How do you do your brewing calculations?

[sgillespie]

How do you do your brewing calculations?

1) Beer software (Beersmith, etc...)
2) Online calculators (ABV, SG, etc...)
3) By Hand

I personally like to do my own calculations, unless they are somewhat complex and would significantly raise my risk of making a mistake (Tinseth's IBU Formula for example)

 

[pjwalen]

I use beersmith. Though I find a lot of value in checking a lot of it by hand to keep myself sharp, and sanity check my own variables.

 

[Ace_Club]

I utilize an Excel spreadsheet that I put together myself. That way, I know how and why each of the items is calculated. This allowed me to customize my software to my needs and to allow me to learn all the differing equations behind the numbers. I just finished re-purposing my spreadsheet to all-grain to allow it to calculate strike temp, sparge temp, sparge volume, etc.

I find that messing around with the spreadsheets and calculations is a good way to stay abreast (heehee) of the hobby when you aren't actively brewing (or on HBT).

 

[the_bird]

BeerSmith for now, but it's been on my to-do list to build my own spreadsheet for some time. I've got all the formulas in various places, and I build spreadsheets pretty much all day at work, and I'd much rather know where the formulas are coming from. Just a matter of finding the time, which realistically means staying late a night or two at work, since it's hard to do brain-work at the house with the kids running around.

 

[Gregscsu]

By hand.

Except for SRM, IBU, and Water Salt Calculations

 

[stevo155]

Beersmith.

 

[joeunc]

beersmith

 

[Judochop]

Beersmith for recipe building. Aside from it's total failure in predicting FG, I think it's great.

I use Onebeer.net for calculating my water additions (batch sparging) and hitting pre-boil volume.

 

[sgillespie]

I've just started a formula reference sheet using LATeX. If anyone wants it maybe I'll post it on the wiki.

 

[92greenyj]

Beer Alchemy (I use a Mac)
used to use the beer recipator, but Beer Alchemy is about a thousand times better

 

[Doog_Si_Reeb]

For a couple years I used the Tasty Brew Recipe Calculator online. It worked great! The only disadvantage is that it was missing some of the newer unusual malts and hops.

For the past year I have been using BeerSmith. It is awesome in that it has a lot more features and is more flexible for adding grains, hops, etc. It didn't change the quality of my brews, but it certainly made them easier to formulate.

 

[Hannable1975]

I too started with tasty Brew, and moved to Beersmith. I like it thus far.

 

[Beer:30]

I use Promash; I find it easy to use and very useful.

 

[dstar26t]

Beersmith, homemade spreadsheet and Kaiser's water calculator spreadsheet.

 

[shanecb]

BeerSmith here.

 

[CPooley4]

With this - [ame]http://rapidshare.com/files/439235587/CP_s_Brew_Chart_1.0.xls[/ame]

Anyone is free to use it if they'd like. Been working on it for quite awhile and finally have it completed. I've never used Beersmith or any other software personally so can't speak to them.

Give it a look and see what you think. Would love feedback on it as I'm always open to improving things.

cp

 

[HH60gunner]

Just started using brewtarget on linux. I think they have a mac and windows client as well. It's close to beersmith but I think beersmith is a bit more polished. However brewtarget is free.

 

[Patirck]

I use hopville - beercalculus. It seems to do everything and I can store recipes online and access them at work when I have some free time. I tried beersmith and I think I could get used to it but I like the online way of doing things instead of being tied to a particular PC with beersmith installed. I use other calculators for various parts of the beer making process - brew365 for mash and sparge water calculations and corrected for temperature hydrometer readings.

 

[jasonsbeer]

Mostly been using the Recipator for recipe formulation and a custom spreadsheet for water amounts & temps.

Been slowly switching to Brewtarget. The latest thread is here.

 

[sgillespie]

Just started using brewtarget on linux. I think they have a mac and windows client as well. It's close to beersmith but I think beersmith is a bit more polished. However brewtarget is free.

Nice! I didn't know there was a free linux client. If I start using brew software, this will definitely by my choice

 

[AggieChemDoc]

Used to do it by hand. Then I switched to promash. Now I use beersmith, and a handfull of iphone tools, such as the MrMalty yeast starter app.

 

[Scandalous]

I use proMash, which seems like the lone ranger here. It is cheap and worked well. Other than a failure of Carbonite to back up the files (and me losing 10 years of recipes and sessions), it has been the best 20 dollars in brewing.

 

[BlackForestBrewery]

I mostly use beersmith, but I like promash a lot too.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Beersmith when formulating recipes and Brewzor Pro Beta (on my Droid Incredible) during brew sessions for on-the-fly calculations (infusion temps, hydrometer temp. adj., etc.)

 

[Yankeehillbrewer]

Did everything by hand for a long time, but I finally filled up my notebook and decided to give beersmith a try. I found that I really liked it and went ahead and bought it.

 

[Phalex]

Beer calculus.

 

[coypoo]

I use beersmith to predict IBU, OG, and SRM. I like to hand calculate my strike/sparge volumes, and I use brewcalcs.com for my strike temp