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ProMash Revision History - V1.5.A

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Version 1.5.a Upgrade
Posted 10-21-2000

New Features and Enhancements:

  1. Within a brewing session, you will now notice a "Efficiency" button on the bottom row. Pressing this will launch the new Efficiency calculator.

    Previously, ProMash calculated the actual mash efficiency based on the predicted OG/Volume of the recipe, and the Actual OG entered in the fermentation details. This assumed the brewer took the measurement at the exact batch size, or manually made the adjustment in entering the actual OG. This is no more.

    Actual mash system efficiency is now calculated within the Efficiency calculator. The only caveat is if the entries are 0, then the default values will either reflect the batch size and OG recorded in the fermentation details, or if that is zero, the recipe batch size and predicted OG. In this fashion, the system is backwards compatible with previous ProMash versions and the change should be transparent to all users.

    Quite simply, this calculator allows you to enter in a recorded volume and SG at ANY point after sparging has ended, and calculate the actual mash efficiency from that. For complete details about the functionality of the calculator, see the help section "Brewing Session - Efficiency Calculator", or bring up the calculator and just press "Help".

  2. In the Water Database, when you add or edit an entry you will now see 3 new buttons for calculating:

    1) Ca Hardness as CaC03

    2) Mg Hardness as CaCO3

    3) Alkalinity as CaCO3

    Using these small calculators will allow you to pull the appropriate amounts(in ppm) for Ca, Mg, and HCO3. As these are often the ways the elements are stated on water analysis reports, these should aid users in entering the proper values. Also note that within the water database entry dialog, the PH is no longer calculated automatically. You can either have ProMash attempt to calculate it by pressing the "Calc" button, or you can enter it in directly.

  3. One item that has been requested from many brewers is the ability to enter the potential extract of grains as they have it reported on the raw malt analysis reports, which are as "Dry Base Coarse Grind" or "Dry Base Fine Grind".

    This feature has now been implemented. Within the Grain/Malt database, when you add or edit a selection you will find 2 new buttons, one for calculating extract potential from "Coarse Grind" and one for "Fine Grind".

    These entries should be self-explanatory for brewers knowledgable with these figures, and for those that are not complete details about the functionality of the new options can be found in the help section.

  4. We have received numerous requests for ProMash to display HBU's (Home Bitterness Units). While in the past we have been very reluctant to add HBU's, we have finally given in because we can see the need:

    a) The AHA reports all recipes using HBU's, so this will make converting recipes from the AHA much easier.
    b) It makes it easier (math wise) for a brewer to substitute a different alpha acid value (say at the homebrew shop) by knowing the HBU or MBU value.

    Because of this, we have added the ability to view HBU's and MBU's (Metric Bittering Units). However, when you upgrade ProMash you will see no change. To enable HBU's and MCU's goto the system settings, into the "Hop" information section. At the bottom, you will now see a check box for "Display Home Bittering Units". Checking this will enable HBU's or MBU's. Now, notice there are 2 radio buttons below the check box, and these determine if you will view the values in HBU's or MBU's.

    When HBU's are enabled, you will note the following changes:

    a) In the stand-alone Hop IBU calculator, HBU's and MBU's are displayed.

    b) Within all inventory analysis reports, both on screen and printed, you will now get a report of HBU and MBU amounts at the end of the report.

    c) On the main recipe screen, to the right of the hop list box and buttons, you will now see 2 radio buttons. The first is to display IBU's, the second is to display HBU's (or MBU's). Clicking on "HBU's" will cause HBU's to be displayed in the Hop list, clicking on "IBU's" will revert the list back to IBU's. Additionally, whatever setting you have (IBU or HBU) will be the way the recipe is printed.

  5. From the system main menu bar, under Calculators, you will find a new option at the bottom called "Date Calculator". This is a simple utility that allows you to choose a start date and a stop date, and see the number of days in between.

  6. Within the recipe and brewing session printouts, you now have the ability to suppress the style guidelines if desired.

  7. In the Stand-alone Unit Converter/Calculator , in the Weight section, the measurement for "grains" have been added as an entry. This should be of help to people who user repeating scales whose units are grains

  8. In the Stand-alone Unit Converter/Calculator , in the Temperature section, the measurements for degrees Kelvin, Reaumur and Rankine have been added as entries. This should help users who like to torture themselves and others with obscure temperature references.

  9. For the first time in ProMash, all dialogs within a brewing session are tied together interactively! So, if you have 2 (or 4) windows open from a brewing session, and make a modification in one of them, all other relevant entries in other dialogs will change, on the fly, while the windows are open. Previously you had to close one dialog and re-open it to see effects of other modifications, from other dialogs.

    There is a specific heiarchy to what dialog needs to modify what other dialog. It follow as:

    ->Edit Ingredients Dialog
    ->->Mash Schedule Dialog
    ->->->Water Needed Dialog
    ->->->->Efficiency Dialog

    This is to say, making a change in the edit ingredients dialog (added grains, boil time changes, efficiency setting, etc.), then the Water Needed, Mash Schedule, and Efficiency dialogs are all modified in real time. Making a change in the water needed calculator will not affect the mash schedule, but will affect the Efficiency dialog (and the Pre-Boil dialog within a recipe).

    Note that if one dialog in the heiarchy is closed, all changes will still effect the lower level dialogs, as it should be.

UI Modification:

  1. Previously, the fluid measurement system and temperature measurement system were both tied to the same setting variable, that being either "Metric" or "American". This has been changed and the 2 components have been separated into to "Fluid Measurements " and "Temperature Measurements".

    The very first thing you need to do after installing the upgrade is to goto the system settings, Measurements and Sizes section. Note that the entry which was previously marked as "Default Measurement System" has been changed to "Fluid Measurements " and that there is a new entry titled "Temperature Measurements". Your Temperature Measurement setting will default to Celsius. Change to Fahrenheit if that's what you use, and save the settings when finished.

  2. Brewing Session Dates and Bottling Dates are no longer manually entered but instead chosen from a Windows common calender control. This should aid in easier date selection and determination.

  3. Within the water database entry dialog, and the water profile calculators, the PH value is no longer calculated automatically. You can either have ProMash attempt to calculate it by pressing the "Calc" button, or you can enter it in directly (more accurate if you have it) from your water analysis reports or from a direct measurement.

  4. In all hydrometer correction calculators, the ability to modify the Calibration temp of the hydrometer "on-the-fly" has been removed and the fields are now static. You may now only modify the hydrometer calibration temp within the system settings. The reason for the change is that some users became confused in the rush of the brewing day and modified the calibration temp as opposed to the measured temperature entry field. As most brewers have only 1 hydrometer, and since 98% of all hydrometers are calibrated at 60 F, the request to remove dynamic editing of the field is justifiable, as you can still set the calibration temp to a different temp in the system settings.

  5. All Inventory Dialogs now contain a "Zero" button. This makes it trivial for a brewer to "zero out" an entry's inventory amount if desired.

  6. All dialogs and windows now utilize a default button, where pressing the "Enter" key will execute the button. The majority of dialogs have the default button set to be the "OK" button, and as such pressing "Enter" will close the dialog or window.

  7. All dialogs and windows will now open up with the first element in the dialog highlighted and ready for data entry. Previous version of ProMash only allowed this feature in select dialogs.


Bug Fixes:
  1. There was a problem in a select few dialogs in that you could not TAB between the fields (the Notes section imbedded in a brewing session for example). This has been fixed in all dialogs and windows.

  2. In previous versions of ProMash, it was possible to loose keyboard focus on the main recipe and brewing session screen. While you could still enter data, you could not bring up the "File" menu unless using the mouse to do so. This has been fixed.

  3. In previous versions of ProMash, in the fermentation specifics of a Brewing Session, if you had set the number of days you fermented in a secondary to anything other than 0, it was then not possible to reset the number back to 0. This has been fixed.

  4. Within a brewing session, if you were using the simple mash designer, the grain temp used in the dough-in calculation was not being printed or saved properly. This has been fixed. The problem did not exist within the complex mash designer.

  5. Many users have reported problems with printing at specific sizing scales, depending on what the printout comprised of. For instance, a brewing session would print one page and then just quit. The problem has always been one that could be worked around, by simply adding/subtracting some printing elements or changing the scaling of the printout, but we finally believe we have cured this once and for all at all scaling possibilities.

  6. Previously, pressing Cancel in the Bottling Details of a brewing session would have the same effect as pressing the OK button. This has been fixed.