New to brew software

[mattyb85]

Hey everyone,

I've been home brewing for over a year now and I think it's time to step my game up to all grain brewing & designing my own recipes. I'd like to be precise as possibly with my brewing so I figured I would ask which software out there is good and what experiences you guys have with them. Thanks!

 

[kh54s10]

I used Beer Calculus on Hopville.com and created some great beers.

I have since gotten BeerSmith2 for more control and love it. It is complex and I am still refining and learning the controls so there is a learning curve to use it to it's full potential.

 

[Bishop916]

Brewtarget is great and free. Brewmaster's Warehouse has a nice recipe builder and you can order straight from the site. Brewer's Friend has a great brew day timer and recipe builder. I have used all 3 to great success.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

I have been using Beersmith for the past couple of years. It does have a learning curve, but it does become easier to use with some experience. It is based on using various profiles for different aspects of brewing. You have an equipment profile in which you define the type of equipment you use. This would include the boil kettle size, the evaporation rate. You would also define your Mash Tun Profile etc. Types of information that would be useful here are the volume of wort you boil, anticipated loss to dead space, etc. It also uses Mashing Profiles in which you indicate the type of sparge method you use: continuous, batch, no sparge. You also indicate your mash thickness, and choose the mash temps.
You can try out the program and download a trial version at beersmith.com. I think that the program costs around $20 -- compared to iPhone apps, etc, this is expensive, but compared to PC Software it is pretty inexpensive.
Finally, the program runs on Mac and PC, however, I have never seen it run on the Mac. I hope that this might help. Mark

 

[Brew-boy]

I use and love Beer Tools Pro very nice program.

 

[jeremybrown9]

I have BeerSmith 2 on a MAC and love it. I have used Beer Alchemy also with good results, but gravitated to BeerSmith because I needed to have software that was more involved with my brewing. I have had no problems running BeerSmith on my MAC.

 

[cdeme123]

Been a Beersmith user since version 1 and never looked back. I agree with the learning curve though.

 

[Golddiggie]

If you have more than half a brain left the learning curve for BeerSmith is very short. I've been using it since version 1.x and have 2.1 now. I like how you can easily add grains, hops, yeast,etc. as well as modify what's listed to fit what you have (hop AA% for instance). Plus its easy to keep your recipes organized.

 

[heckels]

I really like brewTarget and the price is right, free.

I also recommend iBrewMaster on iOS. Still working through the nuances but it's a great program.

 

[Warthaug]

I used to use promash - it was pretty good, although it is divided into a series of calculators and thus building up a recipe was often less than straight forward. I've recently switched to beersmith - I think my previous experience with promash removed much of the learning curve so I cannot comment on that. None-the-less, beersmith is better - its work-flow is more natural and it has a broad range of additional tools not currently available in promash (i.e. pitching calculator, etc).

Bryan

 

[day_trippr]

Been a Beersmith user since version 1 and never looked back. I agree with the learning curve though.

There's more than just a learning curve, there's a whole lot of little pains-in-the-brain to deal with.

My favorite: the whole inventory thing. For gawd only knows what reason, you can only add items from the set that comes with the program, and you can't adjust any values for those items.

So I have around eight pounds of various hops, which do not have the same alpha content that the set specifies. I can track their respective weights on hand, but any time I want to use those hops in a recipe, I have to pull up my own spreadsheet that has their actual alpha content to edit the recipe entries.

And another related issue: I use mostly pellets for every phase of brewing except for dry-hopping in a serving keg, where I always use whole cones in muslin bags. The inventory tool does not allow you to track different forms of hops, you can only track hops by their name. So there's no way to keep tabs on the two different types of hops that I have on hand. Again, I have to use my own spreadsheet to track them...

BS2 is the opposite of user friendly. It's user belligerent...

Cheers!

 

[Golddiggie]

So I have around eight pounds of various hops, which do not have the same alpha content that the set specifies. I can track their respective weights on hand, but any time I want to use those hops in a recipe, I have to pull up my own spreadsheet that has their actual alpha content to edit the recipe entries.

And another related issue: I use mostly pellets for every phase of brewing except for dry-hopping in a serving keg, where I always use whole cones in muslin bags. The inventory tool does not allow you to track different forms of hops, you can only track hops by their name. So there's no way to keep tabs on the two different types of hops that I have on hand. Again, I have to use my own spreadsheet to track them...

Actually, these are non-issues...

For the hop AA% to match what you have on hand, or in inventory, all you have to do is go to the 'Ingredients' section, open up the 'Hops' item and the open (double click) on the hops you want to alter. Change the AA% there and any new recipe, or anytime you add those hops to a recipe, it will reflect what YOU have on hand.

For changing the hop type between pellet and leaf, that's beyond easy. Simply copy/paste the hop you want to duplicate in another form. Change the AA% and 'Form' in it's listing and you're done. I normally give it an updated name so that it's easier for ME to track. So, I have two entries for EKG, one with the normal name (for pellet) and the other with 'Whole' in the name for leaf... Super easy.

You can add/change grains the same way. You can add/change yeast too. Same with other ingredients and even hardware.

I don't think it's the software that's belligerent, it's a case of 'user error'...

 

[pohldogg]

There's more than just a learning curve, there's a whole lot of little pains-in-the-brain to deal with.

My favorite: the whole inventory thing. For gawd only knows what reason, you can only add items from the set that comes with the program, and you can't adjust any values for those items.

So I have around eight pounds of various hops, which do not have the same alpha content that the set specifies. I can track their respective weights on hand, but any time I want to use those hops in a recipe, I have to pull up my own spreadsheet that has their actual alpha content to edit the recipe entries.

And another related issue: I use mostly pellets for every phase of brewing except for dry-hopping in a serving keg, where I always use whole cones in muslin bags. The inventory tool does not allow you to track different forms of hops, you can only track hops by their name. So there's no way to keep tabs on the two different types of hops that I have on hand. Again, I have to use my own spreadsheet to track them...

BS2 is the opposite of user friendly. It's user belligerent...

Cheers!

Just change the alpha under the ingredients tab instead of in the recipe and it will make your change the new default. And which software will track under a single hop name the amount on hand in both pellet and whole? If you want to do both just add a second hop under the ingredient tab and call it "cascade whole" for example.

BS2's learning curve for me was only remembering where the different functions were located. The software flow itself is pretty intuitive. Just remember to make changes to equipment and ingredients under the respective tabs, otherwise it will only be applied to the single recipe.

 

[jtkratzer]

I just got BeerSmith yesterday for the sale. The learning curve of how to use the software shouldn't be difficult. Computer stuff comes pretty easy for me. It's the application of the software to all grain, something I've new to with only one batch brewed this past Saturday.