Brew software beat to death

[idahobrew]

Ok I know this subject has been beat to death. I'm new to brewing, did my first all grain last weekend. I used a free calculator from tastybrew.com
Very simple and straight forward. So I wanted to try a more sophisticated software and got the free trial of beersmith 2.0, well it's just to complicated for me at this time. What would be a good software somewhere in between beersmith and the tastybrew calculator? BrewSmith, Beer Tools, Promash, iBrewmaster? Thanks for any advice that would help me and other greenhorns out. I'm still trying to figure out some of the terminology used in craft brewing but have learned quite a bit on this great forum over the last 2 months or so. I BIAB so any software that would have this feature would be most helpful.

 

[StanJohnson]

Have you tried Brewtarget? That's what I use and I also BIAB. The good part is that it's free! Give it a try.

http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/

 

[Sherpa FE]

Have you tried Brewtarget? That's what I use and I also BIAB. The good part is that it's free! Give it a try.

http://brewtarget.sourceforge.net/

NEVER, thought I would see someone from T'ville on the forums.
At least I know there are brewers there now.
Guess I will have to bring some beer the next time I'm visiting my in laws.

 

[Sherpa FE]

Ok I know this subject has been beat to death. I'm new to brewing, did my first all grain last weekend. I used a free calculator from tastybrew.com
Very simple and straight forward. So I wanted to try a more sophisticated software and got the free trial of beersmith 2.0, well it's just to complicated for me at this time. What would be a good software somewhere in between beersmith and the tastybrew calculator? BrewSmith, Beer Tools, Promash, iBrewmaster? Thanks for any advice that would help me and other greenhorns out. I'm still trying to figure out some of the terminology used in craft brewing but have learned quite a bit on this great forum over the last 2 months or so. I BIAB so any software that would have this feature would be most helpful.

Honestly, I would still use BeerSmith in your case. You have it, just need to learn it. BS really made the screen busy, to a point of it being an eyesore.

It's still a great program, and believe it or not, once your equipment is set up, a breeze to use!
There is more than enough people on here and the BS forum to help you get going.

 

[StanJohnson]

NEVER, thought I would see someone from T'ville on the forums.
At least I know there are brewers there now.
Guess I will have to bring some beer the next time I'm visiting my in laws.

Sounds like a plan

 

[Bishop916]

+1 for brewtarget. It is a great program.

If you feel you need MORE detail beyondwhat BT can provide, Beersmith is always there waiting to take your money.



- B916

 

[Homercidal]

I use BS (everyone knows that!) but it is a bit difficult to get going on unless you know how to brew already. The v2.0 UI is more difficult to use IMO, but after a time you get used to it.

I'd focus on getting the equipment set up properly and check here or the BS forums for any questions. It's actually not hard to use once you get the idea.

And it's never a bad thing to study up on doing the calculations by hand, even though it's more work.

 

[idahobrew]

Thanks everyone, I'm still playing around with beer smith with the trial version. I think I need more experience and knowledge brewing before I would spend the money to buy the software. I'll give brewtarget a shot, it looks a little simpler to understand.

 

[StanJohnson]

One of the things I like about Brewtarget is the manual. Once you download it, click the "About" button at the top and you'll see Manual in the drop down menu. I copy and pasted that into a Word document then printed it out. I then did the "walk through" and created a recipe. That was a lot of help for me in getting to understand the program. Good luck.

 

[FlyDoctor]

Regarding brewtarget - i downloaded it to try, and notice it has a setting for 2 gal BIAB, but I will do 5 gal BIAB - is this the "5 Gal - ideal" setting?

 

[Jukas]

Thanks everyone, I'm still playing around with beer smith with the trial version. I think I need more experience and knowledge brewing before I would spend the money to buy the software. I'll give brewtarget a shot, it looks a little simpler to understand.

Brews,ith has a bit of a learning curve and the ui layout is too cluttered but it's fantastic software once you get your equipment profile setup.

While you still have the trial check out http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php/topic,5140.0.html as an excellent tutorial on setting up your equipment profile and then try it out for a brew or two.

If you like it one of the vendors Birdman has a vendor thread here selling licenses for $22

 

[brewstaedt]

Before I started using Beersmith, I used Brewpal on my Ipod. I found it intuitive and easy to use.

 

[StanJohnson]

Regarding brewtarget - i downloaded it to try, and notice it has a setting for 2 gal BIAB, but I will do 5 gal BIAB - is this the "5 Gal - ideal" setting?

Not that I'm aware of. You really need to go through the manual and the walk through to get a good idea of how the software works. I do a modified small batch version of BIAB with a 3 gallon cooler. I played around with it and set up my own BIAB "equipment".