Wheeler's Beer Engine

[Digby Swift]

Works fine on Vista, which is a nice surprise. I'm afraid I had to change from khaki to boring grey though. Any future support for proper weight units instead of converting? Excellent bit of software, simple without the need to modify americanisms. Definatly will be using to check my recipes from now on.

Good work as always Graham

[Graham]

Works fine on Vista, which is a nice surprise.

Good. Thanks for letting me know.

I'm afraid I had to change from khaki to boring grey though.

If you set the option to "machine Default" and save defaults, next time you open the software it will use the machines colours.

Any future support for proper weight units instead of converting?

Can you explain that a bit more.

Excellent bit of software, simple without the need to modify americanisms. Definatly will be using to check my recipes from now on.

I'd better pull my finger out and finish it then.

[stevezx7r]

Outstanding Graham, just put together that simple recipe you listed and all is well. I'm using win xp sp2 (recent install).

I take it you will be adding yeast options later?

Thanks,

Steve.

[Digby Swift]

Can you explain that a bit more.

It would be pretty handy if you could enter weights in imperial and it automatically converts them to metric, or allows you to work in both simultaneously. Not sure its that common but I tend to do recipes as a mix of both systems as my grain comes in kg bags but my scales are in imperial. Not a big problem really as you include a conversion tool.

[Bryggmester]

I tend to brew in imperial (because I have done since the mists of time) and being able to convert between metric and imperial without having to strain my brain would certainly be handy.

[Graham]

I had been toying with adding another column next to the metric weight that simultaneously displays imperial. It will mean re-arranging the layout and possibly making the screen a bit bigger, but it is easy to do. This is one of the reasons I went for buttons rather than data entry boxes to adjust weight/ percentage.

My digital scales display lb-oz, when set to imperial, presumably everyone else's does too, so I guess I'll add a column next to the grams that displays lb-oz (rather than lb<decimal point>remainder).

[Digby Swift]

lb<decimal point>remainder which some other programs use is more hassle than just converting to grams, and as you say scales will give lbs and ozs.

One other idea is that you could develop a warning to the user if creates a potentially imbalanced recipe, such as too large a percentage of black malt within their recipe, or an extremely high amount of IBUs for the gravity. Although this probably is subjective to different styles and would have to result in you trying to classify everything as strictly as americans seem to want to do, rather than just make a beer. I am probably only saying this as one of my first brews used far too much chocolate to colour and tasted like an old bit of burnt wood! I expect that would only really be useful for people who are just starting out, experimenting with different malts. Maybe not a great idea but was the only other suggestion I've got as everything else seems great so far, except the additions you have already said you are planning.

Many thanks

[Iank]

Really looking forward to trying this out. Currently in Cumbria with only dialup access so will have to wait until the weekend to download the 4MB

Thanks for making this available - I think feedback from members here will be a great way to iron out glitches and add enhancements.

[mentaldental]

I have it working in Vista. It is nice to have a UK oriented brewing program (those funny Mac people will obviously feel smug at this point).

The only problem is that I can't get it to except Machine Default as a colour scheme. It changes to the other schemes on the fly. If I select MD the scheme doesn't change on the fly and is not selected on restarting.

Maybe a Vista thingy. Don't ask me, havn't been using Vista for long and would really like my XP back anyway.

Hey, FYI it will run under Win98, although a bit unstable.

[Graham]

I have it working in Vista. It is nice to have a UK oriented brewing program (those funny Mac people will obviously feel smug at this point).

Ah! but the other 'British' programme is designed for the American Market... ...and it's finished

The only problem is that I can't get it to except Machine Default as a colour scheme. It changes to the other schemes on the fly. If I select MD the scheme doesn't change on the fly and is not selected on restarting.

You have to hit the "Save as Defaults" button to make the colours 'stick' after a restart. If that doesn't work, then there is possibly a file permission problem.

Hey, FYI it will run under Win98, although a bit unstable.

I wouldn't trust it under 98. The packaging tool I use to 'Windowise' it doesn't work under 98, or at least does not claim to.

[Graham]

I've been playing with it on a laptop running vista home. No issues...

Glad to know that it works on Vista laptops - I don't have Vista. I've only just upgraded to XP.

...and i'm loving the poofter pink.

I'd better leave it in then. That was just me having a bit of fun - you can get really bored doing that stuff. I'd better think of a more politically correct name for it though.

The lack of dross and the more realistic malt figures are nice too.

The ingredient editor is next on the list.

[Graham]

I think the export to browser should be higher on your list of things to do. It'll be good to be able to save or print off the recipes.So far it always exports to IE despite Firefox being my default browser.

The reason I fire up IE is because I do not know enough about the Windoze O.S to know how to interrogate the operating system using OLE methods to determine which is the default browser, and then fire up the default using said OLE methods.

There is another way, and that is to look into the registry to determine the default browser and then fire it up conventionally, but the Windoze registry is deprecated. It was supposed to be knocked on the head in Vista, but Gill Bates's crew chickened out and it didn't happen - I think he found it too difficult to sort out the tangled mess he created with it. The registry certainly will not be in any future incarnations of his O.S. - he can't afford to hang onto it any longer.

However, as the registry still exists, even in Vista, I will reinstate the old-fashioned "clunky" way of firing up the default browser and hope it works in Vista (in fact I've already done it, but not uploaded it).

What other problems do you have with the export to browser? I thought you already could print and save the recipes in a fashion, but I get the impression that there is more that you'd like to see happen with it. If it is relatively easy to do, I'll do it relatively quickly.

[steve_flack]

Ah! but the other 'British' programme is designed for the American Market... ...and it's finished

Things like this are never finished...you just keep going back to fix smaller and smaller bugs. Targeting the American market is crucial is you want to make at least some money out of it. If it's for free then target whoever you like - I understand the inhabitants of the Faroes would quite like a brewing program....it must include puffin, fish and moss as ingredients.

Incidentally, what I did for entering units was allow the user to enter whatever they wanted in the fields. If they entered no unit with the number (eg 'lb') then it assumed it was in the default units. If it had a unit then it converts it into the default and redisplays that value. The program also supports lbs and oz in one text field so you could enter '6lb 4oz' or similar.

It's a bit of a pain to program but once you get it done it's nice to have as, like a previous poster, sometimes I enter recipes in a mixture of units.

[Andy]

Beersmith has a nice feature in that you can select your default units but can still enter say "5 oz" into a field which you've set to be grammes by default, it will then convert on the fly into grammes.

Edit: Errrr, like Steve has done for Beer Alchemy.

[steve_flack]

The last release of BeerSmith 'borrowed' a few ideas...