An Advanced Guide to the Engine Room
This guide is intended to clear up obscurity surrounding the use of, and the different buttons (special thanks to Bobbicat once again for providing some simple starting ways to write this section of the wiki).
This section refers to options surrounding options to do with the setup of a brew (not including settings found in the Defaults Editor).
These settings are found at the top of the Engine Room:
The first setting you come across in this section is Recipe Name, and it is as simple as it sounds it is the name of your brew.
Moving left you find a smaller entry labelled Volume: and it is the volume of your brew in Litres (US Liters) and is used for many of the calculations (all volume-involving calculations bar those stated in The Boil Volume Section).
The last item in this section is the entry labelled Boil Volume: you will have seen it change when you changed the volume entry - by default it sets itself to 110% of Volume - and it is used for the following calculations (as a replacement for volume):
Boil Gravity -> boil_grav() so therefore used to calculate the Utilization of hops.
Total IBUs -> refresh_ibu()
Individual Hop IBUs -> refresh_indiv_ibu()
If you do not understand the use of Boil Volume, it would be recommended to set it to the same as Volume. (The concept of Boil Volume will be further expanded in the future)
The Recalculate button is used to force an update of the calculations performed by Wheeler's Wort Works, often this recalculation is done automatically; however, the button is there as a just in case type system to help when using fixed settings.
Underneath the Brew Properties section is where users will find the Fermentable Ingredients Section:
(Will be Expanded in the Future)
The first section of the Fermentable Ingredients area you discover is the table in which items are placed:
This table is where you will be able to see your current Grists.
This column contains the name of the ingredient i.e. Amber Malt
EBC stands for European Brewing Convention, the lower this number is the lighter the malt is.
-
6 - 9EBC: Pale to light blonde -
9 - 12EBC: Blonde - yellow -
12 - 20EBC: Gold -
20 - 30EBC: Amber -
30 - 45EBC: Copper -
45 - 75EBC: Dark copper / brown -
75 - 120EBC: Very dark brown, transparent -
>120EBC: Black, non transparent
Source: https://www.beerwulf.com/en-nl/articles-about-craft-beer/beer-and-figures
Short for Gravity, this shows the amount of gravity the Grist has. So if you have a beer of original gravity 1031.9, all the numbers in the Grav column should sum to ~31.9
Simply put, this is the mass put in the format pounds:ounces (it is NOT a ratio).
The mass of the given Grist in grams.
The percentage of mass the given Grist has. For example, if you have two grists with 100g and 200g respectively the first would have 33.3% and the second would have 66.6%.
The Add New button is rather self explanatory it is used to add new Grists to the Fermentable Grists Table.
This Dialogue is also rather self-explanatory - clicking on items in the table than pressing Add New will add the item into your Fermentable Ingredients Table.
This is shown in this short clip:
The Adjust Weight Section (Found just underneath the Add New button), is where you can adjust the MASS of the selected Grist.
This short clip outlines its usage:
If you wish to use Imperial Units (i.e. lb/oz) you must check the Imperial Units Button:
If you wish to remove an inputted grist, you select the grain that you wish to remove, then press the button labelled Remove. This clip outlines its usage:
Original Gravity (OG), sometimes called original extract, is a measure of the solids content originally in the wort, before alcoholic fermentation has commenced to produce the beer. OG is one of the major measurements used by brewers to determine the future alcohol content of a beer fermented from a particular wort. Source
The number produced is in the 1000s yet many brewers use only 1s - it doesn't exactly matter but Wheeler's Wort Works requires you use numbers around the 1000s (not 1.x).
Specified by the checkbutton found next to the Original Gravity Input Field:
Having the Fixed Original Gravity Checkbutton checked allows for the user to specify an Original Gravity and then lock this gravity into place. For example, checking this option when the Original Gravity is 1050 will keep the Original Gravity at ~1050. After having checked this option, the addition of mass is changed from specific values to percentages like so:
Currently there is an issue with this system surrounding rounding point errors within python, where if you have a grist at 100% then add a new one at 10%, you end up with the original 100% becoming 90.9% and the 10% becoming 9.1%, like so:
If you wish to reset an inputted grist, you select the grain that you wish to reset, then press the button labelled Zero. This clip outlines its usage:
This column contains the name of the hop i.e. Challenger
Whether it is a Whole or Pellet Hop. You can find out more about this topic here
This specifies the AAU (Alpha Acid Units) within a hop, these units show the potential bitterness of a hop. One ounce of hops with an alpha acid content of 1 percent contains 1 AAU. Source
The amount of time the hops will be boiled for, where you place the hop in x amount of minutes before flame off.
The proportion of alpha acid that will remain in solution after the boil. Generally speaking, the longer the boil, the more Alpha Acid Utilization (although higher gravities will result in a lower amount of utilization)
IBU stands for International Bitterness Units:
IBU = mass in grams x alpha acid x utilisation rate
-------------------------------------------------
Volume x 10
Simply put, this is the mass put in the format pounds:ounces (it is NOT a ratio).
The percentage of mass the given hop has. For example, if you have two hops with 100g and 200g respectively the first would have 33.3% and the second would have 66.6%.
The Add Hop button is rather self explanatory it is used to add new Hops to the Hop Variety Table.
This Dialogue is also rather self-explanatory, it is split into two columns, the first being the Hop Variety and the second being the Type Clicking on items in the table than pressing Add New will add the item into your Hop Variety Table.
This is shown in this short clip:
The Adjust Weight Section (Found just underneath the Add Hop button), is where you can adjust the MASS of the selected Hop.
This short clip outlines its usage:
If you wish to use Imperial Units (i.e. lb/oz) you must check the Imperial Units Button:
International Bitterness Units (IBU) is the standard measurement of perceived bitterness in beer, a quality imparted by the addition of hops during its brewing process. Source
The basic concept is found here
If you wish to reset an inputted hop, you select the hop that you wish to reset, then press the button labelled Zero. This clip outlines its usage:
If you wish to remove an inputted hoop, you select the hop that you wish to remove, then press the button labelled Remove. This clip outlines its usage:
The use of these buttons allows a user to change the amount of Alpha Acid within the Hop.
The use of these buttons allows a user to change the amount in the Time Column of the selected Hop.
The Quit button does exactly what is says on the tin - it allows the user to quit Wheeler's Wort Works, it is no different from closing the program in any other way.