Biermacht for Android

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AnythingForDogs

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Hi all,

A little while ago I released my first Android app - a free brewers assistant called "Biermacht" - into the wild. It creates recipes, can import recipes via beerXML, has a brew-day timer, and a few calculators as well.
I'm looking to spread the word and get some feedback, so that I can improve upon it in future iterations. It is free, and has no ADs - I'm just looking to make a real handy tool and have some fun while doing it. Hopefully some of you will find it useful as well!

For anyone who is interested, the link is below. Please try it out and leave some feedback for me! It will be great to get some other opinions on what works, and what could be better.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.biermacht.brews

Happy brewing!
 
How on earth did this thread not get any comments?
App looks really promising! 4.6 in rating and free!

(I registered just cause of this.. long time lurker, tho. ;) )
 
Would it be possible to add dry yeast?
Also missing hops, like Equinox.
 
Grabbing it right now. Will let you know my thoughts once I get a brew or two in with it! Thanks for the heads up!
 
Just downloaded it and took a quick look. Unless I am missing something it doesn't give what I feel is critical information. IBU, within style, color, predicted gravities and ABV etc.

Also, Where are the dry yeasts?
 
kh54s10 said:
Just downloaded it and took a quick look. Unless I am missing something it doesn't give what I feel is critical information. IBU, within style, color, predicted gravities and ABV etc.

Also, Where are the dry yeasts?
Click to expand...

When you are in a recipe window where it lists your ingredients, swipe to the left. It will list that stuff in either red or green.
 
Ah, I see. This app looks pretty good. I have Beersmith so I doubt I will use it but for someone who has nothing else it looks like a winner.
 
JEG said:
Would it be possible to add dry yeast?
Also missing hops, like Equinox.
Click to expand...


Yeah, definitely can add more ingredients to the default list. It's hard as a single person to catch all of the vast array of ingredients out there :)

The app also includes a way to add your own ingredients to the list for re-use in multiple recipes, if ever there is something I missed.
 
JEG said:
Is there anyway to help out?
Click to expand...

Yep!

In terms of missing ingredients, compiling a list of any that you would like to see and posting it here would be great (a gold star if you have a link to parameters like alpha acid %, etc).

Same goes for missing features, calculators, etc.

The app is also open source, and open for contributions if you're interested in writing some code :)

https://github.com/caseydavenport/biermacht
 
OK, can't code, but I'll bite regardless:
Some dry yeast. Data stolen from brewgr.com/ , my current choice (also Open Source, but dev. is slow:

Name (attenuation)
Fermentis Safale US-05 (81 %)
Fermentis Safale S-04 (75 %)
Danstar Nottingham (80 %)


Is this good enough for you, or do you need better QA numbers? Hard to find official numbers (try fining for Belle Saison...)
 
JEG - Perfect, thanks.

I plan on cutting a release this week when I get back home after vacation. It will include these new ingredients.
 
Fermentis Safbrew BE-256/Abbaye (82 %)
Lallemand Belle Saison (92 %) - source: http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37351
Fermentis Safale K-97 (81 %)
Fermentis Saflager S-23 (82 %)
Fermentis Safbrew T-58 (80 %)
Fermentis Safbrew WB-06 (86 %)
Fermentis Saflager W-34/70 (83 %)
Fermentis Saflager S-189 (84 %)

I'll try to get more from Fermentis and Danstar later, as well as some Mangrove yeasts.
 
Just downloaded and took a look. Very nice! I find some of the features of Brewer's Friend to be a bit clunky so I may just switch over to yours. I like being able to have it on the tablet for brew day too.

I wonder how accurately a tablet/phone screen could display the lovibond color? That would be a cool feature to have. Put your phone next to the beer in question and hit +/- to change the hue.... or snap a pic and have it estimate it.

Good job man.
 
JEG said:
If this is good enough, I'll supply more quite soon.

I'll try to get some feedback via a Norwegian forum as well (will post here).

Btw, did you ever consider Transifex for translation? It's free for open source programs - https://www.transifex.com/customers/open-source/
Click to expand...


Nice - I just cut a release including all of the yeasts you posted. It should show up in the play store within the next day. Thanks for your help :)

Also, Transifex looks really cool. I've wanted to do some translations, and a free option would be great. I'll investigate that soon. There is a bit of tedious coding re-work required to make the app support multiple-languages which I've been meaning to get around to and will hopefully do soon.
 
spittybug said:
Just downloaded and took a look. Very nice! I find some of the features of Brewer's Friend to be a bit clunky so I may just switch over to yours. I like being able to have it on the tablet for brew day too.

I wonder how accurately a tablet/phone screen could display the lovibond color? That would be a cool feature to have. Put your phone next to the beer in question and hit +/- to change the hue.... or snap a pic and have it estimate it.

Good job man.
Click to expand...

Thanks!

The color idea sounds interesting - I especially like the idea of taking a picture and having the app determine the color. It does a best-effort at the moment based on the recipe, but it really is just an estimate for looks. I also wonder if a phone screen could accurately represent the color.
 
Just a heads up, SRM calculations are for preboil wort, and not postboil wort or fermented beer.

Make up a 100% 2row/pils brew, and take samples every 15 minutes for 3 hours. You'll see some serious color changing.

Also I forked your repo. Will dig into it in about a month for suggestions/ideas :p
 
This is fantastic! I've been trying to find an Android app that works for me for awhile. I really wanted the ability to put in measured O.G. and final volume and have the software calculate overall efficiency, and this app delivers.

A few feature requests:
- Add a brew date and maybe a batch code to the screen where we edit the recipe name and whatnot, and show these in the details page (and maybe recipe list). I can hack it into the name but separate fields would be nice.
- include a read only view of the recipe and taking notes on the details page. I'd want the fields to specifically be read only to avoid editing them by accident. As far as I'm concerned the two notes field could be combined into one but others might have different opinions.
- Add 1 more digit to the water quantities listed in the instructions screen - I tend to use 1/4 gallon increments for my water additions and it.s showing as 4.2 gallons and 3.8 gallons instead of 4.25 gallons and 3.75 gallons. Those numbers also make me think that something is odd with the rounding but that's not really important if the number of digits is updated.
 
OK, lets add the dry yeast from Mangrove Jack - tell me how you want the info, and I'll edit. For now, I just dump it here...

Formula:
NAME - FLOCCULATION - ATTENUATION (RANGE) - ALCOHOL TOLERANCE - RECOMMENDED TEMPERATURE RANGE

w
M76 Bavarian Lager 3 75-80% 8% 46-57°F (8-14°C)

M20 Bavarian Wheat 2 70-75% 7.5% 64-86°F (18-30°C)

M47 Belgian Abbey 4 73-77% 8% 64-77°F (18-25°C)

M41 Belgian Ale 3 82-88% 12% 64-82°F (18-28°C)

M31 Belgian Tripel 3 82-88% 10% 64-82°F (18-28°C)

M21 Belgian Wit 2 70-75% 9% 64-77°F (18-25°C)

M84 Bohemian Lager 4 72-76% 8% 50 - 59°F (10-15°C)

M54 Californian Lager 4 77-82% 9% 64-68°F (18-20°C)

M15 Empire Ale 4 70-75% 8% 64-72°F (18-22°C)

M29 French Saison 3 85-90% 12% 79-90°F (26-32°C)

M36 Liberty Bell Ale 4 74-78% 9% 64-73°F (18-23°C)

M42 New World Strong Ale 5 77-82% 12% 61-73°F (16-22°C)

M44 US West Coast 4 77-85% 10% 64-73°F (18-23°C)

M02 Cider 5 95-100% 12% 54-82°F (12-28°C)

M05 Mead 4 95-100% 18% 59-86°F (15-30°C)
 
Just downloaded I will have to give it a try. Looks like you have a higher score than most of the other free apps out there!
 
Please add in an efficiency calculator and I will switch over from using the "Wort" app that I currently use. Otherwise, it's great!
 
OK great. Working on the Mangrove Jack's now - I'll get those into the next release :)

I'll add an efficiency calculator as well.

Thanks guys!
 
gabeweisz said:
This is fantastic! I've been trying to find an Android app that works for me for awhile. I really wanted the ability to put in measured O.G. and final volume and have the software calculate overall efficiency, and this app delivers.

A few feature requests:
- Add a brew date and maybe a batch code to the screen where we edit the recipe name and whatnot, and show these in the details page (and maybe recipe list). I can hack it into the name but separate fields would be nice.
- include a read only view of the recipe and taking notes on the details page. I'd want the fields to specifically be read only to avoid editing them by accident. As far as I'm concerned the two notes field could be combined into one but others might have different opinions.
- Add 1 more digit to the water quantities listed in the instructions screen - I tend to use 1/4 gallon increments for my water additions and it.s showing as 4.2 gallons and 3.8 gallons instead of 4.25 gallons and 3.75 gallons. Those numbers also make me think that something is odd with the rounding but that's not really important if the number of digits is updated.
Click to expand...

OK - latest release has brew dates for recipes which show up in the details page. You can also view notes from the details page.

Also fixed the rounding / digit display issue - thanks for spotting that! :mug:

Still need to think about the read-only ingredients section and how that could be done nicely in the UI. More to come down the road, but thanks for the feedback :)
 
For the update when you add the efficiency calculator (hopefully still coming), could you add Mosaic and El Dorado hops? I added them as custom for now. Thanks!
 
Anybody happen to know what “Gravity Contribution”, Mr Beer extract would have? :confused:
I'd like to add another fermentable in the Ingredient Editor on my phone.

If possible, could you allow your app to be installed on the sd card, for those of us with pitifully small phone storage and no foreseeable update to marshmallow. :(

But I'm still going to use this great open source app, wherever it installs! :ban:
 
> Anybody happen to know what “Gravity Contribution”, Mr Beer extract would have?

It should be the same as other extracts - I'd probably enter 1.036 for liquid, 1.044 for dry extracts. re: SD card, I'll make sure that is possible. Not something I had thought of before, but it should be easy enough. Thanks!

> For the update when you add the efficiency calculator (hopefully still coming), could you add Mosaic and El Dorado hops? I added them as custom for now. Thanks!

Yep, can do! Sorry about the long time coming on all this new stuff - I've been really busy with a new job change so haven't really had the free time I'd like to get back to development.

Also, re: the efficiency calculator, the app will currently calculate efficiency for a recipe if you enter the "Measured OG", "Measured FG" and "batch size" for the recipe. The efficiency will then show up in the details page.
 
I brewed this weekend and found out why it's nice to have a standalone efficiency calculator in the app in addition to the built-in one you mentioned. I took my wort sample pre-boil, and before adding a pound of brown sugar, which threw the efficiency calculation way off since it considers all ingredients and assumes the OG you input is from the final volume. I like to take OG pre-boil so I know if I need to add any DME during boil in order to hit my numbers.
 
So I'm experimenting with/learning this app and I have a question about hops...2.5 gal batch... if I add 1 oz of fuggle hops during the boil and leave them in during the fermentation, should I input the dry hopping amount as 0 oz, or 1 oz.
 
@Olephart that would be 0 oz dry hopping.

@Amadeo38 not the developer, but I also like to take OG preboil. I prefer to boil down to the intended OG before hopping, or diluting up to the OG rather than adding DME.
 
Anyone happen to know what the IBU's of Wormwood and St John's Wort might be? I'm working up a Gruit recipe and I think I'll have to put these bittering herbs in as hops.
 
Great piece of brewing software. It has been extremely helpful as I take the first steps into recepie design.

Would you please consider adding a an export option to be "printer friendly text file?" it could be really useful for posting to forums and for quickly printing out a recipe sheet.

Also, I tried uploading a BeerXML file to the Brewer's Friend website and it was rejected because it did not recognize the MISC tag. Not sure if the problem is with the site or with your app but I thought I'd pass it on.

Keep up the good work!


PS- anyone have an easy way to convert BeerXML files into printable recipes?
 
Froyd said:
Great piece of brewing software. It has been extremely helpful as I take the first steps into recepie design.

Would you please consider adding a an export option to be "printer friendly text file?" it could be really useful for posting to forums and for quickly printing out a recipe sheet.

Also, I tried uploading a BeerXML file to the Brewer's Friend website and it was rejected because it did not recognize the MISC tag. Not sure if the problem is with the site or with your app but I thought I'd pass it on.

Keep up the good work!


PS- anyone have an easy way to convert BeerXML files into printable recipes?
Click to expand...

Besides downloading software that converts it (beersmith, brewersfriend, brewtarget)? there's a wordpress plugin made by derek springer that should work
 
Also, I tried uploading a BeerXML file to the Brewer's Friend website and it was rejected because it did not recognize the MISC tag. Not sure if the problem is with the site or with your app but I thought I'd pass it on.
Click to expand...

Hmm, my first thought is that sounds like an issue with Brewer's Friend. The MISC tag is definitely a supported field of the BeerXML specification. Could potentially be that I got something subtly wrong in writing out those tags though. Is there any more detailed error message it provides?

Would you please consider adding a an export option to be "printer friendly text file?" it could be really useful for posting to forums and for quickly printing out a recipe sheet.
Click to expand...

Cool idea! I haven't had much (any) time to work on Biermacht for a while - all of my energy has been going in to work stuff recently, but I'm hoping to get some good development time in over Christmas week. I'll hack on this a bit :)
 
Thanks for the reply.

Here is the complete text of the Brewer's Friend Import Screen:

Import Error:
Problem Validating Recipe: Brown Porter Experiment #1
Details:
Invalid Other Ingredient Type specified: Misc

Unfortunately I no longer have the recipe and I don't have the problem with other recipes, so maybe this was just user error.

Total noob question: is it normal for my stats to change dramatically from Biermacht to other recipe builders?

The same Pielsner recipe gives me OG: .044; estimated FG: .007; IBU: 35.7; Color: 4.8 on Biermacht, but in Brewer's Friend I get:

OG: .050
FG: .009
IBU: 45.49
SRM: 4.98
 

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