Is Beersmith the best software for custom recipes?

[Skinner]

+1 for Beer Alchemy on the Mac and iPhone / iPad. Fantastic software.

I've also used iBrewmaster on my iPad but find it not as user friendly. It's not bad but Beer Alchemy is much better IMHO.

Cheers!
Kevin

 

[culturejam]

+1 for Beer Alchemy on the Mac and iPhone / iPad. Fantastic software.

I don't care for how Beer Alchemy handles the mash. I feel like for any given recipe, I'm locked into a mash "preset", instead of tweaking the mash for each recipe. I tend to run with a similar mash schedule each time, but the temp and volume of each step differs from recipe to recipe. Beer Alchemy assumes that most infusions are with boiling water, which I do not like. Obviously, this makes the calculations easier if you always just go with 212F for infusion water, but I figure a computer can handle the "extra" work.

I wanted Beer Alchemy to be my #1 app, but because of the way the mash works, it's not ideal for me. I feel like I don't have as much control as with other apps. But this is very subjective, obviously.

 

[Johnny9]

+1 to Designing Great Beers (teaches you how to fish, Brewing Classic Styles gives you fish - although great tasting fish)
)

Perfect analogy!

Designing Great Beers is a must for anyone interested in AG. I used the formulas there to build my own custom excel based brewing spreadsheet. It calculates all my temps, volumes, etc. I also use it calculate grain weights for importing other receipes (very basic really). Still flying blind on exact IBU and color calculations, though so I should probably take the next step and look into Beersmith, etc.

Bottom line, this book will teaches you all the "why" stuff necessary for true learning. Really took the mystery our of AG for me.

 

[92greenyj]

I don't care for how Beer Alchemy handles the mash. I feel like for any given recipe, I'm locked into a mash "preset", instead of tweaking the mash for each recipe. I tend to run with a similar mash schedule each time, but the temp and volume of each step differs from recipe to recipe. Beer Alchemy assumes that most infusions are with boiling water, which I do not like. Obviously, this makes the calculations easier if you always just go with 212F for infusion water, but I figure a computer can handle the "extra" work.

I wanted Beer Alchemy to be my #1 app, but because of the way the mash works, it's not ideal for me. I feel like I don't have as much control as with other apps. But this is very subjective, obviously.

the mash schedule is really just a guide. I plug in my actual times and temps and volumes after the brew session is over to see how close i came to my target numbers.

 

[culturejam]

the mash schedule is really just a guide. I plug in my actual times and temps and volumes after the brew session is over to see how close i came to my target numbers.

It's always just a guide with any software since it's nearly impossible to hit everything 100%. I just would prefer to be able to have more control over the infusion parameters. Maybe I'm just not using it right, but I spent quite a few hours wrestling with it. I usually move on if something is that non-intuitive to me. But I paid for it, so I'll likely use it occasionally for reference or comparison.