Brewology101.com v. Brewersfriend.com

Brewology101.com features:

• the Ale Abacus recipe generator
• cloud storage
• utilizes/syncs recipes with an Android app called 'Brewing Assistant' in free and paid versions.

Brewersfriend.com features:

• recipe generator
• cloud storage
• utlizes an Android application called 'Brewer's Friend Free'

Has anybody tried both services and if so what are the major differences, if any? I've used Brewer's Friend, but still find myself going to outside sites for info, even during the 'Brew Day' function. Some info just isn't there.

It's still a great site, I was just wondering if there was any particular differences between the two, that seem up-front to be about the same...

Thoughts?

- B916

Hi there Bishop916,
This is Larry from Brewer's Friend. What do you think is missing from the brew feature? I'd love to know so we can make the site better.


Since you asked... we've been working on the site very hard, and it continues to evolve in a positive way. Here are some of the highlights I can share:

Brewer's Friend has the concept of a brew session and brew log, and also supports the ability to snapshot a recipe before you brew it. We believe accurate record keeping is a key to advancing one's brewing skill. The dashboard and brew log emphasize record keeping and the system requires logs to be entered for it to calculate actual ABV, efficiency (4 types), apparent attenuation, etc.

Kaiser of Braukaiser is a technical advisor of ours. He is helping us in a number of ways, including blog posts, equations, and what features to focus on.

Brewer's Friend is mobile enabled so it goes with you anywhere.

Inventory tracking is baked into the site. What is nice is, in the next release (coming up this month), you will have the option of automatically deducting from your inventory when you create a brew. That release will also include BeerXML support.

The tools are easy for beginners yet powerful for advanced brewers. Recipes can be scaled by size or efficiency. We support SG and Plato as sugar scales. There is a section for water chemistry. The recipe editor allows batch size to be specified as 'to the fermentor' or 'to the kettle'. We support different ABV and SRM equations, as well as IBU equations. BIAB is a supported recipe type. For those brewers who no-chill, we have a field for 'no chill hops additional boil time'. Metric units are fully supported at every step.

The list goes on, but I'm sure that is plenty. We are always interested in getting feedback and improving the site!

Cheers,
Larry

Hi Larry -

Thank you for the quick response and rundown of the features of Brewer's Friend.

Actually, last night I wasn't able to locate the strike temps for the dough-in and sparge steps of my mash in the 'brew steps' or the 'water requirements' tabs (unless of course I wasn't checking the right place). The brew timer gave me the target temps but not the strike temps. I had to punch some quick numbers into brew365 to keep things moving along. Anyways, brewology101 is something I had come across while checking for android apps and was hoping someone who had used the two would be able to provide a comparison of their features and such.

Again, thanks for the reply!

- B916

Bishop916 said:

Hi Larry -

Thank you for the quick response and rundown of the features of Brewer's Friend.

Actually, last night I wasn't able to locate the strike temps for the dough-in and sparge steps of my mash in the 'brew steps' or the 'water requirements' tabs (unless of course I wasn't checking the right place). The brew timer gave me the target temps but not the strike temps. I had to punch some quick numbers into brew365 to keep things moving along. Anyways, brewology101 is something I had come across while checking for android apps and was hoping someone who had used the two would be able to provide a comparison of their features and such.

Again, thanks for the reply!

- B916

Click to expand...

Look under the Mash Calculator tab on the brew session page. It will recommend strike and addition temps, and allow you to track how much water you are running through the mash so you hit your target volume easily. The current temperature equations are based off Palmer's, which lack accuracy when brewing in a cold room (I noticed this on Sunday personally when it was 50F in my shed - and another brewer had contacted us as well). We are working on getting a more robust equation to power that section.

im guessing this is not avaliable for the iphone? i searched in my apps but cant find it so figured i would ask. thanks Greg

We do not currently offer an iOS app, that is planned however.

Mobile Safari is supported though and works decent, not native though.

larrybrewer said:

Inventory tracking is baked into the site. What is nice is, in the next release (coming up this month), you will have the option of automatically deducting from your inventory when you create a brew. That release will also include BeerXML support.

Click to expand...

That's great news! Do you also plan on adding a feature where Brewer's Friend can suggest you recipes based on the ingredients you have in your inventory?

Yes we do, but that feature is not planned for a specific release.