Priming technical improvement and ordinary bitter style

During development of the carbonation calculators I noticed that there was some variation in the sources about a key constant: the mass of one liter of CO2 at standard temperature and pressure. The calculators were based upon the value of 1.969 from Kaminski (2019). Reddit user /u/chino_brews noted that this value was slightly off and suggested the following correction. 

"One mole of CO2 has a mass of 44.01 g. AT STP, one liter [I think he meant mole] of gas occupies 22.4 L of volume. 44.01 / 22.4 = 1.96473214286."

The priming calculators have been updated with this new, more accurate constant. This small change probably doesn't make much difference at the homebrew level, but hey, why not? Increased precision is always valuable. 

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In other news, a FlexStyle calculator for ordinary bitter has been added. My interest in British styles was triggered by my homebrew store being sold out of Rahr two-row, so I went with Simpson pale ale malt instead. Brewing with British malt is new to me. I'm looking forward to it. I'm also currently interested in exploring session beers as part of a more healthy lifestyle.

https://topdownbrew.com/beerengine2024/11OrdinaryBitter.html

Updated: Mash efficiency - advanced

The advanced mash efficiency page has received some major and minor updates. 

The first major update is that the tool follows John Palmer's example more closely (2001, p. 148 - 152). The older version calculated gravity points for an entire batch. For example, 5 gallons at 1.037 would be 185 gravity points (theoretical maximum). The current version expresses this per gallon or per liter, which is how Palmer's calculations work. The math is really equivalent, but it might be easier to understand when expressed per volume unit. 

A second major update is the metric calculations use L degrees per kilogram. The previous version just converted metric units to imperial (US) units, then did the calculations with the imperial units. This crude approach worked for calculating efficiency, but it was perhaps disappointing to people who use metric units. 

There were a few other minor tweaks. Malt extracts were moved from the base malts to the sugar options. The description of the calculations was edited to improve clarity and explain metric calculations. 

https://topdownbrew.com/MashEfficiencyAdvanced.html

Palmer, J. (2001). How to Brew. Second edition. Defenestrative Publishing Co.

Updated: Water estimation tool for continuous sparging

The water estimation tool received a few tiny adjustments in regard to how water use is estimated for continuous sparges. These depend upon maintaining a medium-thickness mash throughout the sparge process. 

A coding comment incorrectly stated that 1.4 l / kg of water were used to estimate water absorption plus excess water for continuous sparging. The calculator was actually using 2.0 l/kg as stated in the documentation. The update also bumped this value up from 2.0 l/kg to 2.5 l/kg to be more conservative. 

The description of how this calculator works was edited for greater clarity. 

https://topdownbrew.com/WaterVolumeEstimation.html

New additions: Dubbel, witbier, Hoegaarden, and clone estimation tool

Here are a few new additions made over the last few months. 

Flexstyle: Two new style based calculators were added for dubbel and witbier. 

Flex concise: A new clone recipe calculator was added for Hoegaarden. 

A new tool is helpful for estimating the starting point of clone beer recipes. Known values like original gravity or alcohol by volume can be used to estimate the weight of malt extract or malt that will be needed. There are three different methods possible depending upon what is known about the commercial beer. The goal is to save a bit of guesswork. The inspiration for these calculators came from documentation in Clonebrews (Szamatulski & Szamatulski, 1998). 

Mash efficiency advanced - unit choice

 The advanced mash efficiency calculator has been updated. The previous version used imperial (US) units: gallons and pounds. The new version will do either US or Metric units. 

https://topdownbrew.com/MashEfficiencyAdvanced.html

Calories and carbohydrates in a beer serving

This new calculator will estimate the calories and carbohydrates (grams) in a beer serving. It's sad, but true: Beer has a lot of calories. 

Something that surprised me is that the highest amount of carbohydrates come from the ethanol. The sugars that give beer some body are only the second highest source of calories. Always learning!

There are two calculators on this page. The first method will estimate both calories from alcohol and other carbohydrates if the original gravity and final gravity are known. The second method is for the calories from alcohol if only the ABV (alcohol by volume percentage) and serving size are known. 

Calories and Carbohydrates calculator

New tools: Dry priming, British brown ale recipe calculators

The /r/homebrewing group on Reddit has recently shown interest in dry priming. This is natural carbonation achieved through adding a small amount of sugar to each bottle before filling with beer and capping. This was commonly done in prohibition-era homebrew. One modern way to do this is through commercial solutions like Cooper's carbonation drops: Add one hard candy-like tablet to each bottle. A related solution some redditors have described using syringes to measure out precise amounts of sugar syrups into each bottle.  

Dry priming has some advantages over the commonly done method of mixing the beer with all of the sugar for a batch in a bottling bucket. Oxygen exposure - the primary cause of staling - should be lower due to less handling. There is less equipment to clean because there is no need for a bottling bucket. 

I noticed there was some inconsistency in the discussion about how much sugar is the right amount. This new calculator addresses the issue by using temperature and desired carbonation level to determine the amount of sugar needed for each bottle. The standard output is for 12 oz (355 ml) and 16 oz (473 ml) bottles. The custom field will provide an amount for less common bottle sizes. 

Carbonation with sugar - dry priming calculator

The tool for estimating how many bottles are needed for each batch was updated to provide an estimate based on 16 oz (473 ml) bottles. 

Several new Beer Engine 2024 recipe calculators have also been added. 

• Flexstyle: British Brown Ale
• Concise: Sierra Nevada Resilience IPA clone
• Concise: Genesee Cream Ale clone
• Concise: Newcastle brown ale clone