User:Hekatef/Beer Guide

NEW! File:Beer Calculator.zip - Hekatef's beer calculator for Microsoft Excel. Select your microbe from the drop-down box, enter ingredients and time, and get your results! Contains detailed information on over a dozen microbes.

Brewing Phase: adding ingredients

A batch of beer starts with the brewing phase. This phase lasts roughly 20 minutes, with a timer starting at 1200 seconds and counting down to zero. During this time you add ingredients -- malt, wheat, and honey -- to create a brew on which the microbes will work during fermentation. If you selected "Yeast Test" from the kettle, the brewing phase is skipped.

Characteristics

Color: This is a measure of how dark the beer is. If color is high enough, you will have Brown or even Black beer. Color is added by malt and wheat -- the darker the roast, the more color is added, with burnt having the greatest effect. Color is also affected by when the ingredient is added to the brew -- the earlier in the brewing phase you add it, the more effect on color.

Vitamins: Microbes such as yeast consume the vitamins in a brew as they work on converting sugar. If vitamins run out, the microbes will stop doing their job. Malt, wheat, and honey all add vitamins to the brew. Honey adds very little. Malt and wheat add vitamins depending on how well-roasted they are: raw provides a great deal of vitamins, dark roasted very little, burnt none at all. Add time is also important -- adding the ingredient later in the brewing phase retains more vitamins.

Glucose and Maltose: These are the sugars in a brew. During fermentation, the microbes in the kettle will convert the sugars into their product (alcohol, in the case of yeasts). Any sugar that does not get converted remains in the brew to add sweetness; drinkable beer needs to have some sweetness but not too much. All ingredients add sugar: honey provides glucose, while malt and wheat provide maltose plus a small amount of glucose.

Lactose does not exist in the game. It is a third variety of sugar which is not created by any ingredient. It is probably a remnant of an early brewing mechanic that the developers decided not to implement in the final game.

Barley flavor is added by malt. The earlier in the brewing phase the malt is added, the greater the effect on Barley flavor.

Bread flavor is created by wheat. The earlier in the brewing phase the wheat is added, the greater the effect on Bread flavor.

• Yeasts also produce Bread flavor during the fermentation phase, if there is wheat in the brew; this adds to whatever was already created by the ingredients.

Honey flavor is added by honey. The greatest effect comes from honey that is added late in the brewing phase.

• Yeasts also produce Honey flavor during the fermentation phase, if there is malt in the brew; this adds to whatever was already created by the ingredients.

Tannin flavor is a bitter flavor produced by malt and wheat. In most beers, tannin is the main source of overall bitterness. A drinkable beer needs to contain a proper balance of sweetness (from leftover sugar) and bitterness. The tannin produced by malt and wheat depends on how well-roasted they are: raw provides the most tannin, burnt none at all. Adding the ingredient earlier in the brewing phase increases the tannin produced.

Grassy flavor is an undesirable flavor. It's fine in low quantities, but too much of it will render a beer undrinkable. Grassy flavor is produced by raw and light-roasted malt (raw producing significantly more). Adding the ingredient earlier in the brewing phase will produce more grassiness.

• Yeasts also produce Grassy flavor during the fermentation phase, if there is malt in the brew; this adds to whatever was already created by the ingredients.

Herbal flavor is an undesirable flavor. Herbal flavor is produced by raw and light-roasted wheat (raw producing significantly more). Adding the ingredient earlier in the brewing phase will produce more flavor.

• Yeasts also produce Herbal flavor during the fermentation phase, if there is wheat in the brew; this adds to whatever was already created by the ingredients.

And Now, For the Math

Timing and "Ticks"

As explained above, you can add ingredients any time during the brewing phase, and the time affects certain things like color and vitamins. The formulas for these things are given below. But for the purpose of these formulas, it's important to note briefly that the game views the brewing phase not as 1200 seconds, but as a series of "ticks" spaced 12 seconds apart. Ticks occur on every second evenly divisible by 12 (except for 0): 1200, 1188, 1176, etc. When making calculations, the game will round off to the nearest tick. If the add time is exactly halfway between ticks (e.g. 1194 is halfway between the ticks at 1200 and 1188), it will round downward to the lower tick. The only exception is the final six seconds of the brewing phase (between 1 and 6 seconds remaining): this range is not rounded down to zero, but rounded up to 12.

In other words, adding an ingredient with anywhere from 1200 and 1195 seconds remaining will be calculated by the game as an add time of 1200. Adding between 1194 and 1183 will be treated as 1188, and so on. At the end of the brewing phase, anything between 1 and 18 is counted as 12. To put it graphically:

Actual Add Time	Effective Add Time
1200 - 1195	1200
1194 - 1183	1188
1182 - 1171	1176
(...)	(...)
42 - 31	36
30 - 19	24
18 - 1	12

Ingredient Characteristics

Ingredient	Glucose	Maltose	Color	Vitamins	Barley Flavor	Bread Flavor	Honey Flavor	Tannin Flavor	Grassy Flavor	Herbal Flavor
Malt (Burnt)	--	2	12 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Malt (Dark Roasted)	2	10	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	6000 / (T + 240)	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--
Malt (Medium Roasted)	2	10	3 * (T + 240) / 1440	8400 / (T + 240)	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	2 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--
Malt (Light Roasted)	2	10	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440	12000 / (T + 240)	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	3 * (T + 240) / 1440	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440	--
Malt (Raw)	1	5	1 * (T + 240) / 1440	15600 / (T + 240)	12 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	12 * (T + 240) / 1440	--
Wheat (Burnt)	--	1	12 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
Wheat (Dark Roasted)	2.4	5	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	8400 / (T + 240)	--	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--
Wheat (Medium Roasted)	2.4	5	3 * (T + 240) / 1440	9600 / (T + 240)	--	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	2 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	--
Wheat (Light Roasted)	2.4	5	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440	10800 / (T + 240)	--	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	3 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	1.5 * (T + 240) / 1440
Wheat (Dried, Raw)	1.2	2.5	1 * (T + 240) / 1440	12000 / (T + 240)	--	12 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	6 * (T + 240) / 1440	--	12 * (T + 240) / 1440
Honey	10	--	--	1200 / (T + 240)	--	--	1200 / (T + 60)	--	--	--

T = Time remaining (based on nearest tick)

Formula is for 1 deben of ingredient -- multiply result by # of ingredient.

Each calculation is rounded off to the nearest whole number.

Example #1: Adding 30 Malt (Light Roasted) with 300 seconds remaining creates 60 glucose, 300 maltose, 17 color, 667 vitamins, 68 Barley flavor, 34 Tannin flavor, and 17 Grassy flavor.

Example #2: Adding 30 Wheat (Medium Roasted) with 900 seconds remaining creates 72 glucose, 150 maltose, 71 color, 253 vitamins, 143 Bread flavor, and 48 Tannin flavor.

Example #3: Adding 60 honey with 600 seconds remaining creates 600 glucose, 86 vitamins, and 109 Honey flavor.

Fermentation Phase: microbes at work and play

Once the brewing phase ends (or, if you're doing a Yeast Test on your kettle, right away), the fermentation phase begins. This phase lasts about 40 minutes with a timer counting down from 2400 seconds to zero. The only action you may take during fermentation is to seal the kettle.

Microbe Conversion of Sugar

During fermentation, microbes work on the sugar (glucose and maltose) in a brew, converting it on a 1:1 basis into that microbe's product (alcohol, in the case of yeasts). They consume vitamins as "fuel" to do this. Microbes will convert the glucose in a brew first; when they can no longer consume glucose, they go to work on the maltose. A microbe will continue to convert sugar as long as three conditions are in effect:

• The alcohol level in the brew doesn't exceed the microbe's alcohol ceiling.
• The glucose and maltose are above the microbe's glucose floor and maltose floor, respectively.
• There are still vitamins available.

Alcohol Ceiling: Alcohol kills microorganisms, so once the alcohol level in a brew gets high enough, the microbes stop working. Different microbes have different tolerances. In the game, each microbe has its own "alcohol cap", an alcohol level at which the microbe stops converting sugar. (Molds, lactobacilii and acetobacteria do not produce alcohol, but they do have alcohol caps: this comes into play when these microbes share a kettle with alcohol-producing yeasts.)

Glucose and Maltose Floors: Microbes will never eat all the sugar in a brew; a certain minimum level of glucose and maltose will always be left untouched. These amounts vary per microbe and are known as the microbe's "glucose floor" and "maltose floor".

Vitamin Floor: Vitamins are a complex topic to be fully explained in the next section, but for now, it's enough to note that microbes must eat vitamins in order to be able to convert sugars. Each microbe has its own "vitamin floor", and when the vitamins in a brew drop below this number, the microbe will stop eating vitamins, and therefore will stop converting sugar.

Freaking Vitamins, How Do They Work?

Microbes produce alcohol (or mold, or whatever) by consuming sugar and vitamins. They don't do this all at once, though. You can think of fermentation as a series of "bites" taken by the microbes, with each "bite" consuming an increasingly larger quantity of vitamins and sugar. This process continues until the brew runs out of available sugar, or until vitamins drop below a certain threshold, or until the microbe's alcohol cap is reached. (Bites get successively larger to represent that the microbes are multiplying in the brew.)

Every microbe has its own vitamin threshold, and its own rates at how quickly sugar and vitamin consumption increase with each successive bite. Fortunately, these appear to be mathematically predictable with patient testing. I've worked out the process with Mold-63, so we'll use that as an example in the following sections.

Mold-63: A Dissection

Assume a brew contains no microbes but Mold-63. During fermentation it goes to work on the sugar and vitamins, converting sugar to mold on a 1:1 basis. It takes a series of "bites" out of the available supply of vitamins and sugar, as shown in the following table:

	Sugar Eaten	Cumulative Sugar Eaten	Vitamins Eaten	Cumulative Vitamins Eaten
Bite #1	10	10	3	3
Bite #2	13	23	4	7
Bite #3	17	40	5	12
Bite #4	22	62	7	19
Bite #5	29	91	9	28
Bite #6	38	129	12	40
Bite #7	49	178	16	56
Bite #8	64	242	21	77
Bite #9	83	325	27	104
Bite #10	108	433	36	140
Bite #11	140	573	46	186
Bite #12	182	755	60	246
(...)	(...)	(...)	(...)	(...)

(It's also worth noting that M-63 has a production rate of 30%, a vitamin ratio of 3 and a vitamin threshold of 157. These will come into play shortly.)

How are the numbers in this chart derived? Here's how it appears to work:

• The first bite always consumes 10 sugar.
• Each bite increases from the one before it by the production rate of the microbe (30%, in M-63's case), rounded off to the nearest whole number. Thus, bite #8 consumes 64 sugar. Bite #9 consumes (64 * 130%) = 83 sugar. Bite #10 consumes (83 * 130%) = 108 sugar. And so on.
• The amount of vitamins eaten in each bite is the amount of sugar eaten, divided by the vitamin ratio (3, in M-63's case), rounded down. Thus, bite #8 consumes (64 / 3 ) = 21 vitamins. Bite #9 consumes (83 / 3) = 27 vitamins. Bite #10 consumes (108 / 3) = 36 vitamins. Et cetera.

So that's where the numbers come from.

Before taking each bite, the microbe will check the number of vitamins remaining. If it is less than the vitamin threshold (157, in M-63's case), the microbe will stop working and no more sugar will be eaten. If the vitamins remaining are equal to or greater than the vitamin threshold, then it will take the next bite. And so on, until vitamins drop below the threshold, or the alcohol limit is reached, or the sugar floors are reached.

Note that the vitamin threshold is not the same as a vitamin floor. There isn't a vitamin floor per se. Vitamins can and do drop below the threshold during fermentation -- that's what makes the microbe stop working.

Frequently Asked Questions

I got Cloying Beer. What went wrong?

That's a tricky one. Cloying Beer means that the brew had a too-high ratio of sweet (leftover glucose & maltose) to bitter (Tannin and to a lesser extent Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Clove). Usually the problem is too much sugar, but there are several different ways that can happen. Here are some common problems:

• Ran out of vitamins. If a yeast doesn't have enough vitamins, it'll stop producing alcohol early. All that unconverted sugar gets left in the brew, often resulting in Cloying Beer. Check your alcohol yield, and compare it to the alcohol ceiling of your yeast (listed on the Yeast page). If your brew didn't hit its alcohol ceiling, it's probably because there weren't enough vitamins to keep your yeast going. Try adding 5 raw malt/wheat at the end of the brewing phase for an easy vitamin boost.
• Too many ingredients. Maybe you just overloaded your brew with more stuff than your yeast could reasonably use. This is likely the case if your brew made the alcohol ceiling, but still ended up Cloying. Try cutting back on the ingredients next time.
• Too little tannin. Then again, maybe the problem isn't too much sweetness, but the other side of the equation -- not enough bitterness. Unless you're working with a very spicy yeast, most of the bitterness in a beer comes from Tannin, which is produced by the malt/wheat. You may not be using enough malt/wheat in your brew, or you may be adding it too late (the later you add malt/wheat, the less tannin is produced). Also remember that the darker the roast, the less the tannin. Try modifying how much grain you add and when.

Microbe List

Yeasts

	Alcohol Cap	Growth Rate	Glucose Floor	Maltose Floor	Vitamin Ratio	Vitamin Threshold	Orange	Banana	Cherry	Date	Honey	Nutmeg	Cinnamon	Grassy	Nasty	Bread	Grapefruit	Pear	Blackberry	Prune	Jasmine	Clove	Vanilla	Herbal
Yeast-1	1198	10%	8	136	8	?	19	21	28	25	23	16	11	13	15	138	15	24	100	26	18	31	52	72
Yeast-2	1241	20%	3	243	2	?	22	22	84	26	13	15	24	15	70	18	32	70	70	18	18	39	33	22
Yeast-3	1079	10%	8	216	8	?	14	33	11	58	13	11	56	28	16	47	26	648	28	23	17	34	78	163
Yeast-8	1241	20%	8	230	1	?	15	33	58	27	37	22	15	15	15	22	15	18	18	27	58	22	40	15
Yeast-9	807	10%	4	97	3	180	9	16	407	75	14	18	77	27	75	35	10	128	14	32	14	29	128	9
Yeast-10	1241	20%	10	186	6	?	18	21	15	18	28	143	22	40	34	84	14	100	15	34	15	48	18	37
Yeast-11	501	10%	5	178	4	?	7	6	20	13	46	10	17	22	3	7	23	6	6	35	4	109	5	55
Yeast-16	698	20%	8	118	5	?	10	6	10	33	36	30	22	12	10	22	33	27	27	18	12	34	698	24
Yeast-17	239	10%	5	135	6	80	5	6	6	4	4	4	239	0	38	0	18	5	15	15	8	8	16	0
Yeast-18	446	10%	8	146	3	?	3	11	27	3	2	27	5	69	5	10	11	13	5	3	7	191	11	53
Yeast-19	351	40%	15	249	6	?	49	33	351	3	4	17	8	5	7	6	3	26	5	5	3	12	7	10
Yeast-24	1026	20%	5	55	2	?	87	220	18	35	12	49	12	110	15	40	15	12	15	27	40	15	27	13
Yeast-25	971	10%	9	25	8	?	29	732	12	163	17	10	265	61	27	47	64	10	33	53	98	32	11	209
Yeast-26	1421	40%	11	159	8	?	214	18	58	22	79	67	104	24	34	17	48	67	48	28	609	27	17	28
Yeast-27	573	30%	7	203	8	13	15	15	11	74	15	11	7	11	11	8	8	41	11	11	34	573	20	15
Yeast-32	1198	10%	8	27	6	?	37	64	24	19	15	13	28	13	29	45	17	13	15	98	13	71	16	98
Yeast-33	992	30%	6	199	4	?	26	34	15	36	108	16	62	16	15	34	15	17	34	15	24	52	37	24
Yeast-34	992	30%	2	41	5	?	26	18	15	34	36	20	47	12	34	15	20	12	15	53	24	34	35	73
Yeast-35	784	10%	6	48	7	?	40	21	125	21	11	39	7	13	36	10	31	18	156	14	28	9	7	8
Yeast-40	396	10%	13	205	8	?	11	2	8	2	100	3	9	16	1	4	8	1	11	2	11	9	6	10
Yeast-41	351	40%	1	49	8	?	8	5	20	5	5	9	6	5	17	6	5	14	22	46	4	7	6	12
Yeast-42
Yeast-43	1241	20%	9	238	3	?	19	14	83	34	22	33	17	54	17	81	23	22	119	15	18	18	15	15
Yeast-48	1079	10%	15	205	2	?	26	15	216	10	11	16	15	26	25	11	14	26	19	33	23	19	120	10
Yeast-49	385	20%	15	104	3	?	21	59	83	8	18	10	6	6	26	38	164	18	5	8	4	62	8	32
Yeast-50	1008	40%	6	187	3	?	1008	76	13	144	12	13	29	48	15	18	20	56	20	12	22	144	93	59
Yeast-51	873	10%	10	3	8	?	12	10	18	27	16	15	11	10	10	14	1318	43	48	11	15	24	10	15
Yeast-56	992	30%	9	171	4	?	20	15	92	26	229	106	76	11	20	45	34	12	11	36	594	34	11	20
Yeast-57	713	40%	2	54	6	?	18	18	15	31	40	48	74	8	31	127	12	10	28	60	74	9	152	13
Yeast-58	396	10%	8	90	6	?	9	8	30	3	5	33	3	24	119	1	68	13	3	21	56	6	3	5
Yeast-59	433	30%	15	107	4	?	12	184	33	8	7	4	18	652	8	6	327	8	5	6	6	8	15	19
Yeast-64	1300	30%	9	255	8	?	1953	24	44	27	23	15	26	30	40	27	16	15	15	16	3900	15	26	169
Yeast-65	713	40%	13	159	2	?	14	39	18	12	10	10	22	8	270	8	14	15	10	13	17	10	15	12
Yeast-66	1008	40%	10	57	2	?	56	19	24	35	28	202	15	13	44	381	19	12	12	13	30	32	62	20
Yeast-67	1241	20%	0	74	1	?	59	83	114	18	40	99	89	78	58	31	27	34	40	15	40	16	124	22
Yeast-72	713	40%	6	164	6	?	10	12	10	29	81	7	15	17	8	133	8	17	81	9	12	9	14	12
Yeast-73	502	40%	4	10	1	?	7	15	8	15	13	9	18	66	17	27	7	12	10	8	24	7	27	24
Yeast-74	573	30%	3	91	1	?	20	14	6	11	44	8	6	62	20	26	8	86	8	47	9	15	8	8
Yeast-75	784	10%	12	56	6	?	8	8	11	46	10	24	8	21	29	7	19	180	11	12	17	8	8	13
Yeast-80	1241	20%	7	11	5	?	40	3723	19	15	18	22	28	43	75	15	58	23	40	93	105	48	22	83
Yeast-81	1329	10%	6	209	2	?	64	18	33	54	18	32	83	175	21	46	44	63	92	55	46	21	45	26
Yeast-82	1008	40%	11	212	8	214	62	19	17	19	18	22	12	15	49	41	34	21	72	14	93	12	254	20
Yeast-83	955	30%	0	96	4	30	14	90	112	14	50	10	192	60	169	10	25	169	40	13	114	30	40	14
Yeast-88	784	10%	13	79	2	?	21	13	36	32	13	13	9	20	29	10	51	146	84	169	13	8	337	23
Yeast-89	574	20%	4	194	8	?	8	13	10	8	10	8	15	27	62	15	15	12	6	433	33	8	51	15
Yeast-90	755	30%	10	184	2	?	15	20	1135	755	11	11	18	58	92	26	11	52	26	9	15	9	15	8
Yeast-91	1008	40%	1	173	3	?	48	17	28	13	15	12	20	139	432	48	34	27	58	73	47	14	17	15
Yeast-96	574	20%	2	101	7	?	6	8	20	8	22	10	58	22	27	19	31	15	12	10	8	15	81	8
Yeast-97	971	10%	15	35	6	?	75	112	26	27	24	52	36	26	21	20	63	11	11	62	17	100	58	10
Yeast-98	1421	40%	14	192	3	?	34	28	34	54	1066	388	34	22	25	20	68	17	4263	62	54	91	17	59
Yeast-99	971	10%	0	44	4	?	11	83	23	46	11	21	17	10	9	29	10	30	15	19	15	19	19	10

Non-Yeasts

	Alcohol Cap	Growth Rate	Glucose Floor	Maltose Floor	Vitamin Ratio	Vitamin Threshold
Lactobacillus-4	n/a	10%	15	240	8
Lactobacillus-5
Acetobacter-6
Mold-7
Lactobacillus-12
Lactobacillus-13
Acetobacter-14
Mold-15
Lactobacillus-20
Lactobacillus-21	n/a	10%			3	108
Acetobacter-22
Mold-23
Lactobacillus-28
Lactobacillus-29
Acetobacter-30
Mold-31
Lactobacillus-36
Lactobacillus-37
Acetobacter-38
Mold-39
Lactobacillus-44	n/a	30%			4
Lactobacillus-45
Acetobacter-46
Mold-47
Lactobacillus-52
Lactobacillus-53
Acetobacter-54
Mold-55	n/a	20%			8
Lactobacillus-60
Lactobacillus-61
Acetobacter-62	n/a	20%	11	240	6	44
Mold-63	n/a	30%	7	217	3	157
Lactobacillus-68
Lactobacillus-69
Acetobacter-70
Mold-71
Lactobacillus-76
Lactobacillus-77
Acetobacter-78
Mold-79
Lactobacillus-84
Lactobacillus-85
Acetobacter-86
Mold-87
Lactobacillus-92
Lactobacillus-93
Acetobacter-94
Mold-95
Lactobacillus-100	n/a	20%	1	2	6