Best iPhone app for AG Brewing

I was curious what app everyone was using on their iPhone for all grain brewing? Was going to brew my first all grain batch very soon and would like to use an app for various calculations.

Thanks

Brew Pal

Hop substitution list. Flavor wheel. Lets you save recipes. Gives you pre and post boil measurements. Also can edit/add new hops/grains to the database.
Ive never used the option but they have a full timer for your whole brewday. Alarms ring when mash/boil is done. Also records when yeast is pitched and alarms 2-3 weeks later to what you set it.

I am a big fan of iBrewmaster, once you get past the learning curve it is fantastic. Been using it for a little over a year and Beersmith has become obsolete during brew days.


You will find people like Beer Alchemy, Brewpal, iBrewmaster, or something browser based.

I have not purchased the Beersmith iPhone offering yet so cannot comment on that, but is lacking the fuctionality you mentioned.

I own both Beersmith and iBrewmaster for iPhone. iBrewmaster is way better as it lets you modify/adjust your recipes as needed.

I manually have to type in my ingredients and mashing process, but it's super helpful and I usually hit my numbers dead on to what iBrewmaster predicts. I do know though that they're working on a revamp of that software, but it isn't clear whether that's a paid or free update. If paid, that will suck... but I'll probably buy it.

They're also working on a better version of Beersmith (a non-Lite version) which I think is supposed to be out in the spring.

For now I'm happy with iBrewmaster

iBrewmaster!

iBrewmaster

I agree that there is a learning curve, but with a little time you'll be able to design your own recipes and compare them to style indicators, easily manage dates for racking and bottling, and use the timer clocks for both mashing and hop additions during the boil. iBrewmaster, HBT and Pandora are essential apps for brewday!

ibrewmaster is $10! Anything cheaper or free?

chungking said:

ibrewmaster is $10! Anything cheaper or free?

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The free iphone ones need more work.. you get what you pay for.

I suggest using a browser based solution. Either all in or nothing.

Just don't expect the Facebook interface to work in iBrewmaster. When it does work it is mostly just an ad for their product.

I used Brewpal for a few years but updates killed sme functionality and then one day it kept crashing. I got fed up and bought iBrewmaster. It is better than Brewpal, albeit a bit more complicated. I'm a fan, and recommend it. They seem to listen to the customers as well by adding features.

I just did my first AG Saturday, and iBrewmaster saw me through. The calculations were about spot on. I got the iPad version.

once you learn how to use it, iBrewmaster is a great app..! I've used it for everything from a crisp blonde to a monster RIS and it works great.

Well worth the cost IMHO

iBrewmaster is great and well worth the price tag

Ondori said:

I just did my first AG Saturday, and iBrewmaster saw me through. The calculations were about spot on. I got the iPad version.

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I bought the iPhone version awhile back and just recently got an ipad. I can't justify buying both right now so I'm just running the iPhone version on my ipad.

rcm_rx7 said:

I bought the iPhone version awhile back and just recently got an ipad. I can't justify buying both right now so I'm just running the iPhone version on my ipad.

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I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure once you buy one version, it's free for every other apple device. I bought it for my iPad about a year ago, I now have it on my phone too. I can't remember, but I highly doubt I would have paid another $10 just to have it on both devices. Check it out!

Antler said:

I may be wrong but I'm pretty sure once you buy one version, it's free for every other apple device. I bought it for my iPad about a year ago, I now have it on my phone too. I can't remember, but I highly doubt I would have paid another $10 just to have it on both devices. Check it out!

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I just received an email about this. "You will need to purchase the app for each device. The iPhone, iPad, and iMac versions are three different and distinct apps." Then he goes into a LONG description of why, then it's signed "Larry, iBrewMaster Customer Support"
Maybe a previous revision allowed it, but no more.

I have beer alchemy on my iphone, and it is just not enough screen, it's very tedious to use for the amount of information you need for a beer recipe, I suspect ibrewmaster is the same. I have the ipad version and agree with the post above, I find it well worth the money.

I have been using iBrewmaster for over a year and love it. Much simpler and intuitive than BeerSmith. The developers also keep it updated.

I currently use BeerSmith for the PC -- and the version of BeerSmith for the iPhone is for view recipes, and making on the spot calculations. So, I have not yet gone that route, but I will probably add the iPad version of BeerSmith once it become available.

However, I do have a couple of iPhone Apps that are brewing related.

BrewMath -- this allows me to calculate Strike Water Temps, Mash Out Temps, Hydrometer Adjustments for temperature, conversion for SG from Brix when using a refractometer and a lot of other tools. It does not have recipe formulation, but it does allow you to do a lot of on-the-spot calculations for all grain brewing.

GetHoppy - This is a database of different types of hops. I put it on my iPhone specifically so that I can use it for when I go the LHBS. It gives a lot of information about different hop varieties. I use it for hop substitutions. It also has a database for Fermentis, White Labs, and Wyest yeast strains. Finally, it has calculators for determining how many ounces of a partiuclar variety of hop to substitute for another. It presumes that you want a certain bitterness and you can calculate how many ounces are needed of the substitute hop to achieve the same bitterness for a given mass of the original hop. There are also calculators for Refractometers and Specific Gravity Temperature Corrections.

I am sure that this is not what you had in mind, but I find them helpful, especially for when I am at the LHBS and need some information.

Mark

ibrewmaster

iBrewmaster doesn't support BIAB. As in I don't think it will auto-calculate how much water to add when doing a no sparge BIAB.

If iBrewmaster does support BIAB can someone please tell me how?

kehaar said:

iBrewmaster doesn't support BIAB. As in I don't think it will auto-calculate how much water to add when doing a no sparge BIAB.

If iBrewmaster does support BIAB can someone please tell me how?

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I don't think it does either, but you know your grain absorption rate. So I just put it in the comments for each recipe, start with x.xx gallons of strike water.

Antler said:

I don't think it does either, but you know your grain absorption rate. So I just put it in the comments for each recipe, start with x.xx gallons of strike water.

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I setup a batch sparge, add all the water additions together with a calculator, then remove the batch sparge steps and replace with a auto calc infusion mash step set to calculate strike temp (with the volume set to my calculated value). This gets me the correct strike temp but it is a bit of a pain.

Sparge pal sucks. I used it last night. It told me to dough into 4.5 gallons of water for 14 pounds of grain and sparge with 4.3 gallons. That gave me 7 gallons in the pot for a 60 min boil. At the end I still had over 5 gallons so I cranked the heat up and opened the garage door to boil off as much as I could. Turned into a 80 min IPA

kehaar said:

I setup a batch sparge, add all the water additions together with a calculator, then remove the batch sparge steps and replace with a auto calc infusion mash step set to calculate strike temp (with the volume set to my calculated value). This gets me the correct strike temp but it is a bit of a pain.

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Damn that confusing, GO BIAB lol sorry

I've used BrewPal and iBrewmaster, and I'm throwing another vote behind iBrewmaster. I will admit I had it for almost 6 months before actually using it because of not quite understanding the interface at first.

Another happy iBrewmaster user. This was my first program in desiging recipes away from the actual calculations by hand. The app is easy to use after you framiliarize yourself with the layout. The apps inventory has everything my local homebrew store has so I'm able to accurately add all the info. They are super proactive in releasing updates and bug fixes.

I use beersmith on my computer and have the app. Limited functions on the app but the tools it comes with are useful. I like being able to view my recipes via cloud storage too. I'm hoping they release a fuller version of the iPhone app because I like BeerSmith a lot.

Otherwise, just on the iPhone the 10 bucks is beyond worth it for iBrewmaster.

BrewPal for me. But I batch sparge and do my own calculations on water to grist ratio with absorption calculated in there. I mainly use BrewPal as a database for my recipes, IBU's, efficiency, etc....I tend to use Sean Terrill's blog on %alc calculator since I use a reflectometer. BrewPal was only a couple of bucks, and since I tend to do most of my own calculations I just wanted a place to house/store my recipes and other info.

Antler said:

Damn that confusing, GO BIAB lol sorry

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Sorry. You are right. I documented my process here, if you are interested:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f84/no-sparge-biab-w-ibrewmaster-382465/