Beer Smith or Beer Friend??

[aprichman]

Lately I've been doing calculations by hand - it's a fun practice that is fairly intuitive if you know or have access the necessary equations.

 

[unionrdr]

Here's a page screwybrewer put up with various formulas; http://www.thescrewybrewer.com/p/brewing-tools-formulas.html
And 5 more I saved quite some time ago; http://brewbeeranddrinkit.com/top-5-home-brew-formulas-to-use/
Hope y'all can use these...

 

[MaddBaggins]

I use Brewers Friend to plug in data and see how that matches up to style and my actual brew data. I don't however us it as a database for my recipes. Thats because I don't pay for it. I keep all the data on paper in my brew bible.

 

[jtratcliff]

I use BrewTarget... Open source, similar to BeerSmith. I keep my recipe database on dropbox and access it from multiple computers.

 

[filthyastronaut]

I have used Brewer's Friend from the beginning. It has let me design my own recipes straight out of the gate because it's quite easy to use and quite accurate. In fact, I end up with far more recipes than I brew because it's extremely fun to just play around with it when I'm bored. With the style guidelines updated, it's even better.

 

[DarkStormBrewing]

I have used Brewers Friend for 2+ years and on 3 different systems I've calibrated it to. I tried Beetsmith 2, I wanted to love it, but it didn't feel intuitive enough. It has a ton of calculations and settings, but the combo of Brewers Friend app and cloud based usage keeps me with BF.

That said, Brad Smith has an excellent podcast and is very active in the community. You should definitely try the free trial of BeerSmith.

Brewers Friend sees very few updates and blog posts. It would be nice to see them have more "presence". The mobile app is a bit too simple (iPad user), so I occasionally log into the website for more features. Mobile app is lacking some simple calculators like carbonation volumes for example.

If Beersmith 3 operates via web based like BF, I'll switch. I just need the software in multiple places.

 

[davidst]

I use brewer's friend for the iPhone. It is a one time fee of $7 and it allows me to create recipes, see my estimated OG/FG and IBUs. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the full versions, but it has enough for me (plus having the recipes right in front of me when I'm at the home brew shop is great).

 

[Rhetorik]

I use both. I have BeerSmith on my PC at home, and I have Brewer's Friend on my phone so I can throw together recipe ideas when I'm bored at work.

I'm new with BeerSmith and I know that being able to dial in your equipment profile is one of it's main perks, which I will be aiming to do over the course of my first few batches with it. It definitely has more built-in complexity compared to BF, which is a benefit as well as a detriment (in terms of learning curve)

 

[chickypad]

This is why I recommend running a trial of each software package and determine which works for you.

I move between 10 liter batches (BIAB) indoors during the cold months to 20 liter batches (traditional 3V mash tun) outside when the weather turns, um, warmish(?). Having both systems dialed in in BeerSmith allows me to move recipes from indoors (development stage) to outdoors (production stage) and hit all my numbers consistently. My systems are completely different for trub losses, dead space, brewing process, and efficiency and BeerSmith allows through the scale recipe feature for seamless movement between the two.

Some people don't need that sort of detailed ability, and other software covers their needs just fine.

Totally agree here. I did try BF for a year but BS is superior for me because I brew 3 different sized batches on 2 systems and I like being able to totally customize and save my equipment profiles. I also think it's better for saving and organizing recipes, and I like some of the additional features like the hop age tool, and the refractometer tool (I only use it for unfermented wort but it's still handy to have it right there within the program). The add on's are also nice - I mostly use them to add the specs for different maltsters, but there are other things like the BN Can you brew it recipes if you are into that. The only thing I don't use BS for is the water calcs so I can't speak to that feature. I've also not used the mobile app but I think it may not be a great choice if you're mostly wanting to use it that way.

If all you want is recipe calculations then I think BF is easy to use and accurate. If you think you'd make use of all the extra features then BS is definitely worth it IMO.

 

[uncleben113]

Beersmith is amazing. I use it on my PC and on my phone and recipes easily transfer between them. BS is highly customizable and comes with tons of great tools that you'll need. I have been using it for close to 5 years now and I'd highly recommend it

 

[broadbill]

I think I have cycled through virtually all of them over the years (first Promash, then a brief flirtation with Beersmith, then BeerToolsPro). I'm now looking at going all-online so I can work on recipes anywhere/any device. In this realm it seems like Brewers Friend is the only real game in town.

However-I'm also playing with BrewTarget (open source). I like I can keep it on a thumb drive and plug it in to any PC (there is also a mac and Linux version). I have to wonder that for all of my back and forth, the free version is enough. Seems like all of these programs work off of the same database back-end anyway. They all seem to have the same UI issues (all consistently "meh"). Its hard to pay for something (BS, BTP, BF) when the free is just as good/bad as the rest.

I get the idea that BS comes with some support, but then again that is another forum/community/whatever I would need to belong to. I find that if run into problems I typically figure them out for myself or use a work-around anyway...maybe that comes from doing these calculations by hand "back in the day".

I'll stop rambling now...

 

[dpatrickv]

I user brewers friend. I have beersmith as well but I dont tend to get deep into some of those calculations so its overly complicated for me. Plus, I really enjoy having my recipes and logs on the internet that i can reach from any computer.