Beer brewing program

I am a new brewer and only brewing partial mash, but I was wondering if the beer making programs are for only AG or can be used with Partial mash. I would like to switch to AG here in a few months after I get all the equipment. Thanks for your time.

Most programs do Extract and AG.

Most programs that I've seen support all-grain, partial mash and extract brewing.

thanks alot but if im only doing partial mash is it worth going to a program to help my brewing?

If you're going to make your own recipes it is definitely worth the bit of money. If you're following clones and ready-made recipes it is less important but can still be useful. They are also helpful for tracking inventory and notes about recipes and sessions and whatnot.

I use Beersmith for extract and PM, and of course it does AG.

thanks for the posts and I will spend the cash in a program to get used to it and when I go AG I will be familiar to the whole thing.

I would suggest learning how to work it out yourself first, then when you know how to do it then use a program to help do it quicker.

If I went straight into using a program I'd of been lazy and never learn the basics and fundamentals of constructing recipes and working out the maths involved in mashing volumes etc.

pete3 said:

thanks alot but if im only doing partial mash is it worth going to a program to help my brewing?

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Absolutely -- brewing software is no less valuable to PM brewing than AG brewing.

As an added benefit, most packages (I use Beersmith) also allow you to take AG recipes and easily convert them to PM recipes. You can do this manually, as well, with a calculator or spreadsheet, but the software takes the work out of it. You can also use it to convert between different batch sizes effortlessly (say from 5 to 6 gallons, or 10 to 5 gallons). Finally, they are really fun for PM brewers (and AG) because you can take existing recipes and experiment and tweak them easily.

Download Brewsmith and Promash for free and then decide which you like and how they work. They both have a free trial version. I'm glad I did! Was about to buy one, then downloaded both and ended up paying for the other.

I have found beersmith to be invaluable for crunching "what if" scenarios.

It is also a huge time saver when converting a full boil recipe to an extract/partial boil.