Brewfather or Brewer's Friend?

[Deric]

Been using BeerSmith 3 and mostly happy. Been curious about the other options. My BeerSmith just crashed and I lost my last recipe and brew day measurements. Ugh.

Just looking to try something new and looking for input. Leaning towards Brewfather.

Thanks

 

[3 Dawg Night]

I'll vouch for Brewer's Friend, although I've never used Brewfather. Brewer's Friend is very user-friendly, and it makes recipe creation/analysis a snap. It's completely web-based, so you don't have to worry about crashes and losing recipes, brew sessions, etc. Both Brewer's Friend and Brewfather have free trials available, so I'd recommend to try both and see which fits your preferences better.

 

[schmurf]

I've used both. Started with brewers friend, but switched to brewfather after 18 months or so. I wasn't unhappy with brewers friend but brewfather had a more modern look and better features. It's been a while since I switched now so things might have change in brewers friend, but I'm still very happy with brewfather.

 

[RM-MN]

Also add Brewtarget to your list of brewing software to consider.

 

[Beerstein]

I’ve been using brewers friend the past year. it is user friendly, they seem to be pretty responsive on fixing bugs.

 

[Sammy86]

I was a die hard Beersmith guy for 8 years and recently made the switch to Brewers Friend and haven't looked back.

In all honesty, they are all very similar. I tried BrewFather and wasn't stoked on it so made the full switch to BF. I like having everything in one spot when creating recipes, the buy ingredients feature is cool too (discount with HomeBrewSupply) and the web/cloud based means I can log in from any internet capable device. All in all very happy with the switch!

 

[wepeeler]

I used Beersmith for almost 4 years but made the switch to Brewer's Friend about 2 months ago. I like that it's web based, so it's constantly updated. Rarely find an ingredient not on the list. Also, as long as you set your profiles correctly, it spits out very achievable and reliable numbers.

As for Beersmith, I thought it auto saved. Crashing shouldn't have deleted your recipe, but sorry to hear if it did. Check the cloud section of BS.

 

[kevin58]

I used Beersmith for almost 4 years but made the switch to Brewer's Friend about 2 months ago. I like that it's web based, so it's constantly updated. Rarely find an ingredient not on the list. Also, as long as you set your profiles correctly, it spits out very achievable and reliable numbers.

As for Beersmith, I thought it auto saved. Crashing shouldn't have deleted your recipe, but sorry to hear if it did. Check the cloud section of BS.

Beersmith has a web based version as well... has a well stocked ingredient database plus lets you enter custom ingredients...and if profiles are set correctly also produces reliable estimates.

I've used Beersmith since before v3 was released however long ago that was. I've played with brew father and it is very nice. I keep coming back to Beersmith however. When crashing happens it is often the result of the machine or changed settings. Beersmith automatically updates as you work so you should have a backup in the system.

 

[wepeeler]

Beersmith has a web based version as well... has a well stocked ingredient database plus lets you enter custom ingredients...and if profiles are set correctly also produces reliable estimates.

I've used Beersmith since before v3 was released however long ago that was. I've played with brew father and it is very nice. I keep coming back to Beersmith however. When crashing happens it is often the result of the machine or changed settings. Beersmith automatically updates as you work so you should have a backup in the system.

Ah yes, I remember seeing the email giving the web based update. It is free though? I find Brewer's Friend to be more accurate for my system. YMMV

 

[Deric]

I've been fine with BeerSmith for the most part. It always auto-saved before. This time I designed the recipe brew day morning and entered all my measurements from brew day on the Session tab. Never manually saved or closed the recipe. 3 days later I double checked that I entered all my measurements and clicked save. Got an error message (don't recall what it was but googled and apparently a few people have had the same message when saving) and BeerSmith froze. Had to force BeerSmith to close. When I reopened BeerSmith the recipe is completely gone. No sign of it in the archive either. Weird.

Not bailing on BeerSmith yet as I know it well and do like it. Spent a bit of time with both Brewer's Friend and Brewfather for fun. I do like the cloud based platform for accessibility/mobile reasons. I did use the BeerSmith cloud with the app when it first came out and found it a bit clunky and haven't used it in a few years - perhaps it's better now.

Just figured it might be time to look at what else out there.

 

[wepeeler]

My only complaint with both applications are they are, for the most part, self learning. I haven't looked up anything on Brewer's Friend, but the water chemistry functionality is a pain in the ass, until you figure it out. It's MUCH simpler on Beersmith.

 

[Brewshna]

I started with Brewers friend and was rather happy. I tinkered with beer Smith, but didn't like it being offline (back then). Then I tried brewfather and love that you can use it on any browser and also have an app. Some of Brewers friends calculators are better or more, but you can always use them, even if using brewfather.

 

[Deric]

I’ve been playing with both. So far I think I like BrewFather a bit better. I am getting slightly different numbers on each as far as grain amounts and water amounts on the same recipe. I’m assuming I missed something setting up profiles in one of them.

 

[ckeati2]

Started with BrewersFriend after many brews using excel. I used it for 2 brews and had no problems. It was a good app but I wanted to see what else was available so I gave Brewfather a try and never looked back

 

[SonomaBrewer]

Over the years have tried many including Brewer's Friend and Beersmith. Settled in on Brewfather. Big fan.

Web-based with iPhone app. Once you understand the UI it is intuitive and easy to use. Fits with my brewing process and allows me to design recipes creately and accurately predicts my brew day outcomes.

I have found the water tool particularly useful, enables me to hit the mark for mash pH compared to the other spreadsheets and programs I have used.

In the end the software one uses probably doesn't matter -- most important just to settle on one and use it. Predictably and reproducibility are the goals....

 

[WesBrew]

I started off with beer smith and was happy with it. (Offline versions.)Switched to brewers friend beginning of this year and have been enjoying it and good community on forums too. I’ve never used brewfather but always hear good reviews

 

[DaveTF]

I've been using BrewFather since I started brewing last year. I really like the interface and found it to be rather intuitive. The only thing I found to be frustrating is the PH calculation. I've yet to hit my target PH. I got Bru'n Water spreadsheet and went back to the last few batches to have it calculate my PH and it came in almost spot on to what I actually got. I like that BrewFather will auto calculate the additions and then you can tweak from there. I'll probably do that and then enter it in Bru'n Water to fine tune for PH. If BrewFather could just get that figured out it would be great.
I've tried Brewers Friend but found myself struggling with the water calculators and just didn't have the patience with it.

 

[Deric]

Went ahead and spent the 20 bucks to sign up for Brewfather Premium. Had a bit of down time today so got to play with it more. From my initial testing playing with a few recipes I've already brewed and measured thru the brewday, Brewfather was (slightly) closer to targets and actual measured volumes and PH than Brewer's Friend.

I do like the seamless integration between computers and mobile devices. Same basic UI and all the same features. Also figured out how to use it offline on my PC.

Managed to get my Tilt Pi to log.

Pretty cool so far.