Brew Pal software in the iTunes App Store

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lemy said:
BeerSmith mobile will eventually be coming out, and I will definitely try that out, especially since it will be able to access the cloud recipes. At NHC (national homebrewers conference last month in Seattle) I told Brad Smith about the BrewPal debacle and how brewers really need those brew day tools, like refractometer calculation.

In my book there are two fundamental 'Killer App' uses for mobile brewing software:

1) recipe formulation - when I am away from a computer and bored.
2) brewday tools.

BeerSmith doesn't help me much on my brew day, but BrewPal does, err.. Did!

I wish Beersmith would take what we are saying we loved about brewpal and do just that! With the ability to go back and forth from their mobile version to the larger computer version would be great. I loves formulating with brewpal when on breaks at work, just so easy and fun. Beersmith is too involved to be quick, but is solid as a rock once all your numbers are programed into the equipment profiles. It would be awesome if you had more finite control in the computer version that transferred to the mobile version. Then the Beersmith mobile app would/could be as fun and easy as Brewpal is... But actually work!
 
I wish Beersmith would take what we are saying we loved about brewpal and do just that!

What I find truly shocking is that neither Beersmith NOR BeerToolsPro has an app! I am pretty sure this smartphone thingy is not a passing fad. After all, even the High School in my town has an app.

There really is no way for Windows users to sync with their preferred brewing software on their mobile devices (upload and download) While a great app exists for OSX/iPhone, Windows--nada. I was hoping this version would be the one and got really excited when I saw import/export.

I had hoped that BrewPal would become that 'missing link' and allow me to thumb out recipes while bored, use as a tool on brewday, store recipes, etc.

Um, still waiting...anyone who wants to build it--I have some money in my hot little fist and would like to buy one please.

I've been a loyal BTP user for years but if Beersmith gets the app first, I am switching....
 
The BeerSmith app is in development now for both Android and iPhone (iPad and Android tablet to follow). I'm working on two versions, a lite version that will let you view your recipes, run a brew day timer, and have some basic tools and reference material. The full (or pro) version will allow editing of recipes on your phone.

Both will integrate with the BeerSmithRecipes.com cloud service (over 5,600 users in its first two months) which will make it easy to share recipes across platforms. You can simply move a recipe to your cloud folder on your desktop version and then access it from your phone via the internet - I demoed an early version of this function to some people at the National Homebrew Conference last month. You can also copy some recipes to local storage on your phone for offline use.

I'm planning to have the lite version into testing this fall, and the full version sometime late winter or early spring if all goes well. It is obviously a large project to complete.

Brad
 
I look forward to this pro version. God I hope it is at least as functional as Brewpal before the neutering took place. Sounds promising and the cloud services means I don't lose 40 plus recipes upon updating.
 
BeerSmith said:
I'm planning to have the lite version into testing this fall, and the full version sometime late winter or early spring if all goes well. It is obviously a large project to complete.

Brad

If you need beta testers count me in. I use BeerSmith on my computer, but generally find that BrewPal gets significantly more of my usage time because of the convenience of having it on my phone.

The "upgraded" beerpal is so bad that I can't imagine v2.1 is going to fix it to the point where I want to keep using it. The old one was perfect from a usability standpoint even though it was buggy with its memory warnings and erasing all my recipes twice. Looking forward to BeerSmith mobile.
 
It's easy enough to add ingredients as long as you know their stats.

What're the stats for Pacman? I heard he's batting .375 with a pretty great slugging percentage, but I can't remember what position he plays and how he does against southpaws. Does anybody have a Pacman baseball card handy? :cross:
 
davepeds said:
What're the stats for Pacman? I heard he's batting .375 with a pretty great slugging percentage, but I can't remember what position he plays and how he does against southpaws. Does anybody have a Pacman baseball card handy? :cross:

I say if it isn't hockey it isn't relevant. Go Devils.


Flocculation med-high
Attenuation 72-78%
Temp. Range 60-72°F (15-22°C)
 
Did he make any changes? It's still is totally worse than the original. Layout is poor and there are a lot of features that are hidden. Now I have to go into "Fermentables" to get a quick glimpse to see what my pre-boil gravity is supposed to be. An is there still no way to "stop" a recipe. I can tell time - I don't need BrewPal to tell me when to put my hops in, or add sparge water. What the crap. I want the original version back on my phone or I am going to have to find another app. This is terrible.
 
Yep, 2.1 is out. I guess, You can still install old version from the .ipa file (from in the web).
 
Count me in as another pissed off user. I simply want the old version and it to work! Wtf is this guy thinking doing an overhaul that no one seems to have wanted? I'm swapping back to version 1 and will just deal with the memory issues. It was much better laid out for easy recipe creation. Surely someone could help the guy out with a 100% working version of the one we all seem to love. At this point I am hoping Beersmith is taking notes and can give us what we wish we could have. I'd pay $4.99 for old brew pal that could transfer files into XML.
 
Well, I guess that's not his intention to piss off people around. But it seems that he's loosing customers in such way.
As we all know, at it's time, it was almost the only app for homebrewers. A lot of people just sicked to it and whey they heard about new version they just had too high hopes :) It seems that this app is not first priority job for that guy.
Instead letting out steam here, we'd use this: [email protected] and send our doubts, issues and just simply requests.
 
Where did you find a refractometer on BrewPal 2? All I have is a gravity button and it just ask starting and final... To give you alcohol estimate you already have on the batch button.
 
mirogster said:
Well, I guess that's not his intention to piss off people around. But it seems that he's loosing customers in such way.
As we all know, at it's time, it was almost the only app for homebrewers. A lot of people just sicked to it and whey they heard about new version they just had too high hopes :) It seems that this app is not first priority job for that guy.
Instead letting out steam here, we'd use this: [email protected] and send our doubts, issues and just simply requests.

I don't think he intended to either. I just hate that the guy had it right the first time, it just crashed too often. I would think that would be easier to fix than to write a new program that doesn't do what anyone wants it to.
 
image-561799614.jpg

You have to click Plato under SG/FG field. Not quite as intuitive as the first one, but it's there.
Edit-just realized it doesn't convert the values into hydrometer readings.
 
I have to say that I have downloaded the new version and like it.
I find it MORE intuitive than the previous versions. I just think there may be a problem when it calculates total water... it seems that it does not factor in MLT loss into the equation.... but i'm not sure yet as I only started playing with it last night.
While it is not perfect it is IMHO far better than the $14 pile of carp from the other guys. BrewPal calculates water volumes for batch & fly sparge. (basic functions that should be in all brewing software) The $14 version only gives you mash water volume? I even contacted the other guys support and was emailed back a "12 step workaround". Are you kidding me.... 12 step workaround for a basic function!!! (sorry to go off topic)

I have used BrewPal for a few years and found it to be the best iphone app for me.
I admit that I recently started to use beersmith2 for recipe formulation because it calculates full water volumes correctly and allows for much more details about my personal process and equipment. Not to mention an easy method for backup.

I think the new version of BrewPal will prove to be better than the previous once users use it for a while....
after all the first version was not exactly intuitive..
I remember at the beginning, saving recipes and starting new ones was akin to voodoo magic... you always prayed you were doing it correctly!

I applaud the designer.... GREAT WORK.... GREAT PRICE
 
I just played around with 2.1 after having only used 1.6 and I think the app is really great. There are certainly some missing features, such as double batch sparge, but overall I thought it was a really nice redesign. I'm sure with more user feedback and time BrewPal 2 will have all of the original features plus much more.
 
Is there something wrong with the recipe section when adding a yeast? It keeps telling me to enter in a volume, even after I put a volume in. I'm unable to save the type of yeast I use because of this.
 
Is there something wrong with the recipe section when adding a yeast? It keeps telling me to enter in a volume, even after I put a volume in. I'm unable to save the type of yeast I use because of this.

I am stuck there as well.
Also, the adjuncts section is empty.
 
Count me in as another pissed off user. I simply want the old version and it to work! Wtf is this guy thinking doing an overhaul that no one seems to have wanted? I'm swapping back to version 1 and will just deal with the memory issues. It was much better laid out for easy recipe creation. Surely someone could help the guy out with a 100% working version of the one we all seem to love. At this point I am hoping Beersmith is taking notes and can give us what we wish we could have. I'd pay $4.99 for old brew pal that could transfer files into XML.

WM, how do you "downgrade?"
 
WooHokie said:
Is there something wrong with the recipe section when adding a yeast? It keeps telling me to enter in a volume, even after I put a volume in. I'm unable to save the type of yeast I use because of this.

It seems to do this for dry yeast. It worked when I found a comparable WYEAST to enter.
 
I emailed support last night with a bug that I discovered and got an email back this morning that it was a known issue and is fixed in version 2.2 which has already been submitted to the app store and should be available soon.
 
kehaar said:
Brewpal 2.2 is available in the app store.

Thanks for the heads up! Just DL'd it and I couldn't be more excited-import and export both worked! Freakin sweet.

Also, gravity seems to be a hit clearer now.
 
Still no brix on the refractometer. I wish you could have both versions available instead of having to choose one. I think version 2 will eventually get where version 1 was for my liking, but for now I prefer version 1 still. He had something great with tiny flaws, now he has something so-so IMHO with drawbacks. Fix the memory issue with version 1 and add import/ export and he'd have a winner!
 
Still no brix on the refractometer. I wish you could have both versions available instead of having to choose one. I think version 2 will eventually get where version 1 was for my liking, but for now I prefer version 1 still. He had something great with tiny flaws, now he has something so-so IMHO with drawbacks. Fix the memory issue with version 1 and add import/ export and he'd have a winner!

It's def not very intuitive, but it's there--I actually checked this second for you! (right behind import/export) :ban:

Under Reference>Gravity and Alcohol. Click into one of the entry fields Original>Plato>Refractometer.
 
Still no brix on the refractometer. I wish you could have both versions available instead of having to choose one. I think version 2 will eventually get where version 1 was for my liking, but for now I prefer version 1 still. He had something great with tiny flaws, now he has something so-so IMHO with drawbacks. Fix the memory issue with version 1 and add import/ export and he'd have a winner!

Did you email support about brix support? Every time I've emailed support he has been very responsive. I can happily say that all of the issues I uncovered previously have been resolved.
 
I think the app is getting lots better. All the bugs I sent to the developer are fixed. I miss the old results page. I miss the calories and efficiency numbers specifically.
 
The app is getting better. I will email them about the following: on boil, it is auto filled at first but then if you change the amount a couple of times it can't go back to an automatically set amount based on the batch amount. It needs an auto calculate button there. Also, kettle top-up doesn't work. If you input a smaller boil amount than batch size it should tell you to input more post boil to achieve final batch size. The last version was easier to play with when doing higher gravity boils for blending per-fermentation. It should also have an auto and a manual option for fine tuning/playing around. Would be awesome if it accounted for hop utilization based on those tweek-points as well. Hopefully this and the brix readings/calculations are easy enough to implement.
 
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