Best beer calculator for beginner

[bluphil52]

Hi I'm new to BIAB, was looking for a simple calculator to practise with.
Beer smith looked a little scary for me .
Thanks phil

 

[danorocks17]

I like Brewtoad, although the previous version Beer Calculus was better IMO. It's free and pretty intuitive.

 

[MindenMan]

I currently use QBrew, Brew Mate, and Brewtarget, all free with no 2 week trial. The efficiencies all all about the same, but they all have some different styles. Brewmate, has Cascadian Dark Ale, aka: Black IPA, etc., etc.. Anyway, when I starting out brewing, I looked for the most simple brew calculator I could find. Beer Smith just confused me even more. There are brewers who like BS, I don't.

 

[tyrtl]

Excuse the noob question but what do you need a brew calculator for and how does it work?

 

[MikePote]

I like Brewgr.com. Free and easy.

 

[bluphil52]

Sorry forgot to add I've got a macbook, will these work on my system? Thanks for taking time to answer
Phil

 

[masskrug]

Sorry forgot to add I've got a macbook, will these work on my system? Thanks for taking time to answer
Phil

Brewtarget for Mac 64 Bit:

http://www.brewtarget.org/download.html

 

[Homercidal]

I thought Brewers Friend looked pretty easy to use. I use Beersmith, but BF was a nice looking app. I think it's all web based so it should run on any computer. The thing I disliked the most was that the water calculations weren't integrated into the recipe portion. It may have been updated since then. I think it's worth checking out.

 

[Homercidal]

Excuse the noob question but what do you need a brew calculator for and how does it work?

Technically nobody "needs" a brewing calculator, but they can be handy for a LOT of people who want to formulate recipes without doing the math manually.

A brewing calculator can help you dial a recipe to fit a style. It can calculate water to grain ratios, hoping rate, etc.

There are a lot of variables to keep track of when you want to formulate a recipe from scratch, especially for brewing All Grain.

 

[tyrtl]

Technically nobody "needs" a brewing calculator, but they can be handy for a LOT of people who want to formulate recipes without doing the math manually.

A brewing calculator can help you dial a recipe to fit a style. It can calculate water to grain ratios, hoping rate, etc.

There are a lot of variables to keep track of when you want to formulate a recipe from scratch, especially for brewing All Grain.

Appreciate the response. There is really a lot more to brewing than I thought. Hope I can at least get my first batch right.

 

[MindenMan]

When I write a new recipe, especially for a new brew, I will look at the BJCP information to stay within the "style". I am familiar enough with most of the ingredients, and can fairly well predict what the outcome will be.
For you as a new brewer, please don't fall into the trap of a "chocolate peanut butter, vanilla bean, mocha chip...", well, you get the idea, for your first beer. Use someone else's tried and true recipes. There is no shame in brewing your own version of a recipe that works. There are a bunch of 1 gallon brewers around here, I believe could be a lot of help. If you brew something nasty, you are only losing approximately 5 dollars, but you are gaining loads of practical experience. Just my $0.02.

 

[jtratcliff]

I started with Qbrew then moved to brewtarget.

Once you get your equipment entered correctly, it's pretty spot on.

I BIAB and all I really had to play with were my volume losses in my equipment profile in brewtarget. I usually hit all my numbers.

Open source and multi-platform.... Gotta love it.

 

[Damoxemus]

I love Brewer's friend but after 5 recipes you need to pay a subscription. I would, but it's $100 for a lifetime membership, and since it is webbased, you won't always be able to access it.

For $20 Beersmith is the ticket (I don't like Brewtarget).