Guides > Beer > Spreadsheet

Many thanks to Dragyn for his excellent T2 spreadsheet. I wouldn't have even attempted this version without that basic work to build on. This version of the T3 Beer Spreadsheet is still very much experimental. Please experiment with it and post comments and needed changes here. ~Calen

A new version has been uploaded as of 8/19/2007 with corrected equations for all ingredients based on my test data using 100 of each ingredient. The equations should now work for any add time (especially if you enter the time of the "tick" it corresponds to) for all ingredients. I created a separate tab for Wheat-and-Honey-only recipes and made the first tab Malt-and-honey-only. I also created a 3rd tab with all ingredients present so you can try combining wheat and malt if you are feeling adventurous. It should be working much better for some multi-yeast beers as well, although there are yeast/recipe exceptions that don't work yet (which may be due to some bugs in the game code). ~Calen

There were several problems with the old spreadsheet.

• The formulas were out of date
• The Yeast data was out of date
• There were no rows for Wheat ingredients
• It could only handle a single yeast

From my reading of other folks multi-yeast beer experiments, I believe I may have a decent understanding of how they work and I designed this spreadsheet accordingly. Here's the theory:

• The beer kettle only deals with one microbe at a time
• It processes the first yeast until it has reached it's alcohol cap (or some percentage of MaxAlc), used all the glucose and/or maltose down to the limit of those caps, or used up all the vitamins down to the level of the vitamin cap for that yeast.
• Then the kettle processes the next yeast in line and goes through the same process if there are any nutrients left, and so on for the 3rd yeast or microbe, etc.

from my findings i say that all microbes are working till they meet their alcohol cap and/or bottom nutrients
just check what glucose and maltose limits yeast have that come after it, when the yeast after it has a lower alcohol cap it never runs to the lower limits, but from the data you can see that it effected the taste of the beer by like a 1/3 if it's 2 yeasts and the alcohol made was twice that of the yeats with the lower alc cap

This is why open kettle beers sometimes work, because the first 1-3 yeasts use up all the nutrients (or almost all) and there is little or nothing left for any harmful microbes that show up later.

This new spreadsheet calculates how much of each nutrient is used by the first yeast, then the second yeast, and then the third (if any). You can still use it as a single-yeast calculator by entering zeros for every value for the second and third yeasts (except VitCon, which has to have some small, non-zero, value such as .1 or .001).

NOTE: Seal time does not seem to be a factor as long as you capture the same yeasts. However, I am still not sure whether the time a yeast enters the kettle is a factor or not. ~Calen

Changes from the T2 Spreadsheet

• A separate page added for Wheat/Honey ingredients and a page for combined Malt/Wheat/Honey recipes
• Formulas updated to conform more closely to observed T3 data based on additional research I have done
• Additional rows for up to 3 Yeasts added and formulas changed accordingly (still not working for multi-yeasts but works fine for single yeasts if you zero out the second and third yeasts)

This last is the experimental part of the spreadsheet, since this is based on my understanding of how multi-yeast beers work from reading of other folks T3 beer experiments and my own tests. It is working for some multi-yeast beers but not others. I continue to do research to figure out what exactly is going on.

To use the spreadsheet as a single-yeast beer calculator, simply replace the Yeast data for the 2nd and 3rd yeasts with one of the other microbe data sets which all have zeros in all categories (except VitCon) so they will not affect the calculations.

Comments, Criticism, and Suggestions

Please post your comments, complaints, and/or ideas for improvement here. Thanks! ~Calen

Have been playing with wheat beers, and got vanilla (Y43). Don't see that on your sheet, does it replace another flavor, like bread/barley? ~Sqatsi

It seems to be a new flavor and my first guess was that it was a new spice flavor, but it does not add with the other spice flavors in the calculations for "Cloying" or "Bitter", etc., so it seems to be a stand-alone flavor like Grapefruit and the rest. It may replace "Nasty" from malt recipes, but it is a pleasant flavor, unlike that malt flavor.

I believe the formula for "Cloying" on wheat beers is incorrect. It includes Jasmine, when it should not. I believe I have a reproduceable pair of beers on Y80 that can show this to be true.

I have been able to confirm this too. McArine

It would be nice if there were a "Save this recipe" button that would spill the recipe and its results out to another worksheet. Would save having to write everything down each time, when you are figuring recipes for lots of beers at the same time

The banana value for Y50 should be 3, not 0.3. Also, I ran a Y50 /Y42 beer that calculated out as 57 grassy but ended up 105, so perhaps there are other mistakes in one of those yeast and/or the grassy calculation.

You switches around Bread and Honey colums on your yeast data while copying from wiki (Spreadsheet is wrong on most yeasts)

The Malt and Wheat tab calculates the flavours wrong. The alcohol value should be divided by two in those formulas. McArine

Tips on Using the Spreadsheet

• If you wish to do calculations based on a single yeast, enter zeros for all values in the 2nd and 3rd yeast rows, except for the Yeast Consumption cell, which you can set to a low number like 0.001 for now. I will be working on a version of the spreadsheet that let's you specify the number of yeasts to calculate and hopefully bypass this requirement.

• New in version 1.4: If you enter your final beer stats (from the pop-up window when you get your beer), the spreadsheet will now re-calculate the Yeast stats for you for single-yeast beers.