two things that I would love to see incorporated at some point in the future:

1) A strike water temperature calculator (your sheet already has the info for weight of grains and water volumes. Since you seem to be expanding the usefulness of the sheet this would be great to have for me.)
2)The ability to change the color scheme (far from critical, but it would be fun to play around with)

Thanks for providing a great free tool!

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I've been using version 7.0. I've done two batches since getting a pH meter, and the predicted pH was less than 0.05 off on both. Really good!

I'll try out the new version for tomorrow's brew.

Thanks for providing a great free tool!

I make no claim of being that respectable as to precision for all recipes and/or system processes or procedural methodologies. But I indeed thank you for the kind comments.

I'll consider adding a strike water temperature assistant.

Sorry about the color scheme being not of your liking. I'm not sure if there is a means whereby to make cell colors broadly selective and alterable.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I just noticed that the 9.45 version of 'Mash Made Easy' that I originally posted had defective 'SRM Made Easy" (SRMME) or 'EBC Made Easy' (EBCME) sheets which I have just corrected. No other changes. If you never intend to use a color based mash pH adjustment assistant, then your already downloaded 9.45 version is otherwise fine. If you intend to utilise these color based utilities, please download 9.45 again. My apology for my error. If your base malt "drop down" within SRMME or the metric EBCME does not offer a series of base malt selections you have a 9.45 version with the error, and if it does drop down a selection of base malts (as it will if you download anew, as of this apologetic announcement) this issue will be corrected. Earlier version 9.40 very likely had this problem also...