Hey There Fellow Brewers-
I recently developed a website that I would like to share with all of you. It's 100% free - no registration required. The URL is:
http://www.beermath.com
Please drop by and check it out, and feel free to email me with some feedback! I would appreciate any tips on how I can improve the site.

Prost!
Danny

Tags: tinseth ibu formula

Very cool! quick & easy, just how i like it!!

Great site!

Regarding the IBU calculator, it would be nice if you indicated the IBU calculation method (e.g. Rager, Daniels, Garetz, Tinseth, etc.) that you are using.

Also it would be nice to be able to select which of the various IBU formulas (i.e. Tinseth, Rager, etc.) you would like to use. I realize this is a lot more work but...it is something to think about implementing at some point.

Cheers,

Scott

Hey Scott & Jeepguy-

Thanks for your feedback on my site!
I really like your suggestion for making a variety of IBU calculation methods available, and I'll get working on that. The current calculator is based on Tinseth's equation. I have an expanded version of it available at:
http://www.beermath.com/pages/ibu_expanded.html .
I'll have a link up soon, I just haven't had time to make a new icon for it yet.
Stop back soon and spread the word!
Thanks again!

Danny
www.beermath.com

Great!

The Tinseth formula is the one I prefer! That is assuming I'm having the computer do the calculations otherwise Rager is good enough.

I look forward to eventually seeing your expanded IBU calculator.

Cheers,

Scott

Great!

The Tinseth formula is the one I prefer! That is assuming I'm having the computer do the calculations otherwise Rager is good enough.

I look forward to eventually seeing your expanded IBU calculator.

Cheers,

Scott

Hey Scott-
The expanded Tinseth Calculator is up now. let me know what you think.

I have heard that the Tinseth IBU equation is one of the better ones in terms of accuracy. Which is why I tend to use it.

Of course, the whole concept of IBU calculation is pretty bogus when you think about it. I mean, you really have no way of know how accurate your results are without having your beer analyzed in a laboratory or perhaps comparing it to
beers of know IBU values. However, that is not to say IBU calculation is not useful. It is good for recipe repeatability and helps with initial recipe formulation.

At any rate, I have a few additional suggestions for your expanded Tinseth IBU calculator.

There is a nice write up about the Tinseth equations at http://www.realbeer.com/hops/research.html

On the expanded page it might be nice to show the equation and explain what the variables are. For the various variables it might be nice to indicate the values used in your normal IBU calculator.

According to Glenn Tinseth the only parameter that one should usually mess with it the Boiling Time factor.

It would be nice to allow one to mess around with the Bigness factor but also to fix it and only play around with the Boil Time Factor.

From the Tinseth's webpage we find that:

Boil Time factor = 1 - e^(-0.04 * time in mins)
--------------------------
4.15

Tinseth suggests only messing around with the 4.15 in the denominator. One should make that value smaller if your utilization is greater than his values.

Although it is nice to be able to alter the entire Boil Time factor but it sounds like one usually would just like to alter the value of the constant in the denominator (i.e. 4.15). Perhaps you could allow one to adjust the entire Boil Time Factor or fix all of the other parameters and allow one to just alter that constant.

Okay, what can I say? I am lazy and don't want to have to manually compute the value of the Boil Time Factor for using a new value of the constant before entering that value into your program.

I use the Tinseth IBU calculator in BeerTools Pro. The parameter values in that
case are taken from a few graphs but unfortunately, exactly what is happening is
not really indicated. I wish BeerTools Pro allowed one to alter some of the Tinseth parameters rather than having to totally customize the calculator.

Oh well...just some additional comments/suggestions. Take them with a grain of salt.

Cheers,

Scott

hey Scott-
I like the suggestions. It's fun to talk about all of the nuts and bolts with someone who enjoys the nerdy side of brewing as much as I do! I did a bit of reading before designing the calculator, and it seemed like the Tinseth was the best formula to base the calculator on. It's seems to also be well favored, which was another reason I went with it.

Making the the boil time values available as editable fields would have actually made the programming of the application a bit easier on my end, but I figured that we may be more of the exception, rather than the rule, when it comes to the formulas. I really should put the equations on the page, even if it's Greek to 90% of the viewers. Fortunately, I haven't received any feedback claiming that the calculators are too complex - now I just need to satisfy those of us who like to punish ourselves with numerous variables and equations.

Right now I'm focusing on putting the metric calculators together, but I'll definitely work some of your suggestions into my next update of the IBU application. Thanks again for helping me improve the site. I plan on getting some stickers printed soon, and I'll be sure to send a few your way for your thoughts. I'll be sure to PM you for an address/PO Box once they come in.
Take it easy Scott!