Looking for brewing software or app suggestions

[Albionwood]

Tried BeerSmith, didn't like it. Going to pony up for Brewer's Friend subscription and app. As noted upthread, the cost isn't really significant compared to what I blow on ingredients and gadgets anyway.

 

[ajdelange]

I learned a long time ago that using anything other than a DIY Excel sheet means having to compromise on this, that, or the other.

I agree with the sentiment 100% but I now know one hell of a lot more about Excel than I had ever hoped to (and haven't got any spiffy graphics like the ones in your post)

 

[Big Monk]

I agree with the sentiment 100% but I now know one hell of a lot more about Excel than I had ever hoped to (and haven't got any spiffy graphics like the ones in your post)

I've learned a hell of a lot about a lot of things from associating with you A.J. The sheet i have shown in this thread is an older model I made for my pal and partner in all things brewing related a long time ago.

We've since moved on from that as those graphics require you to shrink the cell sizes to small enough squares to be able to show the fluid flow and colors at various stages in the process. Looks great but is a ***** to edit.

 

[dnr]

Any word on free Android apps now that this time has passed?

 

[trevelynzx]

Brewfather. The end.

 

[Stormcrow]

I use Wort Homebrew Calculator on Android and really like it. It's free, has an easy to use recipe builder, mash calculator, notes section, abv calculator, style guidelines, etc. I've only had it for about six months, but no complaints yet. I'm actually surprised I haven't seen it mentioned more on this site. Is anyone else using this app?

 

[dnr]

I was looking at apps and ended up with one that worked well, built an inventory and was about to get into a recipe...
Everything other than the main menu was in Italian.
I'll check that one out.

 

[Stormcrow]

I just searched "Brewers Friend" in the play store, and there app I was talking about above came up. Are they the same thing or something?

 

[Stormcrow]

I was looking at apps and ended up with one that worked well, built an inventory and was about to get into a recipe...
Everything other than the main menu was in Italian.
I'll check that one out.

It's worked well for me. I'm just a little weirded out that nobody else talks about it, unless it goes by a different name on other platforms or something. Maybe Anheuser Busch unleashed it to sabotage homebrewing and I didn't get the memo.

 

[dnr]

I think if you have an app installed that's similar to what you're searching, it will show it to you.

Maybe saying, "You already have this one, dummy."
?

 

[Ultryx]

Tried BeerSmith and didn't like it. Used Brewer's Friend. The website works okay. It's a little slow making selections, but sometimes when I return to a recipe it adds random malts and stuff. Not down with that.

Tried and purchased Brewfather and love it.

 

[Atomic_Zymurgy]

For those looking outside the beersmith clan, give brewfather a try. Definitely an app thats sync'd with the community which means consistent updates as it progresses functionally. Device integration is a huge plus!

 

[The M]

+1 for Brewfather. First tried it two years ago and purchased the premium version almost instantly

 

[Ctrickey]

I found that nothing I could find fit my workflow just right, so I’ve been tinkering with an app I call Brew Tool. Have a look, I’d love some thoughts, and most of all I’d love to build a reasonable free option for iOS.
https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/brew-tool/id1518440840I’m also happy to entertain suggestions.

 

[brewgar]

Call me a Luddite, but I like and use ancient Qbrew 0.4.1 for recipe, procedure, and it's one-page brew day guide sheet, plus Brewtarget 2.0.1 for the color image. Both free.

 

[VikeMan]

Call me a Luddite, but I like and use ancient Qbrew 0.4.1 for recipe, procedure, and it's one-page brew day guide sheet, plus Brewtarget 2.0.1 for the color image. Both free.

Last time I looked at Qbrew, it used 75% apparent attenuation for every recipe. Unless that has changed, that's (IMO) a huge weakness.

 

[day_trippr]

I used to use Qbrew 0.4.1 a lot before switching to Beersmith. And that fixed 75% attenuation sounds right, regardless of grain bill.
But I still use it on occasion if someone tosses up a recipe without metrics. It'll get one in the ballpark for that much...

Cheers!

 

[UncleD]

The paid software solutions are generally the most feature rich, but there are quite a few free solutions. I actually developed an iOS and Android app for fun that was designed to streamline all of the "timers" on brew day. It's pretty cool because it takes a recipe and sorts all of the additions by order and duration and provides notification during brew day when to add each. I then ended up adding a profile so recipes could be saved on the cloud and shared between users with a URL or QR code. I also added some calculators and a cloud based brew log to add notes while brewing. I'll be the first to say it's not the best, but I like it for what I use it for. It's free, and I don't put ads or any crap like that in my apps. Feel free to check it out:

https://brewkitapp.com/

 

[nighthawksatthedivebar]

Curious about 1 feature in particular. Used to use BrewToad and one thing I really liked was that if I changed the mash temp in the recipe, it auto-adjusted the predicated FG. Haven't found that in the few I've tried (mibrew, brewgr, brewfather). Might not be doing it right, but can anyone recommend a website/software that does that? Hoping for easy interface (am checking out BrewCipher as well)