Alright so the final results are in... Brewersfriend wins (although spoiler...I still don't love it)!
In case its useful to anyone else with a similar question here are my thoughts. I tried 3 different brewing programs and thought Brewersfriend was the best option although i must say i don't particularly love any of the options.
- Beersmith was quite overwhelming and didn't look very visually appealing. For those with interest in diving deep and really tweaking everything, Beersmith is where its at.
- Brewtoad looked the best by far and the organization was almost exactly how i would set it up. However you can't add custom fermentables and Im not trying to type in the stats on all of the GF grains each time i come up with a recipe as I create probably 3 recipes for every 1 that i actually brew.
- Brewersfriend - adding custom fermentables was a game changer. I sat down one afternoon, opened a 2nd window with GFHB, and typed in a bunch of the GF grains. Now they are there for any new recipe! However I absolutely hate the organization of brewersfriend and double hate the fact that there are 4 or 5 different places to add notes. Also trying to find a specific 'snapshot' recipe is laborious at best. To that end i just made my own spreadsheet and keep my own organization system with links to the recipes. Much easier