GF Friendly brewing software?

[chaps]

What is peoples preferred brewing software? One thing I’ve noticed while checking around is that none of them seem to have many gluten-free grains built into their systems. I have been using Brewer’s Friend for a bit but I don’t love the layout. I find it difficult to maneuver around and find my way to what I’m looking for.

Mahalo for any thoughts/opinions.

 

[skleice]

I use BF and like it quite a bit. You can add custom fermentables to ''my inventory" and they will be saved for you for recipe building. I also find the calculators to be accurate for gravities and SRM. The water and priming calcs are cool too. My only complaint is that the 'boil gravity' is way off.

I dabbled with beersmith, but found it to be overwhelming.

 

[ong]

Beersmith is really configurable, and has a ton of add-on fermentable, or you can make your own by plugging in specs.

 

[chaps]

You can add custom fermentables to ''my inventory" and they will be saved for you for recipe building.

Good tip, I did not know that. I’ve just been punching in the numbers each time for grains that weren’t in the system. Small thing that gets annoying after a while.

 

[chaps]

Beersmith is really configurable, and has a ton of add-on fermentable, or you can make your own by plugging in specs.

Nice. Looks like I can download and try it for free. Will give it a try.

 

[chaps]

Alright so the final results are in... Brewersfriend wins (although spoiler...I still don't love it)!

In case its useful to anyone else with a similar question here are my thoughts. I tried 3 different brewing programs and thought Brewersfriend was the best option although i must say i don't particularly love any of the options.

• Beersmith was quite overwhelming and didn't look very visually appealing. For those with interest in diving deep and really tweaking everything, Beersmith is where its at.
• Brewtoad looked the best by far and the organization was almost exactly how i would set it up. However you can't add custom fermentables and Im not trying to type in the stats on all of the GF grains each time i come up with a recipe as I create probably 3 recipes for every 1 that i actually brew.
• Brewersfriend - adding custom fermentables was a game changer. I sat down one afternoon, opened a 2nd window with GFHB, and typed in a bunch of the GF grains. Now they are there for any new recipe! However I absolutely hate the organization of brewersfriend and double hate the fact that there are 4 or 5 different places to add notes. Also trying to find a specific 'snapshot' recipe is laborious at best. To that end i just made my own spreadsheet and keep my own organization system with links to the recipes. Much easier

 

[skleice]

Solid comparison. I also use spreadsheets in google drive to save all of my recipes, water volumes, notes, gravities throughout the mash and beyond, etc

I also use Bru'n Water and find the calcs do not line up with what BrewersFriend says. BF works well for me otherwise.

 

[Boilinginsc]

Can I add the question to this of any of these work on an IPad? I also have a MacBook I could dig out, but I don’t really use computers much.

 

[skleice]

BF definitely works in iPad, smartphone, etc. Can't speak to the others.

 

[lump42]

Brewersfriend has ios and android app for purchase, but the main site has been very mobile friendly for me on both ipad and android phone. I believe brewtoad is also based on a mobile friendly website.

 

[lump42]

Alright so the final results are in... Brewersfriend wins (although spoiler...I still don't love it)!

In case its useful to anyone else with a similar question here are my thoughts. I tried 3 different brewing programs and thought Brewersfriend was the best option although i must say i don't particularly love any of the options.

• Beersmith was quite overwhelming and didn't look very visually appealing. For those with interest in diving deep and really tweaking everything, Beersmith is where its at.
• Brewtoad looked the best by far and the organization was almost exactly how i would set it up. However you can't add custom fermentables and Im not trying to type in the stats on all of the GF grains each time i come up with a recipe as I create probably 3 recipes for every 1 that i actually brew.
• Brewersfriend - adding custom fermentables was a game changer. I sat down one afternoon, opened a 2nd window with GFHB, and typed in a bunch of the GF grains. Now they are there for any new recipe! However I absolutely hate the organization of brewersfriend and double hate the fact that there are 4 or 5 different places to add notes. Also trying to find a specific 'snapshot' recipe is laborious at best. To that end i just made my own spreadsheet and keep my own organization system with links to the recipes. Much easier

If there are any serious issues with brewersfriend, they have in the past for me been very responsive and open to suggestions.

 

[chaps]

Can I add the question to this of any of these work on an IPad? I also have a MacBook I could dig out, but I don’t really use computers much.

Toadbrew was pretty darn mobile friendly. Brewersfriend has an app but it's very much an afterthought. It is not very polished, doesn't sync automatically, is cumbersome to navigate etc. Basically they developed it so they could say they had an app then called it a day. I just use the regular site on my phone and it resizes nicely to mimic a 'mobile site'.

 

[Boilinginsc]

Toadbrew was pretty darn mobile friendly. Brewersfriend has an app but it's very much an afterthought. It is not very polished, doesn't sync automatically, is cumbersome to navigate etc. Basically they developed it so they could say they had an app then called it a day. I just use the regular site on my phone and it resizes nicely to mimic a 'mobile site'.

I’m just getting started in homebrewing, I signed up for toadbrew and find it very user (insert dummy) friendly! Thanks for the tip!

 

[beernutz]

What is peoples preferred brewing software? One thing I’ve noticed while checking around is that none of them seem to have many gluten-free grains built into their systems. I have been using Brewer’s Friend for a bit but I don’t love the layout. I find it difficult to maneuver around and find my way to what I’m looking for.

Mahalo for any thoughts/opinions.

When I first read your subject I thought "Girl friend friendly brewing software?"

FWIW, I have made only one gluten-free beer using Beersmith and it seemed just as easy to plan as any other beer but my brewclub friend Tony has made a lot of them for his wife and he also uses BS.

 

[lump42]

Toadbrew was pretty darn mobile friendly. Brewersfriend has an app but it's very much an afterthought. It is not very polished, doesn't sync automatically, is cumbersome to navigate etc. Basically they developed it so they could say they had an app then called it a day. I just use the regular site on my phone and it resizes nicely to mimic a 'mobile site'.

Brewer's Friend has a very mobile friendly website that I've used on android phone, iPad, and PC without issues. The free app seems poorly neglected, I doubt the paid is any better, but webpage works well so there is no need for them IMHO. I never got into Brewtoad, b/c I was already using Brewersfriend.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

When I first read your subject I thought "Girl Friend friendly brewing software?"

Ditto.

 

[chaps]

So a follow up to the follow up.

Brew Toad is no more.

Brewfather was a surprisingly pleasant find. I actually enjoyed almost everything about this website. Its layout was much more logical, the look of it looked more modern and user friendly. But... there doesn't seem to be a way to add in gravity readings along the way. First and last and that's its. You can do a log entry but it won't do any of the calculations or place it with the other gravity readings. Very frustrating to me to have the same info in multiple places.

 

[Yooper]

So a follow up to the follow up.

Brew Toad is no more.

Brewfather was a surprisingly pleasant find. I actually enjoyed almost everything about this website. Its layout was much more logical, the look of it looked more modern and user friendly. But... there doesn't seem to be a way to add in gravity readings along the way. First and last and that's its. You can do a log entry but it won't do any of the calculations or place it with the other gravity readings. Very frustrating to me to have the same info in multiple places.

Brewer's Friend has a free trial- you could try it and see what you think about the brewing log(s) and the calculator and recipe builder. I like it mostly because of the integrated water calculator, and don't do much with the logs, but I think I'm in the minority there. The brew logs have new stuff like support for Tilt (which I don't have), graphs for temperature (which I don't use and have turned off), etc so you may want to reconsider it.