Brewer's Friend A Whole New Experience

There's a lot of competition out there when it comes to recipes and calculator software, and where you go will make a difference in the beer you make. Through recipes, accurate calculators, and dependable software we can brew the best beer we are capable of, so I'm happy to let you guys all know of some real big changes that recently happened at Brewer's Friend.
First, I have come on to be the full time tech support for Brewer's Friend. My name is Josh Smith, and I am the creator of Brewprint. I have been a brewer for 5 years, and as a brewer I know the technologies and features from a brewer's perspective, which leads me into my second point.

The Brewer's Friend and Brewprint databases have been merged creating one of the largest accumulations of beer recipes on the net, with over 190,000 recipes so far. More recipes means you're going to find the recipe that's right for you. Brewer's Friend now has more than 37,000 brewers as well, so you're sure to find someone to collaborate with or discuss your recipe ideas. I highly encourage you to browse our recipes to see what I'm saying.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/beer/
To start, over the last month, I've migrated the Brewer's Friend site onto brand new servers, along with upgrading the underlying platforms (Apache & PHP) on which the software runs. This means you'll be able to load your recipes, find inspiration, and browse for beer faster than ever.
Honestly, Brewer's Friend has an incredible feature set that rivals commercial brewery software. With inventory management, equipment profiles, advanced water chemistry calculations, and brew session tracking (just to name a few), the tool set has everything you need to make professionally delicious beer.

Furthermore, Brewer's Friend will be incorporating a lot of the features that made Brewprint so great, like information pages covering recipes, styles, and equipment. Recipes will also come with a quick and easy "buy" button that will go all over the net looking for the best places to get your supplies.

I will also be developing new features at the request of members and users, so please be sure to visit the Brewer's Friend forum to let me know more about what you would like to see from your Brewer's Friend. I've compiled all existing requests and feedback into a new feature tracking system so we don't lose track of your awesome ideas and we can get them scheduled and built. Keep up the brainstorming in the forum here:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/
This is a new age for Brewer's Friend and Brewprint, and I'm both happy and excited to be leading the charge.

 

[MrFeltimo]

love this program....

 

[AndytheBeave]

yeah I use this all the time. It's a great tool

 

[yeahfairly]

Brewer's Friend is Great.... I guess I need to stop being a bum and become a paying member there as well!!!

 

[TheCADJockey]

I just used it for the first time and it was amazing. It helped me figure out what all the random ingredients I had laying around would make and what I needed to add to make it right. Amazing.

 

[Carusoat]

I've used Brewer's Friend for every brew. Love this software, and glad to see there's a place for brainstorming.

 

[heckofagator]

New brewer here, looking for some software to get rolling with. Is this an alternative/competitor to BeerSmith, or something to use in addition to?

 

[Happywanderer]

I'm a subscriber to brewer's friend. Wouldn't brew without it.
I like it that much.
One thing I'd love to see is an update to the iPad app. I brew in the garage without internet access. The app KINDA allows me to do everything I need (timers, steps, etc...) but it is very outdated and has some glitches.

 

[241]

Gotta agree with Happpywanderer - as a subscriber I'd love to see the iOS apps updated. Instead of bundling things away in sub-screens I'd love to see the app act more like the mobile version of the website with everything you need to deal with on one screen.

 

[alby44]

gotta say...as a novice in the area of recipe creation I really like the check & balances to style that is included in the site. Playing around with each of the areas helps to keep me in line with recipe style.

 

[TheLadybugTree]

@heckofagator
I used BeerSmith for about 2 months until I saw BrewersFriend. Within 2 brews I became a paying member and downloaded the apps for my phone. It is an amazing program and incredibly user-friendly. Even the free account is worthwhile but the premium account is worth every penny. I am very happy
One thing I do wish could change is that when using Kettle as the target for a brew the summary page shows the amount of wort collected as the amount left in the kettle as opposed to the amount in the fermenter. I am not sure if this affects the calculations or not.
Oh and one more thing is that conversion efficiency is kind of weird if you don't have a properly mixed mash when measuring SG. I only have an igloo right now with no pump so I do some fan dangled math by averaging the SG of collected wort and the SG of the wort left behind in the mash tun. I am not even sure this works. Would love some tips if anyone has some.

 

[thepudgeman]

I would love to see more on the Android version of the app than just the calculators. Can android get on equal ground with IOS?

 

[skunkfunk]

I've used this a bit. I find it lacking as far as tuning it to my equipment and getting the right mash parameters.

 

[m00ps]

@heckofagator
I have never used beersmith for any of my recipes. From day 1 I've done all my All-grain self-designed recipes using this site and more recently, brew.gr

 

[m00ps]

@TheLadybugTree
I switched to this site because it lets you put in an efficiency value. Default is 75%, but I've found if I use 70% to plan my recipes, I usually hit my numbers pretty close.
I also like how you can drag/drop the ingredients to sort my grain bill with base malts first. You can also choose a custom attenuation for yeast strains and its got data for every wyeast/whitelabs strain and a few newer ones. The list of malts also seems to be more extensive. Ive never used a sugar/malt I couldn't find

 

[CBelli]

am I doing something wrong.... making an all grain recipe and it doesn't calculate the nash volumes of sparge volumes.... it seems like you are expected to do it on your own and just fill in the blanks??
I must be missing something because that is critical no?

 

[Roadie]

I've heard of it of course but haven't used it yet. Is there a tutorial?

 

[MrDustpan]

@CBelli When you go to "brew" a recipe the volumes will be calculated. In the recipe, add your mash steps but leave the volumes empty. Then in the brew session the volumes will be auto-calculated for you.

 

[Snowden]

Love it. I have used it since I started brewing!

 

[Speedwell]

I just wish there was an option other than annual subscription, like a discount for signing up for multiple years in advance or a one-time permanent subscription.

 

[acerola]

Great recipe collection. My problem is that most of the recipes are in imperial units. I'm better and better in imperial units, but I still have to convert some of them. Is there an easy way to convert all the unit for me? For example I could not used to Farenheit and some of the various mass units.

 

[greghershner]

What is the annual membership fee?
Thanks!

 

[jasonclick]

glad to see it's being updated. I was a paying member but it expired almost a year ago and I didn't renew it since it didn't appear there would be any more updates. Good to see its being updated again... and I'll pay up again! Thanks.

 

[flexmurphy]

Brewer's Friend is the best! Though I'd really love to see an Android version with more than just a link to the website.

 

[soccerdad]

Good stuff Josh

 

[JohnSand]

I visit regularly, using the calculators. I find it the easiest online site for brewing. I'll be sure to look at the new features, and check out the recipe base.

 

[Bishop916]

I've only had opportunity to use this tool a few times, but the experience has been great, and looks to be even more promising. As I slowly convert to a new kegging system, I look forward to using BF to help with the transition.

 

[fbold1]

I've been using the brewday sheets for my record keeping for several years and they are great, the calculators are useful too.

 

[Big-H]

I tried other brewing software but settled on BrewersFriend. Keep up the good work! Glad to hear you are moving forward with even more features.
Thanks

 

[MrVix]

This is the only brewers software that I use.

 

[grv]

I use Brewer's Friend for every brew day. I was getting a little nervous that it seemed to be a platform that had stagnated. Glad to hear that is not the case!