BeerSmith Android Brew Buddy

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starman said:
I have access for another couple weeks to the full compliment of adobe products at work but don't have much experience creating graphics for apps. That said if you don't get a better volunteer I'd love to help.
Click to expand...

No one else has volunteered yet, if you want to take a stab at it, i would appreciate it.
 
I used this to do my first AG batch last night and I have a couple of suggestions.

1) Have each timer so you can have a 5 minute warning, then the actual time. I have mine set to give me 5 minute warning which was great to be able to prepare my hop additions, but then it wouldn't go off when I needed to do the addition itself.
2) Make so when you click the notification in the notification bar it opens the app to the timers page.
3) units...it is strange to have it tell you to add x ounces of water instead of gallons.

Overall it really helped! Thank you for your work on this!
 
Rhuarc said:
1) Have each timer so you can have a 5 minute warning, then the actual time. I have mine set to give me 5 minute warning which was great to be able to prepare my hop additions, but then it wouldn't go off when I needed to do the addition itself.
2) Make so when you click the notification in the notification bar it opens the app to the timers page.
3) units...it is strange to have it tell you to add x ounces of water instead of gallons.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input and already working on a couple, timers got a complete overhaul

-Timers are getting overhauled, will add the feature to put in the alarm for both warning and addition, didnt think about that
-Notification-have changed how it notifies now, you have two notifications for the timers, a constant notification for the timer being on (click and it brings up timers) and a notification for each item alert (goes away when clicked and brings up timers)
-Units can be changed in the settings and Ive updated it so the views should update as well without reloading, you might need to reload the recipe for the timers though those are displayed a little different
 
Just a little teaser update:
Next release will hopefully be by end of the weekend and it will include the following:
-Timers updated to work more efficient and allow for multitasking better
-Portrait mode enabled
-Various Bug Fixes
-Change in navigation, got rid of the side bar and moved it to a top bar, made it easier to do portrait mode and I think it looks better anyways
 
Havent been following this thread and didnt want to read through 20 pages. Where can I download this app and get a little how-to on how to use it?
 
Heres the android market link: BrewAide

Once you open it go to help for a little how-to, if you have dropbox already it is quite easy to set up.
 
Update:
Just released version 2.2, new features include:
-Portrait Mode (you asked I delivered)
-Timers reworked to function smoother with multitasking
-Fixed bugs

Next Feature Im starting work on:
-BeerXML to allow multiple program support
 
How about allowing us to use SG for the gravity entries with the refractometer tool?? I record SG from my refractometer (it's on from Bobby_M, so it has both scales on it), not brix. It would be much better, for those of us with said refractometers, to be able to use them this way. Having to translate from SG to brix just for this is more trouble than it's worth.
 
Im confused, if your tool reads SG already then what do you need the tool for then? I guess it could still be used to calculate the corrected gravity due to alcohol difference. Is that what you are refering too
 
Adeering said:
Im confused, if your tool reads SG already then what do you need the tool for then? I guess it could still be used to calculate the corrected gravity due to alcohol difference. Is that what you are refering too
Click to expand...

That's the only reason... I'm not using the hydrometer anymore since it requires a much larger sample. With the refractometer I can reserve an ounce, or two, and take my reading from that. I used the excel spreadsheet that's been posted on these boards before (and I had already downloaded) to help with the adjustment. It would be nice if I could simply enter the OG reading (in SG) and then the current SG after fermentation, and have the same tool (on my tablet or phone) give me the correct final gravity. Of course, I enter this into my BeerSmith recipe entry for my records, but this would be easy to capture on kegging day.
 
Ok, i see what you mean, ill add it to the list of features to add in. Shouldnt be too hard to put in since the equations convert the brix to SG before any calculations anyways so i can make a dropdown menu to select input type and then adjust calculations. Might be a couple releases before I get to it though, but its now on the list.
 
a few (ridiculously minor) suggestions/thing i noticed:

- put a decimal place cap on hop and grain amounts...i have a recipe telling me to use .9979711 oz of hersbrucker

- the "brew steps" screen lists out all of the steps, then after "drink and enjoy!" it lists everything out a second time.

- in the "brew steps" screen, anytime a sub section heading shows, the last letter of the heading is on a new line, such as:

Fermentatio
n

and

Mash or Steep Grain
s

Things I love about the app:

- the timers. how a multi step mash keeps a cumulative time, but alters you at each step. How the boil timer warns you of the next hop addition. also love pulling gown to view timer status.

-dropbox/cloud!

-easy to use, easy to view, easy to move around from timers to recipe to settings and back

My only feature request so far would be equipment profiles, and you may have already mentioned your plans for that. Even if the app just mentions which of my equipment profiles the recipe was set to would be good. I brew at a couple different places/setups and would like to be able to verify that I have everything straight before getting started.

Once again, thanks for all the time...this is great.

-
 
Just updated. Tried to hit recipe to see if the one I had loaded was still there. App forced closed. Tried 3 more times and same results. Hit folder selected dropbox and its working so far. Running HTC evo3D
 
The pre boil gravity (and several others) spot is just one char in normal mode. When you go back to view all ingredients are listed twice
 
used this app today for the first time.. I also used my standard timer app with it just to be safe. After my brew day I deleted the previous timer app. this one worked GREAT.

a minor suggestion. add the ability to change a timer on the fly. I understand that it gets its times from the recipe, but if you have a recipe with screwed up times for a mash or boil, then you have to go into beersmith, edit the recipe, export it and then load it back into the app. a simple edit would be much easier especially if you're outside and are just starting the mash or boil and not near the PC in order to make the change.

other than that, awesome app! Thanks for making it.
 
In regards to all the repeating brewsteps/recipe ingredients: I figured out the problem, due to changes for the portrait mode support I changed some things and now it duplicates information on resume, easy fix and should have another update with the minor changes soon.

@bmbigda-what screen is not rounding the amount, I think I might have missed some, but I thought I got them all.
 
Gonna be another little update in a little bit to fix some bugs with the last update

-Fixed the duplicate display
-Made timers able to be manually set to a specific time
-Added an "Easter Egg"/joke in brew steps---Because I can-See if you can find it currently there is only one, but if I think of more Ill put them in cause its fun
-Hopefully fixed the removal of ads, apparently it came back for someone
-Fixed crash if you try to view a recipe before loading one (forgot to put in check when changed for portrait mode)
-Updated Help page with most current information
 
Adeering said:
Gonna be another little update in a little bit to fix some bugs with the last update

-Fixed the duplicate display
-Made timers able to be manually set to a specific time
-Added an "Easter Egg"/joke in brew steps---Because I can-See if you can find it currently there is only one, but if I think of more Ill put them in cause its fun
-Hopefully fixed the removal of ads, apparently it came back for someone
-Fixed crash if you try to view a recipe before loading one (forgot to put in check when changed for portrait mode)
-Updated Help page with most current information
Click to expand...


thanks for all the hard work!
 
Adeering said:
Gonna be another little update in a little bit to fix some bugs with the last update

-Fixed the duplicate display
-Made timers able to be manually set to a specific time
-Added an "Easter Egg"/joke in brew steps---Because I can-See if you can find it currently there is only one, but if I think of more Ill put them in cause its fun
-Hopefully fixed the removal of ads, apparently it came back for someone
-Fixed crash if you try to view a recipe before loading one (forgot to put in check when changed for portrait mode)
-Updated Help page with most current information
Click to expand...

Adeering, the app is looking great! Good job.
 
Which boxes are only one character? Can you give a screenshot and you should be able to still type more it might just be cutting off because of screen size visually. In order to trouble shoot I need as much info as possible: device, detail description and/or picture, etc.

Because there are so many different android devices I cannot tell how its going to look on all of them, so the more information you give the more likely to be fixed
 
Thanks for putting this together. I'm going to try using it for my next brew in a few weekends. I did find a small bug, though.

I use metric for my grain and hop measurements, and the amounts show up with a null as a volume identifier. For example:

"1kg" will show on your app as "1null"
or
"5g" will show on your app as "5null"

This happens in the recipe, brew steps, and timer.

All the imperial measurements (oz, gal, etc...) work fine.

One more request would be to have the total water needed appear on your Brew Steps. In BeerSmith, it appears at the top of the Brew Steps.
 
Ill look into it, it might be a simple addition so Ill see how hard it will be to implement, its added to the list
 
Adeering said:
Ill look into it, it might be a simple addition so Ill see how hard it will be to implement, its added to the list
Click to expand...

I would put the Google Drive item as a rather low priority at this point. I'm sure you have other higher ranked items on your list. Besides, Google Drive isn't even available for use yet (I signed up to be notified when it is available)...
 
Yeah its pretty low, however talking with Brad it seems like integrating with the BeerSmith cloud might not be possible. Im still working on figuring out what would be required and making sure hes ok with it. So having another cloud service such as dropbox and google drive might be a good backup. It is lower on the list as right now all work is going towards BeerXML so this app is beneficial to more than just beersmith users.
 
Adeering said:
Yeah its pretty low, however talking with Brad it seems like integrating with the BeerSmith cloud might not be possible. Im still working on figuring out what would be required and making sure hes ok with it. So having another cloud service such as dropbox and google drive might be a good backup. It is lower on the list as right now all work is going towards BeerXML so this app is beneficial to more than just beersmith users.
Click to expand...

I don't understand how Brad can be creating a cloud for BeerSmith and not a mobile app. The point of a cloud is to have access to files on all of your devices. At least he's willing to integrate with you...
 
Im not associated with beersmith at all, Im just some guy who enjoys the product and wanted to use it on my tablet while brewing. So he doesnt exactly want to give me all the information on how his stuff works, which I need to integrate it, which is understandable. Im just some random guy and he has spent years working on BeerSmith
 
Adeering said:
Which boxes are only one character? Can you give a screenshot and you should be able to still type more it might just be cutting off because of screen size visually. In order to trouble shoot I need as much info as possible: device, detail description and/or picture, etc.

Because there are so many different android devices I cannot tell how its going to look on all of them, so the more information you give the more likely to be fixed
Click to expand...

The first 2 volume fields are maybe one character and the last volume field is 2 characters. The gravity fields are fine. No screenshot app on the phone. Probably won't have time to find one tommorow. Will post a pic then
 
bmbigda said:
I don't understand how Brad can be creating a cloud for BeerSmith and not a mobile app. The point of a cloud is to have access to files on all of your devices. At least he's willing to integrate with you...
Click to expand...

I think he's working on an iOS app which is why he's creating a cloud but was looking at ways to make it so it wouldn't be too much work to compile an Android version in the future.
 
Golddiggie said:
I would put the Google Drive item as a rather low priority at this point. I'm sure you have other higher ranked items on your list. Besides, Google Drive isn't even available for use yet (I signed up to be notified when it is available)...
Click to expand...

I agree, it's not that big of a priority, especially since the dropbox feature works like a charm.

But - Google Drive is live as of earlier today. It replaces the "document" tab on your google account bar once you activate it... I'm not sure why you wouldn't have been notified.
 
DJP00829 said:
I agree, it's not that big of a priority, especially since the dropbox feature works like a charm.

But - Google Drive is live as of earlier today. It replaces the "document" tab on your google account bar once you activate it... I'm not sure why you wouldn't have been notified.
Click to expand...

Because they haven't cut it on for everyone, esp Google domain users
 
DJP00829 said:
I agree, it's not that big of a priority, especially since the dropbox feature works like a charm.

But - Google Drive is live as of earlier today. It replaces the "document" tab on your google account bar once you activate it... I'm not sure why you wouldn't have been notified.
Click to expand...

Probably because I just use gmail and don't have any toolbars installed in my browsers. I hate those frakkin things with a passion.

Where's the stand-alone app that they mention in the article for computers? I see one for Android, but not Windows (don't give a fig about mac)...
 

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