Working on a recipe designer / batch manager for Android - who's interested?

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How interested would you be in a brewing Android app?

  • Extremely - willing to pay if it suited my needs

  • Very - I'd try it out for free

  • Somewhat - I'd consider trying it

  • Nah - My current tools work just fine

Results are only viewable after voting.
iancanderson

iancanderson

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Hey there guys.
I'm a software developer working on a beer brewing app for the Android platform.
Without giving too much away, it will support:
-Recipe creation, design, comparison with beer styles
-Brew day tools (boil timer, reminders, etc.)
-Batch tracking, management, etc.

I plan on having a free version as well as a reasonably-priced version with more advanced features (maybe BeerXML import/export, inventory tracking, advanced brewing methods, etc.?)

Please vote in the above poll, only if you have an Android device or are planning to buy one in the next year.
 
I'd love to vote, but I don't have an android. My friend does, but he doesn't brew.

I'd love one for Windows Mobile, but Droid seems a much better phone and OS.
 
I bought the app mentioned above and am not impressed. It doesn't allow you to compose full recipes with types of grain, hops, adjunct, ect. It only has the style of beer, gravity estimates, batch size and some notes. I would love an app that is like beersmith, where I can develop a full recipe. So I say go ahead am make your app, the more choices the better.
 
farrout said:
I bought the app mentioned above and am not impressed. It doesn't allow you to compose full recipes with types of grain, hops, adjunct, ect. It only has the style of beer, gravity estimates, batch size and some notes. I would love an app that is like beersmith, where I can develop a full recipe. So I say go ahead am make your app, the more choices the better.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Don't worry - good things in the pipeline!
 
If you could make something similar to brew pal on the ipod/phone I would be very grateful. Brew pal is simple to use, customizable, and has cool things like a flavor wheel and style matcher. I like it better than any brew software I have tried on the PC or Mac. Unfortunately the creator of this app doesn't have time to re-write for android.

I have placed a deposit on the Evo (due out on 6/4) so let me know when you need beta-testers. I am excited to see more as this develops. If its a good android app I will finally be able to sell my ipod touch on ebay.

Thanks for your time and hard work.. Make it good! :drunk:
 
I've got a HTC Incredible, have been using Evernote to keep track of my ideas and the notes I took during my first brew day, but would definitely buy an app if it did what I needed it to do. Recipe tracker, brew timer, and the option to store project/batch data to a memory card would be really neat.
 
megalomani said:
If you could make something similar to brew pal on the ipod/phone I would be very grateful. Brew pal is simple to use, customizable, and has cool things like a flavor wheel and style matcher.
Click to expand...

My goal is to make something as powerful as BrewPal, if not better. I'm hoping for an initial release in a few months.

Thanks everyone for your replies! Keep motivating me to get to work on it :D
 
I would definitely pay for some real android brewing software. The programs that are out there right now are kind of weak
 
I would also pay for something if it was comprehensive. It would be nice to have a quality app around when you get a sudden inspiration or find a recipe you want to enter. Picking up an EVO 4G on June 7th, so the the sooner the better!

Also, let me know if you need beta testers for it.
 
yep, I have a droid and would pay for a comprehensive program. So far I have stayed away from the brewing software that is out there for android because none of it seems to be what I am looking for. Keep updating us on your progress and if you need testers when you are close to releasing it let me know (testing software is what I do for a living)
 
pava said:
yep, I have a droid and would pay for a comprehensive program. So far I have stayed away from the brewing software that is out there for android because none of it seems to be what I am looking for. Keep updating us on your progress and if you need testers when you are close to releasing it let me know (testing software is what I do for a living)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the offer! I just got a new job so I'll be spending the next month packing / moving / unpacking. However, I fully intend to get back to work in July and have something to beta test in August!
 
My interest in an android brewing platform would be mostly for brew day utilities. The ability to export a beer xml file to my dropbox then just crack it open on my phone and have timers ready to go would be awesome. Ability to tweak thinks like your bittering addition for the alpha acids of your hops on hand, or water to grist ratio would be even better. Would also be handy to make adjustments to recipes at the brew shop when they're out of something.

I wouldn't be looking to replace my desktop brewing software and spreadsheets, but to have a quick tool to make adjustments on the fly and be a pre loaded boil timer. Just my 2¢.

Looking forward to it and of course always happy to beta test :)
 
I'd be interested if you make it compatible with older versions of Android. I'm not giving up my G1 anytime soon but it's also no longer being updated.
 
I use the HomeBrew Calculator app on my Droid for things like figuring out attenuation, IBUs (for substitutions), and the like. When it comes to formulating recipes, I use BeerSmith on my PC and take a printout with me to the brewery. I don't foresee an app replacing BeerSmith for me, but I would love to give it a try. Keep us posted, I'm sure you'll find plenty of beta testers here.
 
I haven't found a recipe calculator for my droid yet, but I have Brewzor and homebrew calculator on mine. They both have some nice features. I mostly use brewzor's refractometer convertor.

I haven't found anything to import or use beersmith on mine. I did once go online on my phone to beercalculus.com, and do a recipe on there.

I use a generic stop watch app during boils. The timer on hb calc is difficult to imput info it, and if you tilt it to landscape mode to use the keyboard it crashes. On brewzor I mostly just use the refractometer convertor to convert the brix to specific gravity.

I would love a beersmith app. so I could call up my recipes, and make changes on the fly for recipes. If it could go between my droid with .bsm files and my beersmith it would be awesome.
 
It brings me the android brewing app. It does this whenever it is told too. It brings me the android brewing app or it gets the hose again.
 
mullenite said:
I'd be interested if you make it compatible with older versions of Android. I'm not giving up my G1 anytime soon but it's also no longer being updated.
Click to expand...

I second this. I have a Motorola Cliq XT, and it is still running Android 1.5 (supposed to be updated this summer, but who knows) so if it was compatible that would be cool. I will test for you if need be.
:mug:Prost!
 
I would LOVE a GOOD brewing app for my droid.. I spend significant time on it and I have no recipe formulation, note taking, or inventory management. It would especially kick ass if it were compatable with beersmith.
 
For the heck of it I searched the beersmith forum for any mention of the android platform, and folks are requestion it there too, but I don't think Brad's in any hurry to do it, which kinda sucks. But I did find this...

Hmmm,
You can export them as HTML (in fact you can actually select a whole bunch at once and export them) and display them on your phone. In fact with a little work you could probably make a custom web template to make it all fit on the phone's screen.

Cheers,
Brad


Re: I'd pay more to...
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2008, 11:21:34 PM »

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi mch2smw,

Brad's suggestion is the way to do it "now".

Instead of an iPhone, I have a Nokia N800 internet tablet.... it's very similar in capabilities to the iphone.

What I did to automate this was:
1) Install Apache webserver on my PC
2) web-share a documents directory.
3) the web share contains the exported HTML from Beersmith.
4) view the documents dir from my Nokia
5) profit!

The document share method works OK if my Nokia is on the same (home) network as my PC.
If I go mobile or use someone's PC off at their home... then the idea falls flat.

I could rig a script to post the recipe sheets to say Google Documents, etc. if I were motivated enough.

FYI - In another thread some of us were asking for the ability to "upload" our recipes online, so they could be accessed from a browser or other copy of Beersmith.
Click to expand...

Of course all this smart phone stuff is new to me, and I'm not much of a programming person so this is greek or geek to me, but if anyone can makes sense of this it would be cool.
 
Mirilis said:
I would LOVE a GOOD brewing app for my droid.. I spend significant time on it and I have no recipe formulation, note taking, or inventory management. It would especially kick ass if it were compatable with beersmith.
Click to expand...

I emailed the developer of Brewer and he said he was working on an import method to be compatible with beersmith and others (using beerxml i gather)

anxiously awaiting that as i really don't want to be putting my recipes in two places, although it is decent enough if you want to throw a recipe together and don't have access to a computer
 
Just got my HTC Eris and would love it if I could formulate a recipe and transfer it to beersmith or vice versa.:mug:
 
i was involved a lil with rooting the eris... helped do a lot of testing of roms in the beginning. anyway, i'd be willing to help if needed. however there is one really simple app i'd love to see... one with a huge database of the different beers available that you can simply rate and give tasting notes on... would be bliss in a bar where you see something you havnt tried before but were interested in. would need a lil bit of a user base though so you dont have ppl voting for all the light beer crap available...lol... oh well, we will see if i have time to develop someday.
 
I'd also like to see Beersmith type features or perhaps just import/export ability.
 
I asked the designer of Brewtarget about porting his program to Droid and this was his reply. Maybe someone can make sense of it and port his program to an app. Ive used it and its pretty nice.

Quote:

I don't have any experience with porting to the droid, but from what I read, it is quite possible.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2009/09/now-available-android-16-ndk.html

If you know anyone who might be up to the task, let me know
 
Homercidal said:
I'd love to vote, but I don't have an android. My friend does, but he doesn't brew.

I'd love one for Windows Mobile, but Droid seems a much better phone and OS.
Click to expand...

I agree on Windows Mobile. I don't have Windows yet, I am waiting for Windows Phone 7 to come out. It would be awesome if someone had one alredy developed for when it comes out.
 
I too would love a good app for Droid. The two free ones are not comprehensive, and the timers don't work all the time. I would like something as good as beersmith or even better if I could go back and forth from beersmith to the Droid. Keep us posted. I would also be willing to pay as much as I did for beersmith for an app that good.
 
Throwing in my 2 cents for wanting a good brewing app on Droid which I ordered yesterday. I'll try out the available apps. I've seen a little bit of Brewpal on iphone and it looked nice.
 
Building on the "export as html and host on a local Apache server", I signed up for Dropbox.com and do a text file output of the recipe and save it into the Dropbox folder on the desktop, which auto syncs it with their servers. You can get to it from anywhere, but it comes right up on the phone as a text file, since there's a handy Dropbox official app for Android. If you use a text file, you could make changes or notes.

Dropbox is also great for storing recipes of anything you bring places where people ask you how to make it. Just get their email address and mail it to them right out of the folder. I may have done that a few times with a cake recipe. :D
 

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