# 🍺 Top-down Brew: Beer Engine Overview

## Updates for 2026

The current version is based upon the previous "concise" variant of Beer Engine 2024. The 2026 updates are the fourth generation of this software.

Summary of the changes, improvements, and new features:

- The data input user experience has been improved. For example, m: has become malt: to make the use of this field more obvious, especially to new users.
- All of the input fields have been consolidated into a single input field. This streamlines the user interface by consolidating elements that were spread out over the web page.
- Priming sugar calculations have been added. This makes the results a bit more like recipes printed in BYO magazine and other sources. Brewers who keg can simply ignore these calculations.
- Fixed amounts of malt extract can be used for partial-mash recipes.
- New drop-down menus make it easier to explore ingredient possibilities. Thanks to Redditor /u/chino_brews for making this suggestion.
- The output is formatted as markdown text for easy formatting.
- Late boil addition dosages can be expressed as either ounces/gallon or grams/liter.
- Navigation between pages was improved for a better user interface.
- New tags were added for special purposes. Sugarferm: is for fermentables like honey that are added directly to the fermenter. This is calculated as part of the fermentables of percentage of original gravity. The similar fermenter: is a dosage calculation for fermenter additions in ounces/gallon or grams/liter.
- The dry hops are now listed in the yeast/fermenter section for a more logical placement.

The flexstyle variant has been disontinued. This style-focused version seems unnecessary given that beer style descriptions can be readily generated via generative artificial intelligence.

The old recipes are being migrated to this new technology. For those who prefer the older ones, these will still be available for downloading until the end of 2026.