Brewing Software - Comments Please

[Dr Malt]

I know there is a Review of software, but the posts seem limited. I was just wondering what some of you think of the brewing software that is available for homebrewers like Promash, BeerSmith, etc. Do you use it, do you like it or not and why? Also I am interested in any pros and cons of each and if you had it to do over, would you buy it?

Thanks.

Dr Malt

 

[robmee]

I use beersmith, I like the interface better than promash, but either will give you good beer.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I use beersmith, I like the interface better than promash, but either will give you good beer.

I agree completely and do the same. Some say ProMash has better algorithms, but user friendliness wins over a few tenths of a percent accuracy in my book.

 

[Evan!]

I use promash. Never used beersmith, but I liked the trial of promash, so I ordered it. I love it, wouldn't brew without it. Perhaps the beersmith interface is better, but I'm not sure. I do know that ProMash has all the features I need, and more.

Though, I gotta say, looking at the Brewsmith site, a shopping list feature would be kinda nice to have...

 

[the_bird]

Here's a dumb question on ProMash....

I've only used the trial version, but can't seem to make a few things work. Like, for the life of me I can't figure out how to input a grain less than 0.5 lbs; it won't let me manually put in 0.25 or whatever I'm shooting for. I also can't tell if I can adjust the default settings for AA% on hops, so that they match what it was that I purchased (for some reason, the AA% always seems to be a bit lower at the HBS).

Are those kinds of things easy to do once I have the full version of ProMash?

 

[bradsul]

If you doubleclick on the grain lines you can manually enter a decimal value.

I love promash as well (tried both). My only real complaint with promash was it had WAY too much colour. I'm a developer myself and I really dislike coloured input boxes like that. Fortunately they provided a setup screen to remove all of the colours.

EDIT: that doubleclicking applies to the hops, adjuncts/extras too

 

[the_bird]

You know, for some reason I wasn't able to do that before... I swear, I double-clicked and it wouldn't let me make adjustments. Weird (or I'm an idiot).

 

[MrSaLTy]

You can also hit the button that says edit as well as double click the line.

 

[TheJadedDog]

I have the trial version of promash and i've played with it a bit, but it doesn't seem like that much of a benefit for me at the moment. I don't keep a ton of ingredients in inventory b/c I don't have the space, I haven't started creating my own recipes, and I can't figure out how to add a hop variety that isn't already in the system.

I haven't looked at beersmith yet but for now I think I'll stick with my home-made spreadsheets for calculations and not worry about the rest.

 

[Evan!]

I have the trial version of promash and i've played with it a bit, but it doesn't seem like that much of a benefit for me at the moment. I don't keep a ton of ingredients in inventory b/c I don't have the space, I haven't started creating my own recipes, and I can't figure out how to add a hop variety that isn't already in the system.

I haven't looked at beersmith yet but for now I think I'll stick with my home-made spreadsheets for calculations and not worry about the rest.

I didn't start making my own recipes UNTIL I got promash---believe me, this hobby is a hell of alot more fun when you start making your very own recipes. Just a thought. And ProMash not only gives you all the readings you need, like OG, IBU, etc., it also has built-in BJCP guidelines to tell you where you should be.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

and I can't figure out how to add a hop variety that isn't already in the system.

In the main window click on the brown Hops button to bring up the hops DB, from there just click 'new'

 

[Dr Malt]

Hey, great comments hear! This is what I needed. Anyone else on BeerSmith or Promash?

Dr Malt

 

[gtff]

I tried both trials side by side and found with the exact same ingredients, the hop IBUs were very different. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't understand why two comparable programs can give such different information.

GTFF

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

I tried both trials side by side and found with the exact same ingredients, the hop IBUs were very different. Has anyone else experienced this? I don't understand why two comparable programs can give such different information.

GTFF

There are different fomulae for calculating IBUs, in promash (not sure about beersmith, probably though) you can select wich method of calculation you want. The important thing to do is pick one and stick with it to maintain consistency.

 

[MrSaLTy]

Like Cheyco said, promash has like 3 or 4 different methods of calculating IBU's. the default is reager I think. I don't know what beersmith uses but if its different you will surely get a vastly different result.

 

[gtff]

I did find that they were using different methods and changed them. I still get different answers. The IBUs are off by about 20. Anyone use Beersmith?

GTFF

 

[boo boo]

So, do anyone use Strangebrew?

 

[debtman7]

I use Beer Alchemy, because I have a mac and the only other program really sucks

 

[Cregar]

Beertools Pro will be released tomorrow. Might want to check that out.

 

[Dude]

Beertools Pro will be released tomorrow. Might want to check that out.

Yeah, I was a beta tester for that program and I'll be switching to it. I think it is a great program. The designers really worked hard on it.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I did find that they were using different methods and changed them. I still get different answers. The IBUs are off by about 20. Anyone use Beersmith?

GTFF

BeerSmith's default is Tinseth. You can change it to Rager or Garetz in the options menu.

 

[gtff]

Which is the "standard" that all of the guidelines use? Tinseth?

GTFF

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Beertools Pro will be released tomorrow. Might want to check that out.

Man that looks sweet! Dude, is it good enough to ditch Promash for?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

The guidelines don't use an estimate formula, they calculate IBUs based on AA actually present in the beer. Here's what the competing software companies say:

Rager's method is the oldest, and generally results in the highest utilization numbers. Garetz's formula takes into account more factors and results in slightly lower overall utilization, but no utilization for very small boil times.

Glenn Tinseth's method is considered by many to be the most accurate, and is in fact the default method used in BrewSmith.

ProMash ships with the default Hop Equation set to 'Rager'. Rager is the oldest formula to be published and as such, is published more frequently in printed recipes. This is not to say Rager is the most accurate, only that it is the default in ProMash. You can change the equation type in the System Settings, Hop Section to Rager, Tinseth, Garetzor Generic.

 

[Dude]

Man that looks sweet! Dude, is it good enough to ditch Promash for?

Personally, I think it is. It is just refreshing and makes recipe planning simple--moreso than Promash IMHO. It has all the same calculators and stuff so you won't be losing anything there.

I don't know what the price will be, but I'd definitely check out the trial version if they offer it.

 

[the_bird]

Looks nice. Glad I haven't purchased anything yet.

 

[Dude]

Regarding the hop utilization guidelines, a guy who I consider a very knowledgeable help on BB said to use Tinseth for full boils and Rager for partial boils. His advice has never steered me wrong.

 

[gtff]

I must not be asking the question right. I still don't understand. If I were to enter a contest and had to publish my recipe under BJCP, which method would be used? Or am I completely off here?

Thanks
GTFF

 

[Yuri_Rage]

I must not be asking the question right. I still don't understand. If I were to enter a contest and had to publish my recipe under BJCP, which method would be used? Or am I completely off here?

Thanks
GTFF

I could've been a bit more specific I guess. The guidelines (BJCP) are not set by any particular formula, as they reference actual AA content. If you are following a recipe, you need to find out what formula the recipe used to determine IBUs. If you are creating your own recipe, Dude's advice seems sound. If all else fails, Tinseth seems to be the formula of choice for the modern homebrewer.

 

[debtman7]

Beertools Pro will be released tomorrow. Might want to check that out.

Hmmm, looks interesting... Two problems I see are that there is no demo available to try before you buy (this is really rare in the mac software world) and they have both mac and pc versions. I've developed my share of mac software and I know how hard it is to make an application available on macs and pcs. In generally I've found that when software does this, it's either a java app (which leaves much to be desired) or one of the platforms suffers (and it's usually the mac...).

Hopefully they'll release a trial version and I can check it out.

 

[Cregar]

I just noticed that they don't offer a demo version either. Not to happy about that

I have been using BeerAlchemy demo, which I like alot but was just waiting to tryout Beertools Pro before deciding on which one to get. If I can't get a demo software from Beertools, I just might buy BeerAlchemy

Dude... Do you think its worth purchasing without a demo version to try?

 

[Dude]

I just noticed that they don't offer a demo version either. Not to happy about that

I have been using BeerAlchemy demo, which I like alot but was just waiting to tryout Beertools Pro before deciding on which one to get. If I can't get a demo software from Beertools, I just might buy BeerAlchemy

Dude... Do you think its worth purchasing without a demo version to try?

Honestly I don't know the cost of this program, and I'd hate to have you fork out all those bucks to not like it based on my recommendation. Different strokes for different folks, you know?

I'll bug the designer about putting out a trial. Maybe I can get him to post over here about it.

 

[debtman7]

I just noticed that they don't offer a demo version either. Not to happy about that

I have been using BeerAlchemy demo, which I like alot but was just waiting to tryout Beertools Pro before deciding on which one to get. If I can't get a demo software from Beertools, I just might buy BeerAlchemy

Dude... Do you think its worth purchasing without a demo version to try?

BeerAlchemy is pretty good, and it fits in nicely as a mac app. A cross platform app usually has a hard time getting the right 'feel' on a mac, so who knows...

Only reason I haven't paid for beer alchemy yet is that I think $30 is a bit much for what this kind of software does. I could whip up an app that does the same thing in a few hours, but the hard part is inputting all the data for various ingredients and implementing the calculations. I'd pay to avoid having to do all that work, but I think $15 is a more reasonable amount... In perspective, $30 will get you a video game that took a lot more work to develop

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Damn! There are two separate versions of Beertools, one for each platform. I was hoping to get both in one since I have a dual platform house

Well, it's out now for $24.95 - $5 off as an introductory offer.

 

[Evan!]

Damn! There are two separate versions of Beertools, one for each platform. I was hoping to get both in one since I have a dual platform house

Well, it's out now for $24.95 - $5 off as an introductory offer.

So buy the windows version and use bootcamp.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

So buy the windows version and use bootcamp.

Oh yeah, duh!

 

[gtff]

Thanks for the explanation Yuri. I think I understand now that I had a couple of homebrews. HAHA.

GTFF

 

[the_bird]

How does Beertools handle batch sparging? I don't see myself "graduating" to fly sparging anytime soon, which program handles this the best (doesn't seem to be ProMash...)

 

[sause]

Beer smith has that as one of the built in options. Which is nice.

 

[Dude]

How does Beertools handle batch sparging? I don't see myself "graduating" to fly sparging anytime soon, which program handles this the best (doesn't seem to be ProMash...)

bird, have you read this?

Promash batch sparging