Grains
There are characteristics of grain that vary with each crop and where it was grown, etc., as well as variations that are caused by how it was malted. That information can generally be obtained from a Malt Analysis sheet that sometimes accompanies the grain (at least for very large orders such as for commercial breweries). BTP presumably uses that information (at least some of it) for it calculations.
The BTP grain database contains information about most popular grains from many suppliers, but users also have the ability to 'add' new grains, and to 'edit' existing grains (or new ones) to make changes in that information. That information should ideally come from the analysis sheet provided by the maltster, but might be obtained from a website, etc. Eventually I hope we can obtain a list of the absolutely essential fields needed by BTP for its calculations.
The following fields appear on the Grain Editor panel, with the following meanings/purposes (some technical information was obtained from this Article by Greg Noonan).
- Name
- self-explanatory
- Origin
- country or region where grown
- Supplier
- manufacturer or grower
- Description
- comments on distinctive characteristics of the ingredient
- Grouping
- drop-down menu for you to indentify the type of grain/malt
- DBFG
- Dry Basis Fine Grind
- this is a value which represents the maximum amount of yield which can be extracted, under laboratory conditions, from the grain
- measured as a percentage of the weight of the grain
- below 78% DBFG extract is considered substandard
- DBCG
- Dry Basis COARSE Grind
- More closely approximates the typical crush achieved in breweries, and therefore gives a better indication than DBFG of the extract potential of the grain
- FG-CG
- Fine Grind Coarse Grind Difference
- (DBFG - DBCG) ÷ DBFG
- HWE
- Hot Water Extract
- AICG
- As-Is Coarse Grind or Extract As Is
- this is the extract yield including moisture content
- Moisture
- the amount of water that was present in the malt at time of analysis
- Potential Extract
- potential Original Gravity one pound in one gallon
- HCU
- color measured in degrees EBC or SRM (Lovibond)
- Protein
- TN
- Total Nitrogen
- TSN
- Total Soluable Nitrogen
- SNR
- Soluable Nitrogen Ratio
- DP
- Diastatic Power
- Cost/Unit
- unit cost of the ingredient
