Ibrewmaster questions

[ChadRabbit]

Does anyone else use this app? I'm finding that its somewhat useless. The timers are just standard stopwatch timers and saving your own recipes seem to be just as simple as being written down on paper.
I was looking for more calculator type advantages. Is there a way to find mash and spathe water calculations or do I need to use a dseperate app?

 

[ChadRabbit]

*sparge and *seperate


F/$&@ing technology eh?

 

[241]

I actually REALLY like iBrewmaster. I think it's great.

Not only is it a good place to create your recipes and see where they should end up (OG/FG) but it's also a great "brew journal" where you can store notes about each recipe, what you might do differently next time etc. It's also great at calculating water volume, strike temp, IBU's etc.

I have never used the built in timers, but I do like that you can schedule out the different steps of your batches as they go (ie it's time to bottle, it's time to serve etc.)

What are your issues with calculating water volumes? Have you read their help file?

 

[ChadRabbit]

I'm thinking that I just need to toy with this thing a bit more. I was hoping it had some sort of auto-calc feature for strike and sparge water. Maybe even a temperature adjustment as well?

That way I would be able to set my water levels and temperatures and be able to adjust the recipes batch after batch.

 

[Nightshade]

I use Beersmith for reccipes and a stopwatch/timer appp on my phone with timers I have preset for various stages of the actual brewing. I can add or remove timers as needed on day of brew and it has never failed me or caused any concern.

 

[roxbob]

I use it and love it. It takes a bit of playing with, but once you get it down it works really well. When you enter the mash schedule for a recipe and enter your water/grain ratio, target temps, etc. it calculates the volume and temp of the mash water additions for you. Also, once you have a recipe entered, when you brew it again as a new batch, it's easy to make tweaks and adjustments.

Once really nice feature is that once you start using it, it keeps track of all of your batches based on the fermentation schedule you enter, and will notify you when it's time for a new step (e.g., transfer to secondary, keg/bottle, etc.) If you don't do it on schedule, it adjusts when you enter the actual date.

So at a glance, you can see what stage all of your brews are in, and when they are all scheduled for next steps, etc. Also, when you use it regularly, you have a detailed record of all of your past brews all in one place.

I would give it a chance. i was frustrated with it the first few brews, but once I became familiar with it I considered it the best app I've ever purchased. I use a couple online calculators for very specific things (e.g., temperature adjustments for specific gravity readings, wort dilution, etc.), but aside from those this app is all I ever use.

And no, i don't work for the company...

 

[alestateyall]

I'm thinking that I just need to toy with this thing a bit more. I was hoping it had some sort of auto-calc feature for strike and sparge water. Maybe even a temperature adjustment as well?

That way I would be able to set my water levels and temperatures and be able to adjust the recipes batch after batch.

iBrewmaster does auto calculate mash water temp and volumes. I use it for batch sparge and BIAB.

The mash timer is just a count down timer. The boil timer is more complex. It alarms for each boil addition specified in your recipe.

 

[Braufessor]

I like it as well.

As mentioned, I believe it does have auto calc. for water..... I don't use it, but seem to remember it being there.

Timers.... not sure what more you would want - How else would you like it to keep track of time other than counting down? I rings an alarm for every addition you want to add (hops, irish moss, yeast nutrient, end of boil, etc.) Maybe I am missing something that other timers do - but, not sure what else you would look for.

Overall, I have been very pleased with it. I use Bru'n water separately for calculating water additions, but then can input what the actual addition was. I also like how it has all of your batches right there, in order and easy access to all of them and where they are at.

Might just take some more playing around with.

 

[GrumpySquirrel]

iBrewmaster does auto calculate mash water temp and volumes. I use it for batch sparge and BIAB.

The mash timer is just a count down timer. The boil timer is more complex. It alarms for each boil addition specified in your recipe.

I use iBrewmaster and there's no batch sparge setting... I've tried to find directions on how to set it up but it's been far too difficult, so I just add enough sparge water to get up to 6 gallons.

 

[alestateyall]

I use iBrewmaster and there's no batch sparge setting... I've tried to find directions on how to set it up but it's been far too difficult, so I just add enough sparge water to get up to 6 gallons.

I attached 3 screen shots from my iPhone.

1. Mash in - calculate water volume and strike temp for a single infusion mash.
2. Mash out - I add 2 gallons boiling water. I don't like this step auto calculated.
3. Batch sparge- this auto calculates the volume of sparge water. I add 170F water.

 

[alestateyall]

Here's one more photo of the results on the summary screen.

 

[ChadRabbit]

I attached 3 screen shots from my iPhone.

1. Mash in - calculate water volume and strike temp for a single infusion mash.
2. Mash out - I add 2 gallons boiling water. I don't like this step auto calculated.
3. Batch sparge- this auto calculates the volume of sparge water. I add 170F water.

Now at the top of that same summary screen what does your boil size calculate too? Mine doesn't seem to move away from 5.83 gallons for a 5 gallon batch.

Here's an example, I have a 5 gal. Imperial red batch that I've been trying to track on the app. My problem is that if I adjust the program to accept my mash in and mash out quantities, it doesn't affect any of the summarized calculations (OG, FG, pre-boil volume, etc.). Even if I mash in with thirty gallons at 154* and mash out with 3,000,000 gallons at -16*, the quantities don't move. There has to be something I'm missing.

 

[alestateyall]

Now at the top of that same summary screen what does your boil size calculate too? Mine doesn't seem to move away from 5.83 gallons for a 5 gallon batch.

Here's an example, I have a 5 gal. Imperial red batch that I've been trying to track on the app. My problem is that if I adjust the program to accept my mash in and mash out quantities, it doesn't affect any of the summarized calculations (OG, FG, pre-boil volume, etc.). Even if I mash in with thirty gallons at 154* and mash out with 3,000,000 gallons at -16*, the quantities don't move. There has to be something I'm missing.

The boil size does not depend on the amount of water added in mash. The boil size is the amount of wort needed to hit you batch size after the boil length you describe with the boil off rate you specify.

The mash steps are designed to leave you with the boil size from up top. I guess if you use the free form options you could exceed the boil size and the tool won't tell you.

 

[samuryan]

i dislike how the recipe doesn't adjust grain when changing volume. Could easily have a built in adjustment to go from 5 to 10 gallons on a recipe. I also feel like the ibu calculator is off, but haven't done the leg work to really back this up. Other than that, great program and getting better, seems they are open to criticism and working to improve.

 

[alestateyall]

i dislike how the recipe doesn't adjust grain when changing volume. Could easily have a built in adjustment to go from 5 to 10 gallons on a recipe. I also feel like the ibu calculator is off, but haven't done the leg work to really back this up. Other than that, great program and getting better, seems they are open to criticism and working to improve.

There is a scaling feature. Press the icon which looks like a scale on the recipe screen.

 

[roxbob]

You can easily scale a recipe to whatever size you want - click the scale symbol along the top, and you can scale any recipe up or down to any size. I once used it to scale a 30-gallon recipe down to 1!