Preferred software for brewers

[JoeSpartaNJ]

Joe how was the switch to BrewFather? I’ve been using BeerSmith for years (subscription member) but as others have commented it has its downsides. I set up five new AG recipes in BSmith yesterday in reasonable time, but the user interface isn’t as appealing as BFather appears to be.

Hearing good things about BFather, and BrIan (Short Circuited Brewers) has a good video of it on YouTube. Seems you can’t transfer BSmith recipes to it??

I agree with positive comments on Brad (BSmith), and it seems he has a working relationship with Blichmann. I use the Blichmann BrewVision on some kettles and they interface with BSmith.

Your thoughts??

Cheers

KBW.

The switch was really easy. I find it must more user friendly, and the fact that you can use it on all phone, tablet, PC, etc and it saves automatically is a plus.

I have yet to see a downside to it really. The only thing is possible missing ingredients, but I brew "simple" so that is few and far between. I only had to add Midnight Wheat, but I took all the information from the website and plugged it in.

You can transfer recipes from Beersmith, but only from a computer (in my experience.) From Beersmith, export recipe to beer XML. Log into Brewfather and import beer xml file.....Done

 

[Deadalus]

I agree @Golddiggie , it shouldn't change, it's just a folder move or a copy from folder to folder. Just a theory but maybe in the software the mashing algorithm was copied for some reason in the code, like maybe when he added the Cloud option. Then later, he tweaked the algorithm and didn't apply the tweak to the copied algorithm in the Cloud section. A non-programmer like myself, I've done that before where it is easy to copy the code for another analysis on different data. But then you maybe make a change to the analysis and you have to go and change the second one too. A good programmer will clean it up later or initially minimize the branching to what's necessary.

I had a decent inkjet with high capacity cartridges and it was reasonable for ink but it broke (3 years ago?) This one I got for $20 (Black Friday) knowing I'd be paying more again for ink but it also would refuse to communicate with the desktop every time for a long while but the nth install finally fixed it. When I catch a deal I will go with a laser printer and bust out the sledge!

 

[Golddiggie]

For printers, even though mine is wireless itself, I have it connected with a cable to my router so that I can just connect up over my normal connection without doing anything more. I do the initial connection via IP address and it's done. My mother has a stinkjet that's wireless (I set it to a fixed IP) and she has had a lot of problems with it connecting one time, but then not connecting again until I'm there and look at it. Of course, that's an HP device, so yeah.

I also won't get a printer that doesn't duplex print and duplex scan via the document feed.

For the issues with BS, I see a reply in my inbox, but I've been working more, so haven't looked at it yet. I probably will later. I'm running the current release (not pre-release) of Win10 on my laptop. As mentioned, no other programs have any issue printing correctly. Which tells me that it's NOT my computer but the application.

IMO, Brad needs to allow people to set the PSI for force carbonating batches and see what volumes it gives. Since the value the app provides, for PSI is rarely an even number. Kind of hard to do 10.33psi with the regulators we have access to.

 

[user 298779]

The switch was really easy. I find it must more user friendly, and the fact that you can use it on all phone, tablet, PC, etc and it saves automatically is a plus.

I have yet to see a downside to it really. The only thing is possible missing ingredients, but I brew "simple" so that is few and far between. I only had to add Midnight Wheat, but I took all the information from the website and plugged it in.

You can transfer recipes from Beersmith, but only from a computer (in my experience.) From Beersmith, export recipe to beer XML. Log into Brewfather and import beer xml file.....Done

Thank you Joe, excellent information! Looks like I’ll be trying BrewFather tomorrow based on you feedback.

Cheers

KBW.

 

[Velnerj]

Are you familiar with excel? @BEER-N-BBQ_BY_LARRY has a good spreadsheet I used to get me started. And it's FREE!

Eventually I created my own recipe calculator. Works great for me but might be hard for someone else to learn.

 

[jbschuyler]

BrewersFriend friend here.

 

[soccerdad]

Brewersfriend works for me.

 

[Kent88]

I use BrewersFriend. I wanted to use BrewTarget, as I'm a Linux enthusiast, but I just had an easier time using BrewersFriend. Only problem with BrewersFriend is when I start typing it into Google it thinks I'm going to ask about the milwaukee brewers, who I have no interest in.

It would be nice to have something available offline, but I haven't brewed in a blackout without even my cell network available as a backup, yet.

 

[Knightshade]

I use brewersfriend, mostly because I watched a couple online brew days and it was referenced. They are sponsors here too, so that helped. Took awhile for me to get used to, and I'm sure I may not be using it right but...it is familiar at this point. I think the brew day timers, steps, brew log entries and all that is what really convinced me to subscribe.

They do have a phone app (iPhone at least, not sure about Android) which you can kinda use offline? It is pretty pathetic though.

 

[Kent88]

IMHO, phone screens are insufficient for brewing software. A full desktop/laptop screen is better and (again, IMHO) it's not even close.

 

[Home on the Brew]

I used Beersmith for years, switched to Brewfather last year

Which one do you prefer?

 

[BrewDrinkRepeat]

I use Beer Tools Pro, and still feel like it's the best brewing software out there (functionality, GUI, etc.). I'm not convinced Beersmith or Brewfather (the only others I would consider if I had to switch today) do anything that is significantly better, and they are much harder on the eyes (especially BeerSmith, which is just fugly.)

On the downside, Beer Tools Pro is not maintained to the same degree as the others. A new update (2.11) was recently released, and IIRC this was the first new update in several years. That said, I haven't found it to be wanting for anything; when it first came out, and especially when 2.0 was released, it was light years ahead of anything else on the market (especially for Mac users, where options were always limited)

Now, to be clear, if someone's main purpose is simply a recipe database, *any* software will work.

The real value of brewing software is when you calibrate all of your equipment (to be able to accurately predict the brewday), manage your ingredient inventory, etc.

A buddy of mine is still using ProMash... if it works, it works!

 

[day_trippr]

Ahh...and with that I should qualify my earlier contribution that I do recipe creation with BS3 on a Windows box, push that to the Cloud, then pull it down to an Android tablet running BS3 "mobile" for use on brew days. I want the inventory control and broader utility suite on the PC...

Cheers!

 

[Home on the Brew]

Thank you everyone for the comments. It seems that I was not the only one to learn something from this thread, which is great.

 

[vmaxept]

Regarding QBREW - I too loved that simple, yet elegant, brewing software, and used it exclusively for many years. However, it stopped working after the most recent Microsoft update. It just will not open. Brewtarget still works, but was always second best to QBREW. Sigh. I cry tears for you QBREW.

Not sure what the WIN OS issue is related to?, I run WIn 10 latest update with no problem. I thought I had it set to run in compatibility mode, no its running native under Win10 . Dont know if I can provide any advice to get it running for you again

 

[AZ Maverick]

I use Beer Smith 3 and Brewer's Friend.
I use Beer Smith 3 mainly for creating recipes and I use Brewer's Friend kind of like a sanity cross check regarding my recipe.
I can't seem to get the mash efficiencies to come out right on Beer Smith (not that it matters).
Both programs have similar features that I think some work easier on one than the other (I really like the calculators on Brewer's Friend).

 

[bwible]

I use Beer Tools Pro, and still feel like it's the best brewing software out there (functionality, GUI, etc.). I'm not convinced Beersmith or Brewfather (the only others I would consider if I had to switch today) do anything that is significantly better, and they are much harder on the eyes (especially BeerSmith, which is just fugly.)

On the downside, Beer Tools Pro is not maintained to the same degree as the others. A new update (2.11) was recently released, and IIRC this was the first new update in several years. That said, I haven't found it to be wanting for anything; when it first came out, and especially when 2.0 was released, it was light years ahead of anything else on the market (especially for Mac users, where options were always limited)

Now, to be clear, if someone's main purpose is simply a recipe database, *any* software will work.

The real value of brewing software is when you calibrate all of your equipment (to be able to accurately predict the brewday), manage your ingredient inventory, etc.

A buddy of mine is still using ProMash... if it works, it works!

I had the old version, 1.5 and used that for years with no complaints. The biggest difference was the update to the BJCP categories. It does inventory but I mostly only use that for hops. I never print anything. I have my own brewlogs and I write them by hand. There is an online recipe database. I think BeerTools has some connection to the people at BYO magazine. So its software designed by brewing people for brewing people.

Costs $24.95 which most of the time is about the cost of 1 batch.

I had an old program a very long time ago called BrewWizard if anybody remembers that. It came on a single 3.5” floppy. I had an old laptop running Windows 3.1 that I had that on. I only finally got rid of that laptop in 2019 when I moved. But I had not used BrewWizard for probably at least 12 years.

 

[JoeSpartaNJ]

Which one do you prefer?

Brewfather. Just easier to use and transfers to all platforms.

 

[TestTickle]

I've used Beersmith for a few years now and it has never let me down. About a year or so ago, I decided to give Brewfather a spin. For mobile users, Brewfather is definitely better, IMO, but I just can't let go of the PC version of Beersmith. For me, creating and tweaking recipes in Beersmith's PC version is superior. The web-based version of Beersmith looks promising, although at this time there are still some limitations. As for the Beersmith mobile app? Don't even waste your time.

I am hoping that Brad will fine-tune the web version of Beersmith and add some of the features that intrigued me with Brewfather such as Tilt integration and fermentation tracking/notifications.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, while I create and manage recipes (and inventory) using BS3 on my Windows box, I use BS3 mobile on an Android tablet on brew days, as it provides the strike water temperature tool and the timer function along with the basic recipe amounts and timing. I push the recipe up to a slot in my BS Cloud space and pull it down to the tablet, and away I go. I can also back-annotate brew day data via tablet input.

I don't think BS3 mobile is ready to be a standalone product...yet. I expect it will, eventually...

Cheers!

 

[Bramling Cross]

Between my fine tuned system, massive brew log, and inventory, I'm far, far too invested into Beersmith to even contemplate another application, even if it was 4x better, free, and it cleaned my mash tun at the close of each brew day.

 

[Deadalus]

fwiw, while I create and manage recipes (and inventory) using BS3 on my Windows box, I use BS3 mobile on an Android tablet on brew days, as it provides the strike water temperature tool and the timer function along with the basic recipe amounts and timing. I push the recipe up to a slot in my BS Cloud space and pull it down to the tablet, and away I go. I can also back-annotate brew day data via tablet input.

I don't think BS3 mobile is ready to be a standalone product...yet. I expect it will, eventually...

Cheers!

If you are creating the recipe in the local folder (My Recipes) and moving it to the cloud, @Golddiggie is reporting an issue with strike temperatures changing. I didn't try particularly hard but I didn't have the issue happen when I tried to test it. I will check on it in the future just to see.

 

[Deric]

Long time BeerSmith user. Had a few issues recently (likely my fault not BeerSmith's). Gave quick test runs to Brewer's Friend and Brewfather.

I like Brewfather. 2 brews in ( one each on 2 different systems) and all numbers seem spot on.

Works seamlessly on all platforms (so far..). I brew at home as well as with my brother at his place on a larger system. It's nice being able to access/share data in real time.

 

[jdauria]

I am still a Beersmith user, though I have been dabbling with BrewFather

 

[duncan.brown]

I have a consistent issue with printing my recipes from the app itself

I have this issue as well. My solution is to create a print preview of the recipe and then print the print preview. Image below. Otherwise I love Beersmith.

 

[hout17]

I've always been on the Beersmith train. I'm sure other software is good, but I much prefer Beersmith.

 

[k-daddy]

Mac user… started with BeerAlchemy years ago, then transitioned to Beersmith. Was hearing good things about Brewfather so began running both to compare. Now a premium Brewfather user and very happy. I imported all my recipes easily but had to work on the inventory as some of my ingredients had slightly different parameters (grain color/alpha acid %, etc.) that the Brewfather software didn’t recognize but it was relatively easy to fix. Ability to use it across all my devices a real plus. Also seems to be a bit easier to use once you get familiar with the layout.

 

[jrgtr42]

I use Brewers Friend myself. I used Brew Toad before that, until they croaked () and I really liked their interface. Brewers friend seemed pretty similar, so |I went that route - plus it was free to start - I didn't want to pay anything until I got used to using it,and see what it can do.
I don't really brew to styles; I don't enter competitions or anything, so it's more to get the numbers I should expect, and to keep my recipes and variations somewhere other than my brewing notebook, which as everyone here knows, could get wet etc in the heat of a brew day.

 

[user 298779]

I have this issue as well. My solution is to create a print preview of the recipe and then print the print preview. Image below. Otherwise I love Beersmith.

View attachment 743957

Ditto. Still don’t know what printing is problematic.

 

[user 298779]

Mac user… started with BeerAlchemy years ago, then transitioned to Beersmith. Was hearing good things about Brewfather so began running both to compare. Now a premium Brewfather user and very happy. I imported all my recipes easily but had to work on the inventory as some of my ingredients had slightly different parameters (grain color/alpha acid %, etc.) that the Brewfather software didn’t recognize but it was relatively easy to fix. Ability to use it across all my devices a real plus. Also seems to be a bit easier to use once you get familiar with the layout.

Any problems using BeerSmith on Mac? I’ve had a few issues (printing, not updating correctly when scaling batch size) but more so with my recipes on cloud & using mobile version on iPad.