Ionic based multiplatform brew-helper using BeerXML.
Pliny the Helper is an app to help a brew master organize and create recipes. It is compatible with the open BeerXML standard.
While creating a new recipe, Pliny will help you adhere to a given beer style with tons of different ingredients (malts, hops, yeasts and miscellaneous) to choose from. It then calculates the beer for the chosen batch size, with all the metrics like gravity, color and estimated ABV.
But there is also a beer style explorer with over 40 different styles and their typical aromas and ingredients. The same goes for all the ingredients, if you ever wondered where the hop you're using comes from, or what some typical qualities of the malt you are using are.
Additionally, there are some handy calculators to help you convert metric to imperial or to adjust your hydrometer reading to the actual temperature.
And of course you can tweak your settings to accommodate your brewing equipment.
Here I list some of the used formulas I used, for better understanding.
For calculating the ABV I used the following formula:
ABV = (76.08 * (og-fg) / (1.775-og)) * (fg / 0.794)
For converting specific gravity to Plato/Brix I use the following formula:
B = (((182.4601 * SG - 775.6821) * SG + 1262.7794) * SG - 669.5622)
For converting Brix to specific gravity the following was used:
SG = (B / (258.6 - ((B / 258.2) * 227.1))) + 1
Note: For home brewing purposes Brix and Plato are essentially interchangeable (same out to 3 decimal places).
I use the Morey Equation to calculate color:
MCU = (Lovibond * GrainWeight_lbs)/BatchSize_gal
SRM = 1.4922 * (MCU ^ 0.6859)
To estimate bitterness I used Glenn Tinseth's formula:
IBU = (U * HopWeight_oz * 7490)/BoilSize_gal
U = BignessFactor * TimeFactor
BignessFactor = 1.65 * 0.000125 ^ (SG - 1)
TimeFactor = (1 - e ^ (-0.04 * Time_min)) / 4.15
To calculate the strike temperature of the water I use the following formula:
Tw = (0.41 / R)(T2 – T1) + T2
R = Ratio of grain to water in the mash T1 = Initial Temperature (of the grain) T2 = Mash Temperature