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Frequently Asked Questions

Interested in learning why ProMash values may differ from published recipes or other brewing software? We have set-up a separate FAQ for just that purpose. Subjects include All Grain Gravity, Extract with Steeped Grain Gravity, IBU Values and Calculated Mash Efficiency.

Different Values FAQ
Question: Does ProMash provide support for pellet and plug hops? I only see whole hops in the hop databases.
Answer: Yes ProMash supports whole, plug, and pellet hops. However, the database that ships with ProMash have all hops set to the whole form. You can modify a hop by entering the hop database, edit the desired hop, and change the form type to that which you desire (whole, plug, pellet). You can also clone a hop and set the clone's type to the desired form, or create a new entry with the desired form.
Question: Why are the AHA (American Homebrewers Association) style guidelines different than those posted by the AHA?
Answer: In Q2, 1999, the BJCP introduced it's new style guidelines. The new 1999-2000 BJCP style guidelines have been ( for the first time) officially adopted by the AHA as of Jan. 1'st, 2000. Because of this, the defaults in ProMash as of December 1999 are for BJCP style guidelines and this is the recommended setting. The older AHA guidelines (pre BJCP) are accurate for the last known proprietary AHA guidelines and remain only for historical reasons and to make the transition easier, but will eventually be phased out.
Question: If I add a new grain type to the grain database, then create a recipe that uses the grain, do I then need to re-circulate the grain database when I circulate my recipe file?
Answer: No. When you create a recipe, ProMash imports all ingredients into the actual recipe (and brewing session) files. Therefore, all ingredients will travel with the specific recipe and/or brewing session, regardless of whether or not the ingredients are in another user's database, and you only need circulate the recipe file (*.rec) or brewing session file (*.brw) .

The only aspect of this that will affect ProMash is it will not find the new ingredient when analyzing inventory on another user's system (as it is only present in your database files). ProMash will indicate this in the inventory analysis with an asterik (*) placed next to the ingredient.
Question: Some of the floating point results in ProMash conversions do not seem to be consistent. For instance, take the stand-alone dilution calculator; in the first calculator, I achieve an SG of 1.040, and the Plato conversion is 9.96. In the second calculator, I also achieve an SG of 1.040, but the Plato conversion reads 10.04. Why is this and which one is correct?
Answer: The answer is they are both correct. When ProMash calculates values for any field, small rounding accumulations occur that may not be apparent to you. For instance, a calculated SG may actually be 1.0408758, but is only displayed as 1.040, and another SG may actually be 1.040111, but again is displayed as 1.040. The Plato conversion works of the fully calculated number, and therefore MAY produce slightly different results in separate entries. The difference in the above example (9.96 - 10.04) is a difference of 0.08, and can easily be explained by the additional decimal accuracy you do not actually see.
Question: Most of the maltsters (the ones that publish their data anyway) use Lovibond as a color scale to define their malts....ProMash only uses SRM and doesn't seem to provide a conversion. Can you explain why?
Answer:The Lovibond Scale was created in 1883 by J.W. Lovibond. The scale consists of sequentially colored glass, going from lighter to darker. Beer color was determined by visually comparing the colored glass to the color of the beer.

When the spectrometer came to existence, beer (and grain) color could finally be measured with methods impervious to human error factors that standard Lovibond evaluation suffers from, such as color blindness and lighting. Additionally, The American Society of Brewing Chemists found a strong correlation between the returned spectrum analysis and the Lovibond Series 52 standard, and in 1950 the ASBC Subcommittee on Beer Color adopted the standard color reference model, or SRM.

Today, in the United States, SRM is the standard method for determining beer color, as adopted from the American Society of Brewing Chemists. The technique was originally set up to approximate the Lovibond scale and is now used as the basis for assigning Lovibond ratings to grains as well as finished beer.
Question: ProMash seems to require higher efficiency numbers than I am used to in order to generate the same Specific Gravity. Why is this?
Answer: In the brewing world, there are 2 distinct methods of deriving mash (or brewhouse) efficiency.

Method #1 The first is to say that all efficiency is based on the potential yield of 1 pound of sucrose in 1 gallon of water, which is 46.21 (the rate upon which a grain's extraction efficiency is based). In this case 75% efficiency would represent 34.6 Pts per pound per gal yield. (75% of 46.21). Thus for each individual entry in the recipe's fermentables, 75% of 46.21 is applied when estimating the final Specific Gravity of the beer.

Method #2 The second method is based on the fact that each individual fermentable contains a different maximum potential yield, given as a rating from the malster, extract supplier, etc. For instance, 2-row Pale Ale malt may have a maximum potential yield of 36.0 pts. per pound. In this case, an efficiency of 75% would represent 27 pts per pound yield (75% of 36.0).

ProMash uses Method #2. Method #2 is slightly more accurate than method #1, in that each individual fermentable is rated against it's own maximum potential yield in determining the estimated final Specific Gravity of the beer, not the maximum of 46.21 based on the yield of 1 pound of sucrose in 1 gallon of water.

However, many brewers used to using method #1 may be somewhat confused, as much higher efficiency ratings are obtained. This is just the nature of the beast, as the grain's (or extract, sugar, etc) max potential (or more precisely, the malster's efficiency rating) has already been taken into account.

To aid brewers in entering the maximum potential yield of any grain or extract, we allow the entry of this is a number of different ways common to many malsters. This includes SG per LBS per GAL, PTS per LBS per GAL, HWE (Hot Water Extract k/L) from the System Defaults, Measurements section, and the Dry Base Coarse Grind and Dry Base Fine Grind calculators in the actual Malt Database Entry dialogs. Given these options, any brewer should be easy to find/enter the maximum potential of any grain, extract or adjunct.