Brewing Spreadsheet Version 5: Overview, Deep Dive, & Recipe Design Example

[@duraazuz4554]

Thank you very much Larry, I am a brewer in Shenzhen China. Best wishes

[@ripewithdecay83]

Thanks Larry! I've been using your spreadsheet for 8 years now and I appreciate the updates from time to time.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Excellent. Glad you like using it.

[@ripewithdecay83]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Just bought a t-shirt as a thanks for the years of contributions to the brewing community. Thanks!

[@jeffcole2642]

Thank you Larry for providing these resources to us! I haven't brewed a single batch of beer.....yet. But I plan to start when I return to the US after working overseas. Your videos have been entertaining and enlightening for me. Keep Brewing!

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Glad you liked them!

[@vaunthompson]

Hi Larry, a huge thankyou! for your great work on this..! I have started recommending your spreadsheet at my local homebrew club as, what I also think, is a better alternative to apps and software out there. Its great to be able to have full control and visuals on all the working parts.. I'm a metric user (Australia).. and I have to say, after checking all the 'equipment profiles', and 'equipment set up & calcs', it works great. In my opinion, your strengths as a 'brewtuber' really are your engineering perspective, your do-it-yourself equipment vids, and equipment reviews. Your the first KZbin brewer I came across when I started, and you have helped me a heap.... so again, big thanks....

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

You’re welcome. I’m glad the metric values are good. I don’t always have time to recheck them after making updates. There are way too many scenarios to go through them all.

[@christinechambers8608]

Wow! Larry this is such a great tool! I've always been confused by all the intricacies of brewing, but your video really helped me understand how each component (water, grain, hops, temp etc.) affects and improves or detracts from the final product. Kudos to your efforts and, just so you know, I am spending the rest of today setting up my default spreadsheet. Thanks!!!!

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Great to hear! You're very welcome!

[@richiedubs1062]

Thanks Larry! Great channel, btw!

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Thank you!

[@mikekoehler9551]

Great tutorial, and thanks for gifting all of us this spreadsheet! One suggestion - Calculations for adding a yeast starter. This would affect volume and gravity.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

I considered that idea years ago before I settled on some general rules for yeast pitching and never saw a need for one since. When I did try counting/estimating yeast rates in the earlier years, I’ve seen no difference between that and the general rules followed later.

[@codytheriverrat]

Thank you so much!!!

[@OlDirtyBrewer]

Thanks Larry, great video as always. I was following along and added table sugar as one of my ingredients. On the Water-English tab, it transferred it over but lowered my PH substantially. Is this correct? A quick search seemed to indicate that table sugar shouldn't affect PH much if at all. Appreciate all you do.

[@robhopper5729]

Thanks for the update video Larry! Love this spreadsheet. I have an Import/Export module I created for your spreadsheet that makes saving recipes and importing saved recipes a breeze, if you'd like it?

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Absolutely. Been thinking about a way to do that although at a very low priority.

[@robhopper5729]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Not a problem. I will clean up the code and make it easier for you to add to your spreadsheet and shoot you an email.

[@beeroquoisnation]

Getting ready for a brew day maybe Sunday. In your spreadsheet, which I am trying to use, and since I haven't used Excel in about 10 years I am stumbling all over myself LOL, I noticed your BrewEasy volume numbers are off. A 10 gallon Blicmann kettle should be 40 quarts, not 60. Cheers Bud.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Hi Harold. That equipment profile is correct for my 10 gal BrewEasy. It comes with a 15 gallon mashtun which is 60 quarts.

[@beeroquoisnation]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY Gotcha, I thought it was a 10 gallon pot. When I saw 60 qts. I thought it could have been an oversight. Cheers Bud.

[@beeroquoisnation]

You have invested a great deal into this BroFessor Larry. There is only 1 tab missing from this spreadsheet. I suppose it's because no one but me uses it. LOL. Krausen /Gyle Calculator. That is the only reason I used Brewers Friend. Brewer's friend was the only place I could find an operable Krausen /Gyle calculator. As a rule, I carb by Krausen with the occasional Gyle depending on how active I am with my brew rig.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Wow. You do that?! That's pretty advanced. I've never considered reusing wort or krausen from another batch for bottling when I used to bottle. I had a hard enough time as it was estimating how much measurable sugar/extract to add when priming a batch.

[@beeroquoisnation]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY It's really very easy. There is nothing to it. Measure what the bottling vessel ( bottling bucket) holds, and add the appropriate amount of Krausen or Gyle to provide the prescribed amount of C02 volumes. I have never had a single bottle bomb. I did have a bottle get infected once. It is really simple. I sometimes scale up enough to have extra wort for the process and freeze it. for a 5 gallon batch I usually would require around 1.25 -1.5 quarts of Krausen. It pretty simple and fool proof.

[@brewinfusedyeti3798]

Just wondering but have you ever thought about building a UI/app in front of this?

[@brewinfusedyeti3798]

For clarity, a UI/solution could still be open source on git hub and open to public for contribution. I have not used the spreadsheet but have contemplated building something like this as I am a software developer by trade.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

The thought has occurred over the years but creating such a custom app or website would do away with most of the advantages of using a standalone spreadsheet that I mention in the video.

[@brewinfusedyeti3798]

​@@BEERNBBQBYLARRYthis is true. Transitioning to an app forces people to download said app. Only gripe I have with excel, is that complex solutions like this tend to get confusing quickly. Apps/interfaces allow for things to be a bit more intuitive and self guiding. Props to you on building this document and capturing this valuable information in a centralized place.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

@@brewinfusedyeti3798 oh yes. Very complicated and frustrating to do this in Excel especially as it gets more complicated over the years. I think I’m near the end of development though. I don’t know if I’ll even get to a version 6.

[@brewinfusedyeti3798]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY one of the nice parts about abstracting this into software is the ability to keep all of the formulas for calculations in a single place. That way you can quickly review the without cracking into cells and following the trail of values. If I ever pursue building a free/opensource app, would be great to collaborate with you to ensure the values and formulas line up.

[@lordredbeard7791]

No more refractometer option?

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Refraction option still exists.

[@lordredbeard7791]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY oops. duh...i looked in the hydrometer profiles for a refractometer. i see where it is now lol.

[@andrewlambert9946]

Is there a Metric version?

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

It does metric and US Customary units I demo that earlier in the video.

[@OldNorsebrewery]

I use mac and it looks very different from yours. for one no drop down menus

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

I think that was a reason why Numbers can’t be used to author recipes with it; only for viewing and entering measurements on brew day.

[@PetraKann]

degF, lbs, ounces, psi ??? What is going on here Larry? You cant live like this mate

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Right?! Good thing there’s a metric option to use instead.

[@PetraKann]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY The USA is only joined by Liberia and Myanmar as the 3 countries that still use Imperial. This is only a theory Larry, but I think Imperial beer tastes different from SI or Metric beer.

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Actually, the US doesn’t use Imperial units. It uses “US Customary” units which is different than Imperial. We also use a mixture of US Customary and Metric, so that just makes my life as an engineer pretty hellacious.

[@PetraKann]

@@BEERNBBQBYLARRY I am a chemical Engineer myself - big headache converting units (during my studies and also in industry and academia)

[@suwirwong]

More complicated than ever😂😂😂😂

[@BEERNBBQBYLARRY]

Yep. That’s mostly due to all the enhancement requests from viewers that use it. Also, from the explosion of so many different brewing processes and systems over the years. I miss the simplicity of the old days of brewing.