Yankee Brew News Archive

Homebrewing Corner: Brew Wizard's Strength is Record Keeping

Originally Published: 04/96

By: Gregg Glaser

The following is the second in a series of reviews of homebrew software programs.

Brew Wizard, Version 1.40

Antrom Associates, 20044 Hob Hill Way, Gaithersburg, MD 20879-1307, 301-924-1147, $59.00

Brew Wizard is a Windows program organized into five main sections: Encyclopedia Reference Topics, Brewer's Inventory, Recipe Database and Calculator, Beer Style Guide and Shopping List.

When Brew Wizard first boots up, the main window displays the Encyclopedia Reference Topics and eight command buttons for using the Encyclopedia. There are over 140 homebrewing topics listed, as well as several Mini Books titled Beginners Brewing, Intermediate Brewing, Advanced Brewing, Mashing, Malt, Yeast, Trouble Shooting and Beer Styles. Between the Reference Topics and Mini Books, you're provided with a handy and well-written mini-primer on homebrewing.

The menu line at the top of the Brew Wizard main window offers the following commands: File, Inventory, Recipe List, Beer Styles, Shopping List and Help. The File menu command is mostly for housekeeping chores. It allows you to Backup Databases, Restore Databases, Search (the Encyclopedia Reference Topics), Print Text, set the Printer Font and Exit.

The Inventory menu command on the main window brings up the Brewer's Inventory Control. The menu line here consists of File (Save Data, Print Report, Defaults, Exit), Edit (Add, Delete), Shopping List (Clear List, Add Item to List, Display List) and Help. The main window of the Brewer's Inventory Control is the heart of this section of Brew Wizard. Four categories of inventory are offered -- malt, hops, other and yeast -- and a grid of pre-installed ingredients in each of these categories is displayed. The Malt Data Fields contain information on 26 malt extracts, grains and sugars, providing data lines for variety, quantity, units of measurement, vintage, type, color, extraction rating and notes. Thirteen Hops Data Fields offer data lines for variety, type, quantity, units of measurement, alpha acid percent, vintage and notes. The seven Other Data Fields (cinnamon, gypsum, Irish moss, licorice, oak chips, spruce extract and lime peel) provide data lines for variety, quantity, units of measurement, vintage and notes. The final inventory section, Yeast, presents 27 yeast types with data lines for variety, type, quantity, units of measurement, attenuation percentage, vintage and notes. All of these ingredients can be added to, deleted or changed in an Edit Data section of the window.

The Recipe List menu command on the main window brings up a window of over 60 recipes for ale, lager, mead, cider and sake. The recipes can be searched and sorted by these five categories, as well as by the criteria of No Mash, Partial Mash or All Grain. The menu line consists of File (Import Recipe File, Export Recipe File, Print Recipe List Report, Set Defaults, Exit), Edit (New Recipe, Edit Recipe, Rename Recipe, Delete Recipe), Display (By Category, By Date Brewed, By ID Code, Alphabetically) and Help.

When you select a recipe or create a new recipe, you enter the guts of Brew Wizard, the window named Recipe Calculator. This is what you've paid your money for and what you've been waiting for. The menu line here consists of File (Save Recipe, Save As, Print Recipe, Scale Quantities, Exit), Instructions (Mash/Sparge, Fermentation/Priming, Hops Utilization, Starter/Kraeusening, Comments), Beer Styles and Help. The main window has frames for Characteristics, Quantities and a grid displaying all the ingredients you enter from the Inventory data fields. In the Characteristics frame, you enter the final volume of your recipe, say five gallons, and the initial volume as you start your boil. The fields for original and final gravity, color, IBUs, and approximate alcohol percent are calculated and filled in as you enter your ingredients and their quantities. Changing the final volume, initial volume or any ingredient quantities automatically recalculates the numbers in the Characteristics frame. Ingredients are chosen from the Quantities frame, which is linked to the Inventory data fields: malt, hops, other and yeast. As you choose your ingredients and quantities, the grid frame is filled in with the choices. The entire window of frames, grids and charts is clean-looking and easy to read.

The choices from the Instructions menu command add a strong record-keeping element to Brew Wizard. The Mash/Sparge data window offers lines for entering the Mash Type (No Mash, Partial, Infusion, Step Infusion, Decoction, Other), Mash Steps (temperature and time for Dough-In, Acid Rest, Protein Rest, Intermediate Rest and Saccharification Rest) and Sparge data (Water Volume, Temperature, pH). The Fermentation/Priming data window allows you to enter information for duration, temperature and vessel type for primary, secondary and tertiary fermentations, as well as whether the beer is aged in bottles or kegs. The Conditioning frame contains options for priming, kraeusening or forced CO2. The Hops Utilization data window displays a chart and table showing different percentages of hops utilization as calculated by Rager, Garetz and Glenn.

The Beer Styles menu command from Brew Wizard's main menu presents a main window that displays a chart of original gravity, alcohol percent, IBUs and color for the 60-plus beer styles contained in Brew Wizard. The chart is split into columns reading Low, Current (your individual recipe) High and Target. AHA guidelines are used.

The Shopping List menu command on the main window allows you to create just what the command reads -- a shopping list of all the ingredients you'll need for your recipe. You can Clear the list, Display it and Check Inventories.

The final menu command on the main window is Help. Here, as elsewhere in Brew Wizard, context-sensitive help is readily available.

Brew Wizard is an easy to use and fairly complete homebrew software program. No problems presented themselves during the test run. One small drawback is that the program doesn't calculate the actual IBUs, color and alcohol percent of your beer based on the original and final gravities you really achieve. There's space in the Comments section to enter this information, but you have to make the calculations yourself. Also, data for mashing, sparging, fermentation and other brewing tasks can be entered in well-designed windows and frames, but no calculations or projections are offered for these tasks.

Brew Wizard was tested on a 486SX, 33-MHz machine with 4 MB of RAM.

The next homebrew software program to be profiled will be Brewer's Workshop, Version 4.0