Which brew software

Two questions...

1. Which brew software are you guys recommending? I want to do my AG setup right and think I need one to know the quantities for ingredients.

2. Will that brew software tell me how much water to batch sparge with, dough in with and dough out with as well as how much to collect, boil off.....etc?

I am just about ready to give it a go, but am a little confused by the amounts I need to avoid tannins in the end and boil volume vs. evaporation.

Thanks!~

1. If you go to the Brewing Software forum, you will find some guidance. The big three appear to be Beersmith (just updated this month; my favourite), ProMash (powerful, but a bit dated), and Beer Alchemy (for the Mac users). BeerTools Pro is the up-and-comer worth mentioning too.

2. Yes, they all will. Very handy - takes the brainwork out of it.

Ask more questions here once you get the initial recipe/process designed. The software can only take you so far, and there is lots of experience here to help.

I really never trust the software. I use it to track gravities and IBUs. As far as the mash temps and volumes I use the resources in HTB and the Wiki.

I have used Beer Alchemy (Mac only) and ProMash. I think for those kind of calculations ProMash has the edge. I just downloded BeerSmith. All three of these have free trial periods.

Sorry for the wrong forum........thanks for the heads up. I will get the freebies and check with you guys for your thought on my recipe.

I've used Beersmith and then bought Beertoolspro on a whim because I liked the idea of a consistantly evolving product. However, it has a lot of shortcomings and the upgrade process has been slow. Knowing that I already liked Beersmith before the update, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Bobby_M said:

However, it has a lot of shortcomings and the upgrade process has been slow.

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What shortcomings have you found with the software?

I just got BeerTools a few weeks ago for starting all-grain... I like the program and have heard some of the complaints people have.. but having no prior brew software experience most of these complaints dont bother me...

one complaint has been about not having an inventory section... I have no need for this right now and that is planned for the next update on the software...

also there was some talk about not being able to schedule late addition extracts...

check out the beertools forum... theres a lot of info there about the program... good luck

Jester

I've been on the forums plenty.

The major shortcoming is the lack of an inventory feature. I keep a ton of stock on hand and a freezer full of hops. I've had to resort to a spreadsheet for inventory making sure I subtract from it as I plan my brewing schedule.

The other thing I don't really like is the way the scheduling works for mashing/sparging. It took forever to figure out how to run a batch sparge. This is just something that Beersmith does so intuitively so I was spoiled. I ran my first all grain batch the day after I download the software.

Beersmith also has that nice brew day schedule printout that beertools doesn't.

I've had beertools for about 6 months now and I keep hearing about an update but no date was mentioned. I'm most likely going to just eat the $25 I spent and buy beersmith now. Anyone want to buy my beertools seat for $15?

Bobby -- it sounds to me like you have already made up your mind which software you really want!

Just to entice you some more -- Beersmith is currently knocked down to $19.95...

I certainly have but I was just sharing my frustrations to help Kayos make the same decision. You have to wonder about a software company that doesn't make a trial version available. That should have been a decent tip off.

People who say they are completely satisfied with beertoolspro have either not tried beersmith previously or just really want to internally justify the sunk cost. It basically does what you'd expect and the interface is really pretty, but it's just not quite there yet.

Bobby_M said:

People who say they are completely satisfied with beertoolspro have either not tried beersmith previously or just really want to internally justify the sunk cost. It basically does what you'd expect and the interface is really pretty, but it's just not quite there yet.

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I wouldn't say that is the case for me. I have tried Beersmith and Promash & read all that I could find online about the various packages. I decided to give BTP a spin since it is the newer kid on the block and they have updates in the pipe.

To be honest, I didn't find the schedule (or general interface) that difficult at all. I too was running an AG batch on BTP with-in 1 hour of purchase. The lack of an inventory feature is the only downside for me so far (and that's not that big of a deal right now).

Each to their own.

Updates in the pipe for sure, but that pipe seems to be 100 miles long. I guess there are some folks who like it better. That's great. I'd just suggest to someone buying for the first time to check out the ones that offer free trials. Of those, I think beersmith is the slickest one out there. IMHO, there's really nothing that BTP offers that beersmith does not, at least that I can figure.

brewt00l said:

I have tried Beersmith and Promash & read all that I could find online about the various packages. I decided to give BTP a spin since it is the newer kid on the block and they have updates in the pipe.

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Yep, that makes a lot of sense. I guess the one real kudo to give to Beersmith, however, is that it is the only major homebrewing software package that has a DEMONSTRATED history of revision and updates. The latest release from a week or two ago is a really good example of this -- most of the improvements came right from user suggestions. I like that Beersmith is constantly evolving to meet the needs of its users, and ProMash and BTP are definitely disappointing in that respect (but great packages, nonetheless).

Strange brew also has a software brewing program. IIRC Canadian.
Well I know for a fact it's Canadian.

I use my own excel spreadsheet which you can download in my signature if you like to see it or use it

Cheers,
Marc