Forsaking Brewing Software

[snater]

Looking around the discussions here it seems like a lot of brewers are head over heals for brewing software. Personally, half the fun for me is doing the math on paper. Granted, I'm not making back-to-back brews, so I understand the possible time saving advantage. There's something meditative about sitting down with my TI-83 and working out the target gravity and IBUs.

Does this make me a masochist? Anyone else like scrawling formulas in their brew notebook?

 

[eriktlupus]

what do you think most of us do in our spare time? where do you think the formula in my sig showed up from? btw i did that

yeah i know i use a scratch pad and a simple calculator to work up new recipes grain bills and strike volumes/temps no need for the ti-83 whatever, never could use them worth a damn and i still have one from my college days.

 

[Zen_Brew]

I dunno. Sitting down and running the occaisional formula in a calculator or on paper is one thing, but brewing software can provide so many valuable tools in one place. You can track your inventory, save your recipes, refer to past recipes, run your refractometer/hydrometer/carbonation corrections, figure your strike water temps, etc etc. It is just a handy one stop for so much brewing and tracking information. Hard to fault so strong a tool for $20 or so.

 

[boredatwork]

For me its not so much about the hassle of crunching number, but the security of knowing that I didn't make some stupid mistake. Software that has been tested and used by a lot of people weeds out a lot of the errors - which is really to your benefit.

Even the people that do the math themselves eventually end up using a spreadsheet, which is basically the same as using software anyway.

 

[BillyBeer]

Different strokes for different folks. I am not the engineering type and find no real satisfaction from doing by hand - never really trusted my math anyway

Do what makes you feel good - that is what this hobby is all about.

Cheers!

 

[wyzazz]

I'm a computer geek (as I think many brewers are) and just like shiny new toys, that includes software.

Also, brewing is a hobby and should be fun, for me math is not fun at all the various brewing software's out there take the headache out of it for me.

 

[snater]

good points. I think I'm also partially driven by the thought that in 1000 years, after the zombie apocalypse and humanity is rebuilding, my extensive, handwritten notebook will be found and the basis of a future brewing renaissance :-D

 

[permo]

Personally I go for the software. I have a background in acoustics and I used to design speakers, specifically subwoofer enclosures, doing the math the hard way on paper. Powerfull software has revolutionized this process and I find it very similar to the designing of craft beers. Go ahead and use the software.....I am a huge proponent of beersmith....

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Nope. I never wrote a recursive algorithm approximating an integral over time to estimate IBUs, based on Tinseth's data.

 

[Scut_Monkey]

I just find it easy, organized and about 30 times more efficient and faster to use software. Like others have mentioned I also wouldn't trust my math after all the handwritten calculations are done.

 

[Cpt_Kirks]

As an engineer and programmer, I see no reason to ever do the same formula manually twice. Just as easy to code it once and then plug in the variables from then on.

 

[mummasan]

I'm not a computer geek or an engineer. I approach brewing much the same way I approach cooking - make sure I have the ingredients and follow the recipe. I don't use beersmith or other software for many reasons.

I did use Kaiser's mash efficiency spreadsheet. That thing helped me figure out what was happening with my mash.

 

[weirdboy]

I use the software. I can do all the calcualtions by hand. I've done it by hand in the past.

But using software, I have formulated new recipes from scratch using my iPhone in a couple of minutes, while I'm standing in the LHBS. I often just decide what I'm going to brew while I'm driving there, or when I walk in the store, and make up a new recipe on the spot. I suppose I could do that using hand calculations, but I suspect using the software saves me a lot of time, and I can be assured I didn't make some stupid calculation error.

 

[Soybomb]

I'm somewhere in the middle, I didn't love the commercial software packages, but I wanted something more convenient. I wound up making my website to meet somewhere in the middle. It keeps me a little more hands on in my recipes but also cuts down on time/errors.