Miscs

Manage miscellaneous brewing ingredients like water chemicals, fining agents, spices, and nutrients.

The Miscellaneous (Miscs) section of the inventory is where you manage all non-fermentable, non-hop, non-yeast ingredients used in your brewing process. This includes water treatment chemicals, fining agents, spices, flavor extracts, nutrients, and other additives.

Common Misc Ingredients

Miscellaneous ingredients cover a wide range of categories:

• Water Chemistry — Gypsum (CaSO4), Calcium Chloride (CaCl2), Lactic Acid, Phosphoric Acid, Campden Tablets

• Fining Agents — Irish Moss, Whirlfloc, Gelatin, Biofine, Isinglass

• Spices & Herbs — Coriander, Orange Peel, Cinnamon, Ginger, Vanilla Beans

• Sugars & Extracts — Honey, Maple Syrup, Vanilla Extract, Coffee, Cacao Nibs

• Nutrients — Yeast Nutrient, Yeast Energizer, Servomyces

• Other — Oak Chips, Fruit Purees, Lactose

Adding a Misc Ingredient

1. Navigate to the Inventory page

2. Click the Add button next to the Misc title

3. Search for the ingredient in the selection window — Brewfather maintains a database of common misc ingredients

4. If the ingredient is not found, click the Add button at the bottom right to create a custom entry

5. Click on the ingredient to open the edit screen

Editing Misc Details

When adding or editing a misc ingredient you can set the following:

• Name — The ingredient name

• Type — The category of ingredient (Spice, Fining, Water Agent, Herb, Flavor, Other)

• Recommended Amount (Amount Per Liter) — A per-volume rate (displayed in your chosen unit per volume unit, e.g. g/L or g/gal). When set, Brewfather automatically calculates the total amount needed in a recipe based on the relevant volume for the selected Use stage. For example, a Boil addition uses the post-boil kettle volume, a Mash addition uses the mash water volume, a Bottling addition uses the bottling volume, and so on. If you manually type an amount in the recipe, the auto-calculation is overridden.

• Amount — The quantity used per batch

• Use — A dropdown that specifies when the ingredient is added during the brewing process (Mash, Sparge, Boil, Flameout, Primary, Secondary, Bottling). This determines the timing and also affects which volume is used for the Recommended Amount calculation.

• Time — Duration of use in minutes (shown when Use is set to Boil)

• Use For — A free-text field describing what purpose the ingredient serves (e.g., "water pH adjustment", "clarity", "flavor"). This is distinct from the Use dropdown: Use controls timing, while Use For describes the reason or goal.

• Inventory Amount — How much you currently have in stock

• Cost — Price per unit for tracking brew costs

• Best Before Date — Expiration tracking

• Lot Number — Batch tracking, especially useful for commercial breweries

• Manufacturing Date — When the ingredient was produced

• User Notes — Personal notes about the ingredient

• Substitutes — Suggested alternative ingredients

• Unit — The unit of measurement (default: g). Available units include g, mg, kg, ml, l, pkg, items, drops, tsp, tbsp, cup, pt, qt, oz, lb, and gal.

Managing Inventory Amounts

To adjust the inventory amount for a misc ingredient:

• Click on the ingredient in your inventory list

• Either type directly into the Inventory Amount field, or click the adjust button to the right to add or subtract stock

• Click Save to store the updated amount

When you brew a batch and check off misc ingredients in the Planning section, the inventory amounts are automatically reduced.

Tips for Misc Ingredient Management

Tip

Water chemistry additions like Gypsum and Calcium Chloride are tracked per gram. When you set up water adjustments in the Water Calculator, the required amounts are calculated automatically and matched to your misc inventory.

• Track expiration dates — Ingredients like Irish Moss and yeast nutrients lose effectiveness over time. Use the Best Before Date field and sort by expiration to use older stock first.

• Use consistent units — Make sure the units match between your recipe and inventory entries (grams vs. ounces) to ensure accurate inventory tracking.

• Group by type — Use the sort options to group misc ingredients by type, making it easier to find what you need.

Related docs

• Inventory

• Recipes