rockbotton, sorry for not getting back here sooner ,

We have been hoping to get a good run at the BIABacus and site for several months but this has not happened. Because of this, PistolPatch has taken today off work and the rest of the week so as he can spend 5 straight days working on the project so let's see how things stand on Sunday. We really didn't want to do that as it is, once again, lost income for him.

Two of the main purposes of doing a pre-release was to get feedback and see if there were any major problems with the BIABacus. The thread was therefore placed here in the "Your Feedback" forum. This thread is directly linked in the main "The Calculator" thread and also in the thread called "What software should I use?" in the "Measurement and Records" forum. A few other threads were recommended for people to ask questions so as those working on the project could keep an eye on things easier.

Anyone wanting to keep a close eye on small pre-release updates however would have to follow those other threads closely. This thread was only intended to post major changes. We have made some but really wish to do a couple more before we put out another release.

I've mentioned the Catch 22 we are in here earlier in this thread. We need to write and structure the help and forum so information and answers to common questions are easy to find. At the same time it is important to answer people's questions on forum so we can see what is working and what help we need to give priority to. Since this thread started, a few questions have lead to some subtle but important changes to not only the BIABacus but also to some better ways for writing the help we have planned.

So, our main priority up until now has been on servicing those actively giving feedback, making suggestions or asking questions. Let's hope that we can make a dent in this issue over the next four days so that the right information and help can be accessed faster for everyone.

In the meantime, please take time when you can to give quality answers on forum. This is what helps the most at the moment. It will be especially important over the next four days as this project is one where major moves forward require long, unbroken periods of concentration.

All the best,
Pat

We've had another quick look at the whole sugar issue thinking that there might be a way we can squeeze some more room into this BIABacus to deal with sugars and extracts in and out of the boil. Firstly, there really isn't enough room to deal with this neatly. It really needs two checkboxes for every ingredient in Section C or Y. Secondly, it also requires a major re-writing of some of the formulas which none of us are prepared to put time into especially atm.

The only limitations of this are, firstly, if your recipe contains sugars, you are actually going to get a slightly higher efficiency than predicted as sugars and extract are 100% kettle efficient. In our case, sugars or extract usually make up less than 20% of a recipe. This means on a 1.050 OG wort we would get 1.052. (Note this is half the discrepancy of OG errors in some major programs that occur on every recipe.)

So the first problem is very unimportant.

Secondly, it means that your Gravity into Boil (GIB) and Gravity of Ambient Wort (GAW) will be incorrect. (Note GIB and GAW are updated terms for the older GIK and EOBG).

Here's an easy fix to the second problem...

Getting your Sugar Fix

If your sugar is added during the boil then only your GIB needs to be corrected. To fix, in Section C, on the right hand side, look at the percentage of the sugar/s. Let's say they are 10%. Multiply your estimated GIB "gravity points" by 10%. For example, if your GIB is estimated at 1.040, then 10% x 40 is 4.0.

In other words, your sugar is contributing 4.0 gravity points so you should really be only expecting a GIB of about 1.036.

The same logic applies to GAW for sugars that are added after the boil. For example, if the sugars above were not added until after the boil and our GAW was expected to be 1.052, then we should, at the end of the boil, only expect about 1.047 GAW. When we add our sugar, we will end up with an OG of 1.052.

Note that the above fixes are not perfectly accurate but very close to it.

I heard of someone else having problems using Excel in Mac. They then downloaded LibreOffice and had no problems so try that Lampy. If you do use Libre, just make sure that each and every time you save your file, you do it as an .xls. If you accidentally save it as an .ods, it unprotects the sheet which makes it easy to delete formulas and compromise the file etc.

Let us know if this works for you.